Paul McGowan writes: Recently we covered the basics of ports in speaker boxes that would otherwise be called sealed boxes were it not for the hole and associated tube punched into the speaker box to extend the bass. Port calculations used to be a black art but today the science is well known and there […]
Paul McGowan
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Paul McGowan writes: My revelation of the simple truth that we can never believe we are actually in the same room as live musicians, no matter how good the recording and the reproduction chains are, really shook up my world. I had assumed all along that we could get very close to building a believable […]
Paul McGowan: Perhaps one of the most difficult challenges faced by any design team is how to keep something simple yet meet or exceed people’s expectations. Apple’s products are famous more for what they did not include then what they did – but at the same time exceeding expectations. That’s a really hard thing to […]
This customer wants to know “when the f*ck” are you dinosaurs going to get off your collective duffs and design affordable products for real people? A great question for Paul to tackle and, tackle he does. Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan writes: I am in the beginning of a new series that will give my readers an overview of starting fresh with a new sound room: the steps I am taking to build the room, the decisions being made and why. I mentioned that the Maggies I am leaving and the Infinity IRS I […]
Paul McGowan writes: I mentioned recently that we recognize what type of instrument is playing a note not so much by its harmonic content – which most of us believe is what distinguishes the sound of one instrument from another – but rather by its transient nature. I think this is a fascinating subject and […]
To some, winning is everything. It was that way with my mentor, and former business partner, Arnie Nudell. Arnie hated losing. Which is likely why he had so many wins, like building the biggest loudspeaker company in the world, Infinity. One of my fondest memories centers around a ping-pong table. Arnie and I both loved […]
It’s rumored that some speakers are designed to work better on tube amps while others are specific to solid-state amplifiers. What’s the truth behind this thought and why? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Directionality is a controversial topic. For those unfamiliar with it, the basic idea is that cables and fuses sound different depending on the direction they are used. Reverse an RCA cable’s direction or a speaker cable’s direction and the system will sound different. This is controversial because in most cases the cables or fuses are […]
Paul McGowan writes: I got a note from Harry Pearson and I am reprinting it in today’s post (with his kind permission). “Perhaps I should tell you how this very speaker system prompted the creation of The Absolute Sound. hint: it started with the two page up front review (not in the review section) of […]
Paul McGowan writes: I have been reading a couple of really interesting books, as of late, about music and how it works; perfect reading for a nerd engineering type. One of the more interesting aspects of the read is the mechanism our ear/brains use to recognize what instrument is playing the notes in music. We […]
Paul McGowan writes: After my earlier post about hearing the worst performance of a high-end system in a long time I would like to share with you the best which I encountered in the very same day here in Japan. We travelled far outside the city of Tokyo to visit a dealer with a showroom […]
Paul McGowan writes ….. Remember a time when CDs ripped to a hard drive sounded better than the CD itself? Were you scratching your head like I was? How the hell can a copy sound better than the original? That just doesn’t make any sense. Right? On the face of it, no, but then we […]
Paul McGowan: I had accidentally stumbled on something interesting in my development of a new preamplifier: a 14 gauge small diameter power cable didn’t sound as good as a larger diameter 12 gauge power cable. In an easily repeatable experiment I could change the amount of body and fullness in the music by simply changing […]
I think one of the hidden factors in our quest to enjoy our high-end audio systems is how hard our brains work at processing the sound we hear – less processing equals less listener fatigue. Good friend and fellow Audiophile Mark Lewis wrote me a inspiring note that suggested he enjoyed his time in Music […]
In a comment on my posting about voicing high end electronics the question was asked “Is there only one ideal voicing?” Great question and here’s the entire quote. “And then it also depends on the venue and seat in the venue what is the sound you are looking for. I recall Gordon Holt’s review of […]
Paul McGowan writes: The first generation to be born after the dawn of the Digital Age has just reached a maturity and status that fits the label of true consumers. Everyday, we induct more and more enthusiastic new members into the high order of the GLI (Guardians of Liquid Income) that would not be able […]
We savor a moment, a taste, an experience. It’s a special instant in time where something extraordinary has occurred: a musical performance, a child’s smile, a learning moment. When they occur we want to revel in them and never leave, savoring all aspects and nuance. Each of us searches for golden moments worth savoring. Mine’s often […]
Paul McGowan writes: There sure are a lot of ways to convert bits and numbers to analog and music. The dizzying array of choices can be somewhat overwhelming to people: FPGA, Chip DAC, Ladder DAC, passive, active, oh my! I am often asked to help unravel the myriad of choices as if by doing so […]
Paul McGowan writes: None of us have ever heard the true sound of music. In fact, everything we hear, in particular, if it has been recorded, is colored by uncountable distortions: microphones, speakers, headphones, the room, cables, equipment, mastering, varying air densities of any particular day. Even without the recording/playback medium in the way we […]
Connecting a home computer to a stereo system is not the easiest thing to do if you’ve never done it before. Audio guru Paul helps us understand what we need, how it all fits together and the best way of getting music from digital bits and converting them into audio on our speakers or headphones. […]
Paul McGowan writes: One thing I like about engineering is its honesty. Circuits do not care what your opinion or mood are, they either work or they don’t. If I have a strong conviction on a subject I can search for supporting opinions and find them—lots of them—bolstering my belief whether right or wrong according […]
Paul McGowan writes: Over the weekend our kitchen sink backed up. Of course I tried everything I could think of, from pouring gallons of Drano to buying a pathetic 25 foot snake at Home Depot. In the end a call to the plumber solved it. But without that sink life changed immediately. It reminds me […]
Perfect doesn’t mean flawless. Perfect is full of mistakes and errors. A perfect person is a complex mix of learning errors and achievements won. When we think of a perfect recording or concert performance it’s never without flaws. The difference is the flaws add to the new, gives us the unexpected, becomes the perfect. It’s good to […]