Paul McGowan …… Thanks for all the kind words about my recent post about music and how smart I must be to have written such a piece. Sorry to disappoint but that article was actually written by our resident musicologist Larry Schenbeck, who IS really smart. Thanks Larry, the mailing service grabbed his article instead […]
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Here we go again. Do silver cables sound different than copper? Sure they do, and that’s bound to stir up an entire new hornet’s nest. But, it needs to be said because it’s the truth. Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan ….. Words, tastes, sights, sounds are specific recipes that activate neuro transmitters in our brains that bring meaning to each. I know it’s the engineer in me that brings this to your attention, but how things work fascinates me. When you taste something it is a specific formulation of the 5 primary tastes […]
Paul McGowan writes: In a recent post we learned that the size of a switching power supply is so much smaller than a conventional linear supply because the power transformer shrunk an order of several magnitudes – and it did this because we’ve managed to chop up the incoming AC into little tiny on/off bits […]
Paul McGowan writes: When we compare sound quality between a set of Mogami XLR cables and Audioquest WEL silver XLR cables is there a difference to be heard in Music Room One? Watch Now
Paul McGowan writes ….. Number 7 in our list of design challenges for a DAC or a preamplifier output stage is providing a single ended or balanced output. As in everything we designers do there are multiple ways to achieve this: some simple others more complex and each with different audible results. First let’s remember […]
Paul McGowan Last week was the AXPONA high-end audio show in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago. PS Audio was there as well as hundreds of other manufacturers. As always, I had my trusty video camera at the ready and produced a 17-minute video tour with interviews of manufacturers and views of the show and rooms. […]
Paul McGowan ….. I have been listening to a lot of vinyl as of late – we’re getting ready to launch a new phono preamp – and the evaluation process if ongoing. Unfortunately I do not have the big reference system setup yet so I am relegated to sound room number 2, which isn’t as […]
If you have a combination of old and new equipment is it possible to mix and match for best performance and synergy? Or, should you stick with one manufacturer’s vision of what’s best? Watch Now
Paul McGowan writes: We all love live music recordings and work hard to get our high-performance audio systems to sound like the real deal. But how can modern music recorded on multitrack machines and studios ever be considered high end or even close to live? Watch Now
Paul McGowan writes: The last thing you want to do to a power amplifier is put something with impedance between it and the loudspeaker. It’s one of the reasons we spend so much time and money making sure the speaker cables we use are as thick as a horse leg, impede nothing and connect our […]
Paul McGowan writes: One of my readers asked a very legitimate question: one that is asked on an ongoing basis and it refers to my post about cables. “Help me here. I do believe a roadblock to a broader appreciation of our hobby is the perception that the high-end audio industry is lubricated with snake […]
Paul McGowan writes: I’m not sure how this thread morphed into a How I built this about volume controls but things have a tendency to just drift in a certain direction. But, I ramble on. In yesterday’s post, I told the story of boiling the innards of a volume control down to nothing more than a […]
Setting up a subwoofer in a high-end system can be darned tricky. Is there an easy and quick way to get it right, first time, every time? You bet there is and leave it to Paul to explain how Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan writes ….. A previous post on the Golden Age of Recordings sparked a fair number of emails and one them asked me “what is live”? Is it sticking your head into the piano? After all, that’s live if you were so inclined. Another complained of too much detail being focused on by Audiophiles […]
Paul McGowan writes: The summer of 1977 found my partner Stan and I looking to increase our sales of phono stages and we thought we would try and entice a few dealers to carry the product. Up until this day we were 100% direct-to-customer, something you see more of today in high-end audio, but back […]
Paul McGowan writes …… As a vegetarian for most of my adult life I don’t eat meat, fish or crow. Because I promised all of you I would eat crow if I was wrong about putting a preamp in the system, let me back off and simply use another metaphor I can live with: swallowing […]
Ever wonder about the advantages and disadvantages of horn load speakers? Here’s your chance to learn all you need to know. Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan writes: Now you’ve gotten your main speaker system in order and imaging properly, according to yesterday’s post, it’s time to think about adding our subwoofer. Let’s start with a fairly broad overview and then later we can dig down deep. Your subwoofers are going to be placed behind and to the outside of […]
Paul McGowan. As I get more familiar with the new music system a couple of thoughts occur to me about what it is that gets me excited about what I am hearing and experiencing. I think the magnification and separation of elements within the recording have to stand out above many others. I am fortunate […]
Paul McGowan Is it ethical to spend time at your local stereo dealer and then buy online at a lower price? This question is at the core of the situation dealers and customers find themselves in today and you might be surprised at Paul’s answer. Watch Now
Paul McGowan writes: Years ago, there were mostly passive subs, but over time this changed. Modern subwoofers are internally amplified. So it might seem intuitive to connect them as you would any power amplifier, with an interconnect to the preamp or DAC. This works, but would not be my first choice. The problem with cables and […]
Paul McGowan Engineers don’t yet know how to measure all we can hear on a resolving stereo system but we know a lot. What are the measurements that tell us what sounds good and what does not? Watch Now ▸
We hear the term “resolution” referred to a lot in high-end audio but what exactly does it mean? How can it be achieved? And is it even desirable? Watch Now Paul McGowan