VINTAGE AND / OR JUST NOSTALGIA: Do modern speakers sound better than vintage?

CF writes: On balance, I’d say yes. But it’s not an easy question to answer because it depends on so many factors. Which speakers are we comparing? Are we taking the used price of old speakers against what can be bought new for the same amount, or are we inflation adjusting the old price for […]

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UNDERSTANDING: Room calculations

PAUL McGOWAN Our rooms are as important as our equipment yet only a scarce few of us have the luxury of choosing our room dimensions. Typically we take what we can get within our home and make the best out of it. With our new building in process, we’re heavy into the architectural tasks of […]

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SUBWOOFERS: An unnecessary luxury … fact or fiction?

The very term luxury defines whatever it is added to as unnecessary. Air and water are necessities. Love and affection are luxuries. But while many would argue it’s the luxuries that make life worth living, I would extend that to subwoofers make stereos worth listening. Ok, that’s a stretch. Clearly, stereos are worth listening even […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

DOUBLE DUTY: For those that have receivers or integrateds with dedicated RCA subwoofer outputs, this post may have some interest.

For the most part, a dedicated subwoofer output on a receiver or integrated exists because of old-school habits. Long ago, at the beginning of the subwoofer era, there were no built-in crossovers. Subs came in two flavors: an unpowered or powered woofer in a box. If the first the user had to supply a power […]

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TO BE … OR NOT: Bi-amping?

PAUL MCGOWAN … There once was a day when power amplifiers struggled. The mainstays, tube amplifiers, couldn’t handle low frequencies well but had immaculate highs. The newcomers, solid state amps, produced prodigious bass but struggled with the high notes. None handled both. That’s when some bright person decided to combine the best of both worlds. […]

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SPEAKERS: Anchor or isolate?

PAUL MCGOWAN … Audiophile wisdom is rife with both good and bad advice. It’s a good idea to pay attention to the electronic chain’s component quality while it’s a bad idea to spend so much on tweaks you ignore the fundamentals. Sometimes this common wisdom finds itself in the middle of a great philosophical divide. […]

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SPEAKER PLACEMENT: Tilt ‘er back

Paul McGowan … If you’re looking for a quick and easy fine-tuning technique, try tilting the speakers forward or backward relative to the listening position. This is a time-honored tweak that not everyone’s familiar with, but it sure works great. The easiest way to do this is by using a CD jewel case under the […]

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ROOM TREATMENTS:

There are many multi-driver speakers, but few that go floor to ceiling like the IRSV. Floor to ceiling multi-driver speakers are called a Line Source. What’s counter-intuitive about a line source is how specific the imaging can be. With that many drivers, one would think the image would be tall, rather than lifelike, when the […]

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SO, WHICH IS IT: Loudspeaker efficiency versus sensitivity

The sensitivity of a loudspeaker is the sound pressure between 125 Hz (250 Hz) to 4 kHz (8 kHz) at a specific distance – when you have a constant voltage – measured in dB per watt and meter. Mostly it is the voltage of constant 2.83 volts, the distance is 1 meter, at 8 ohms […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

SPEAKERS / AMPS: A beginners guide to bi-wiring

Jim Lesurf writes:  “Bi-wiring” is a controversial topic. Some people are quite certain it makes an audible difference. Some others are convinced that it can’t actually make any difference at all. The purpose of this analysis is to try and decide whether it is at least theoretically feasible that bi-wiring can make any difference. To […]

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AUDIO INSIDER

ROOM or SPEAKER? There seems a persistent notion that rooms need to be of a certain quality in order to take full advantage of what a speaker has to offer.

If your room isn’t good enough then investing in a wonderful pair of speakers is a waste of resources. Kind of like the idea that if you’re not a gourmet you cannot appreciate fine food. Poppycock. Of course it is true our rooms play a huge role in helping and hurting our HiFi system’s performance. […]

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OPINIONS DIFFER: Top-10 ultimate high-end speakers

Steve Guttenberg writes: Ultimate high-end speakers are conceived with the same zeal Ferrari and Lamborghini apply to their no-holds-barred sports cars. Sales of ridiculously expensive and absurdly powerful cars are holding steady, and the same can be said for extreme, high-end speakers. Granted, there’s no practical reason for the existence of the new 450-horsepower Audi […]

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