Paul McGowan: As design engineers, we all have different rules of thumb design crib sheets. If we want to design a servo-controlled power amplifier we engineer for maximum control and fast step rate. On the other hand, if we want to build a syrupy-sweet sounding amp we’d use a soft-focus input like a JFET or a […]
Paul McGowan
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Making a decision as to which model of amplifier, phono stage, or preamplifier can be daunting. There are more brands than one can count and, within those brands, many models. In the days of dealers, we relied upon their curation skills to narrow the field. The only problem with that model is that most times […]
ARQuint writes: “As one of those writers who regularly refers to “layered depth”, I would love to ring in here. When I attend orchestra concerts, my preferred seats are on the ground floor, typically somewhere around Row I to R. This is where my wife and I sit for our Philadelphia Orchestra subscription, and what […]
When HiFi Family member Ed Spilka sent me the following note I just had to smile. How many times have I heard a similar story? Too many times to count. And here’s the thing. It’s not just about vinyl. I have heard the same stories about DSD, vacuum tubes, and even good vs. bad cables. […]
Terri and I were recently watching a YouTube documentary on old Route 66. Boy, did that bring back some memories. As a lad, my grandmother Elsie packed me and my two sisters into her 1952 Chevrolet and drove us from Southern California to Saint Louis Missouri, and back again along Route 66: Burma Shave signs, […]
Paul McGowan / PS Audio I am struggling to think of a smaller company that’s gotten better after being acquired by a bigger one. I cringe at the aftermath of Harmon’s purchase of Infinity, and JBL, and I wince at the results following Sound United’s big gulps of Denon, Polk, Marantz, B&W, Def Tech, Boston, […]
I am pretty certain few rooms support perfect bass. It’s not that rooms are particularly biased against low frequencies, the problem is those pesky long wavelengths. Consider that a 20Hz wave is 51 feet in length. A 30Hz note is 38 feet long and even a 60Hz note is just under 10 feet in length. […]
Paul McGowan / PS Audio In 2008, authors Karl Johan Åström and Richard M.Murray wrote about feedback: “Simple causal reasoning about a feedback system is difficult because the first system influences the second and second system influences the first, leading to a circular argument. This makes reasoning based upon cause and effect tricky, and it […]
In yesterday’s post, we looked at long wavelength bass notes—some exceeding 50 feet in length. Today, let’s have a look at their shorter cousins, high frequencies. Where bass frequencies are typically multiple feet in length, higher frequencies are generally in inches or fractions of an inch. 1kHz, for example, is right around 1 foot, while 10kHz […]
His system doesn’t sound near as good when he switches out the tone controls yet, popular wisdom is that tone controls suck. What’s the truth behind the matter? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan / PS Audio A very kind HiFi Family member generously sent me a few Sheffield Direct to Discs. These treasures are hard to find and I was extremely grateful to have received them. Upon playing the Lincoln Mayorga and Friends disc I was reminded of just how direct and dynamic they were. There’s […]
Paul McGowan writes ….. In a recent post we decided on the type of output stage we wanted: balanced or unbalanced depending on the topology of the DAC before it or, in the case of a preamp, how extensive the designer wanted to go. In our case we always spend the extra time and effort […]
Sometimes we speak in such sweeping generalities that our original meaning is lost. Take for example the simple statement “I’ve tried that and can’t hear any difference.” Instead of digging deeper we either dismiss this rather bold statement as poppycock if it doesn’t agree with our experience or use it as proof if it matches […]
Paul McGowan writes: I hate it. As I age my memory gets worse and it was never great in the first place. At least I don’t remember it being great. Some things, like circuits and emotional responses, are permanently etched. Others, like day-to-day tasks, people’s names, numbers, are lost before lunch. I am certain we’re […]
Paul McGowan: I’ve written before that in the long run I find that we are very far away from reproducing live sound in our homes. We stress over cleaning and polishing the fine details of our systems when, in reality, they are very far away from live sound reproduced in our home. We can fool […]
Paul McGowan: I try and run each morning before work because it helps my energy levels stay up during the busy day. Sometimes it’s a real struggle to get moving and stick with it, but music helps keep my mind somewhere other than with the effort of the run. I tried using my phone and […]
Paul McGowan: Yesterday I proposed a thought problem once again. This time we compared the direct output of a stereo microphone vs. the recorded output of that same microphone while a group of acoustic musicians played in a room separate from us – and we could hear a difference between the recorded version and the […]
Note: As with all trade writers, we are happy to publish but …. doing so does not mean we necessarily agree with their observations and conclusions. ====== We know that every element in the signal chain imparts a sonic fingerprint: bipolars, tubes, JEFETS, MOSFETS. And let’s not to forget film, foil, beeswax, ceramic, and electrolytic […]
Note: As with all trade writers, we are happy to publish but …. doing so does not mean we necessarily agree with their observations and conclusions. ====== Paul McGowan writes: The secret to selecting the perfect amplifier chassis, location, topology, and wattage rating can be found inside the loudspeaker—not in the form of a hidden […]
ONE-MusicFinally! After nearly a year of work the ONE Music project is ready. And it turned out great. In fact, it’s is the single best demo disc I have in my library – bar none. If you haven’t heard of it, let me tell you. As many know there’s a very sad situation in music […]
The essence of the post is that perfection is only a point of view and only valid at the instant it happens and only if we accept the warts of the moment as part and parcel of that perfection. In other words, a perfect musical performance doesn’t mean the performer made no errors. It simply […]
Originally published October 2015 Paul McGowan writes: There’s perhaps nothing more important to the success of a hi fi system than the synergy of its parts. We’ve been discussing how the addition of some preamps help the sound of some DACs; a perfect example of the synergistic quality of parts within a system. The speakers […]
Paul McGowan writes: Most of us are familiar with the concept of mechanically isolating our equipment from vibrations; but do you know why it’s important? Microphonics. Certainly not the only reason, but clearly the most important. Microphonics is the tendency of something to act like a microphone; picking up and reproducing sounds it “hears”. The […]