Paul McGowan writes: In our comments section of PS Tracks magazine I mentioned how we in the high-end got what we bargained for when we chose the lowest price over service and advice. I thought it would make a good post on its own. Dealers have always discounted. Even back in the days of famous […]
Paul McGowan
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Paul McGowan Perhaps the best audio experience you could have would be to drag your stereo system to the original concert hall where a particular recording was made, setup on the same stage and play the recording back. You would be sitting in your favorite seat in the concert hall and the sound would be […]
The d’appalito designs are unique in speaker topology and often popular amongst designers. Why do they exist, what do they accomplish, and how do they work? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan writes: In my previous post Jittered, we used a water flow analogy to further our understanding of jitter and how to make it go away. You’ll remember that jitter is all about timing and making sure that the digital audio bits arrive on schedule without any slow downs or speed ups to their […]
Paul McGowan writes: I’ve been thinking recently about our discussions on tone controls a few weeks ago. Initially I objected when a commenter suggested we could use tone controls selectively to improve recordings. That seemed to violate the purity of the recording. After all, isn’t the goal to get as close to what the […]
Paul McGowan writes: David Pogue, one of my readers, suggested to me “the cheapest tweak” that he’s ever tried and I thought it might be interesting, this fine Sunday morning, to give this tweak a try if you’re looking for something to do. The tweak concerns extreme toe in of the loudspeakers – toe in […]
Paul McGowan writes: I think we all understand the importance of power supplies in audio equipment – as everything we listen to in our systems starts out as DC voltage in the first place. Power amps are particularly sensitive to power quality for reasons I’ve detailed in past posts – and of all power amp […]
Paul McGowan writes: Perhaps the most expensive option a designer has to control the gain is called a stepped attenuator. These devices can range from the reasonably simple to the ultra exotic and expensive. Cello’s 59 step platinum attenuator as well as Ayre’s 66 stepped device are exotic, expensive hand built beauties that exemplify […]
Paul McGowan writes: Do you have a subwoofer or two in your system? You should. Unless your loudspeakers have a built in powered subwoofer, or you have added a sub, you aren’t getting the full musical experience the artists intended. I am not familiar with any standalone loudspeaker that is full range in your room […]
Paul McGowan writes: Music is an emotional experience. Our emotions are centered in an ancient part of our brains called the Amygdala. My friend Seth refers to this as the “Lizard Brain”. Some music and some high-end systems give us an emotional experience so strong we remember it to this day; others never get past […]
Paul McGowan writes: Of the two types of power supplies found on class D amps, linear or switch mode, the latter is taking over and the former is moving down in popularity. It’s a natural progression as combining a giant power transformer and capacitor bank supply with a small and lightweight power amplifier doesn’t make […]
Paul McGowan writes: I mentioned that the first step in setting any system up is to get to know your music well. This can serve you in many ways: including bringing your collection of music to an audio show to hear what it sounds like. This only really works if you’re intimately familiar with a […]
Paul McGowan writes: There are just too many. I have lots of them especially when it comes to new products and new directions for our industry – and I am sure many of you reading this post have them as well. They are like an itch that cannot be scratched. Perhaps the most difficult lesson […]
Paul McGowan writes: You are walking down the street perfectly happy after a good lunch or so, when suddenly from nowhere you hear music. It could be a sound two blocks away, poor acoustics, noisy background etc. Maybe it’s a street musician, but the thing is that your brain can detect this as live music […]
Paul McGowan writes: Perhaps the single biggest reason to use a switch mode power supply (SMPS) on a power amplifier is that the output of a properly designed one is more like perfect DC than that of a conventional supply; and not just by a little bit. Conventional supplies switch back and fourth between plus […]
Our speakers are typically either 8Ω or 4Ω but can that be changed? The problem as described to Paul is connecting up different impedance speakers to the same amplifier. Watch Now Paul McGowan
In a recent post we covered with good detail the steps to achieving low bass with your subwoofers. By keeping the frequency lower than you need to match your main speakers you can focus your efforts entirely on getting the very low bass right. Now it’s time to match up to the mains. Matching the […]
Paul McGowan writes: I wrote that I had an out-of-the-box idea to share with you. This is just for fun and stimulation – and no, it is not a precursor to a new product. The idea revolves around the notion that it is wrong-headed to use digital room correction of the loudspeakers themselves (above 150Hz […]
Paul McGowan writes: The past few days we’ve been focusing on not setting boundaries but I think it is really more about where much of the innovation we see comes from. The fact is, most innovation comes from small scrappy little companies – not from big corporate giants. Take Apple for example – one of […]
Paul McGowan: Amateurs, as defined by Wikipedia: An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science in a non-professional or unpaid manner, often having little or no formal training in their pursuits, and many are autodidacts (self-taught). Does that describe our industry? And for that matter, are we even […]
Paul McGowan writes: Have you ever been leery of turning up the volume control too high because you don’t want to push the system too hard? I don’t mean in terms of volume level but stressing out the preamp by getting too close to its limits? If that’s happened to you, you’re not alone. It’s […]
At first I dismissed the thought, so ingrained is the notion of an artist creating a package around a body of work, but then I realized he is right. The medium itself has always dictated the package musicians use to wrap around their work. There’s the famous story of Sony founder Akio Morita’s dictate to […]
Paul McGowan writes: “One of my readers, Alan, recently asked a really good question. “Reviewers of high resolution sound reproduction equipment frequently speak of one element of the reproduction, depth. But they speak of layers of depth; I’ve never really understood that concept, because in real life I always hear a continuum of depth.” […]
Paul McGowan writes: I thought today I’d touch on the term Palpability for a couple of reasons: I use it to describe certain aspects of what we hear in our stereo systems and more pertinent – I have just been exposed to a greater degree of it than ever before. I was going to title […]