PS Audio makes world famous AC regenerators called Power Plants that deliver perfect new AC power to improve system performance. These are based on class A/B amplifier technology. Why not use the more efficient Class D? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan
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Paul McGowan writes: Do you remember applying green paint to CD edges? Placing steel VPI bricks on top of equipment? Placing small pillows in each corner of the ceiling? Using a tape demagnetizer on CD’s? Pointing a static zap gun at LP’s before playing them? I do. All these tweaks worked but I don’t use […]
Paul McGowan: How many tweaks and improver gadgets do we buy with the claim of being better? Most of them. But do they really make things “better”? Better than what? I buy organically grown food whenever I can. It’s more expensive, but it’s better. Better than what? Let’s face it. Tweaks, improvers, organically grown food […]
All rooms are reflective, bouncing sound off walls, ceilings, and floor. But those reflections are unnatural and never existed in the recording in the first place. Wouldn’t a totally dead room be better sounding?
Paul McGowan writes …. With all the ranting and raving I do about the importance of subwoofers you’d think we were in the business of selling them. But, we’re not. My passion for certain subjects knows few bounds. I understand people’s hesitations with them: the added clutter of multiple boxes, PITA to set up, expensive, unnecessary. […]
Paul McGowan writes: In an earlier post we talked about how most of us aspire to have a dedicated listening room but don’t have the real estate to build one. Instead, we have the shared living room to work with. Problem with this is the need for the loudspeakers to be placed 1/3 the way […]
From the archives: I am visiting the high-end show in Tokyo at the moment and last night, between demonstrations of the system, I was wandering the halls of the show when the strains of one of my all time favorite operas came drifting down the hall. La Boheme, as performed by Renata Tebaldi in 1951 […]
Paul McGowan writes: In my post “Through and open window” I mentioned that if I am walking down the street and hear a piano through an open window I know immediately if that’s the sound of a real piano or a recorded one. Odd that we can do this even from affar and through a […]
When I peer into my camera’s ground glass I am intent on one thing. Sharp focus. When I check the clock for my 9:45 meeting I focus on the second hand and ignore the hour. I can tell you if I am late or early but not what time it is. When we narrow our […]
Paul McGowan writes: Ever notice how we all tend to gravitate towards the safe solution? It’s something I am certainly consistent with. We are more comfortable following Stereophile’s Recommended Component list (just to be safe), we keep our preamp’s balance control right in the middle (safer, in case we’re wrong), we use the recommended filter […]
Paul McGowan PS Audio’s co-founder, Paul McGowan, sold the company after building it up over a quarter century, the make speakers with Infinity founder, Arnie Nudell. In 1997 Paul left Genesis and returned to PS Audio to take it to its point of success we see today. Why did he leave PS in the first […]
We should be at the point in our subwoofer quest to kick back and enjoy our new found extra octave or two of bass – and what a great thing that is once you’re in tune with it. I wanted to touch briefly on matching the “speed” of the subwoofer with that of your main […]
Paul McGowan writes: We’ve been focusing on the designer’s choices when building a DAC or a preamp and one of my readers asked a great question: if even a single pot or stepped attenuator has a sonic signature that degrades the music, how is it then possible that the original recording chain can produce good […]
Paul McGowan writes: When it comes to implementing or even inventing new technology how does the High-End industry react? Are we pushed, pulled or dragged? It is different for each company. For example, pushing the latest technology is something PS Audio and a few other forward thinking companies do – we are in the minority. […]
Paul McGowan writes: The word passion has a number of definitions but the one I like the best comes from the Urban Dictionary: “Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to […]
Paul McGowan: It’s been said that CEDIA is where the growth area in consumer audio electronics is. As I wandered the halls yesterday, setup day, it struck me how little high-end audio plays any sort of role here. In every case, manufacturers boast “great sound, high resolution, music and video at the touch of a […]
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: While enjoying a morning cup of coffee I was reading Art Dudley’s engaging article on his acquisition of an old pair of Altec Lansing loudspeakers in the May issue of Stereophile. In the latter half of the article he tries to tame the Altec horn of its tendency to ring when stimulated […]
Paul McGowan: My son wants a simple setup to go from one of the little $99 Apple Airport Express devices to a good sounding power amp to play music on a pair of bookshelf speakers he owns. I offered him one of our small power amps but he declined because it’s a full piece of […]
Sometimes my mouth runs faster than my common sense and caution, research and fact checking are sacrificed for the heat of the moment. Such was my proclamation that there is no such thing as a stepped staircase waveform at the output of a DAC. Instead, said I, there are a series of pulses that look […]
Paul McGowan writes: If you’ve managed to wade through this series of posts on tubes vs. transistors you’d know that while there are indeed fundamental differences between tubes and transistors that by themselves have a major impact on the sound of equipment using them, there is no single device that really does it all with […]
Equipment break in is a hot topic in the high-end. We get a new piece of audio gear and it sounds “stiff” unyielding and “new”. So we run it in and wait for a few weeks before passing final judgment. The question is asked all the time: what is breaking in, the equipment or me? […]
It may sound funny, the headline of this post. I love the sound of tubes, have owned tons of tube equipment and yet – I have never designed a tube piece ever. And add to that mystery the fact that when I design a piece of equipment I design for myself. I don’t ever […]