When we compare customer types like Audiophiles vs. the custom installation crowd, we find some interesting similarities and differences. What’s similar between these two groups is that both want high-end sound for their homes. What’s different is the level of involvement in the process of acquiring and using the equipment. Audiophiles are enthusiasts, the […]
Paul McGowan
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Paul McGowan: If you were designing a product used on small speaker systems (without full bass response) would you modify the design to make up for the system’s lack of bass at the expense of being “flat”? Let me ask the question in reverse. Would you design a product knowing that when it’s played there […]
Paul McGowan writes …. They say beauty is only skin deep and I think that’s a true statement. If the outside appearance doesn’t match the insides, then we reject the entire package. This is one of the challenges industrial designers face. They have the privilege of foreknowing the insides of a new product and charged […]
Paul McGowan writes ….. One of the hotly debated issues amongst designers is current capabilities of an output stage on a DAC or preamplifier. It’s number 8 on our list of the duties of an output stage. On the one hand it can be argued that modern interconnects placed between the DAC and the preamplifier […]
Paul McGowan Ok, file this post under Paul’s Pet Peeve department. In reading comments on YouTube and even our forums, why is it some call others “stupid” when they don’t see eye to eye? The dictionary defines stupid as: “having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense” and I don’t think most […]
Paul McGowan: Being a designer, an entrepreneur, a business owner, a creator, a writer is risky business. You risk failure at every turn. You risk not meeting your own expectations let alone those of your customers. Yet, without making those risks there are no rewards. And at the end of the day, the rewards seem […]
Paul McGowan writes …. On my recent visit to Japan, I was working with a high-end dealer who had a beautiful set of Dan D’Agastino’s monoblock amplifiers on display. He and I both wanted to pit the BHK monos against these copper-beauties which we did. Helping him disconnect the D’Agastinos from the wall I noticed the […]
When I travel to visit a dealer or audio club I am often asked to evaluate their system the moment I walk into the room. At that very moment I am still in the travel, rush, rush mode and two things happen: I am disengaged just enough to offer a very pragmatic evaluation of the […]
Paul McGowan writes: A recvent post suggested the perceived shift away from high-end audio was not what it appears. That, in fact, it is a shift away from spending family resources on isolating the audio system – not the lack of desire for high-performance. We now have entire generations of music lovers who want music […]
Paul McGowan writes Let’s cover dipoles today, what they are, why I like them and then we’ll move back to the rebuilding of the new PS Sound Room as we ready ourselves for the most famous dipole/monopole hybrid of all time, the legendary Infinity IRS that we’ll be installing soon. BTW, I posted the first […]
Paul McGowan: Before Infinity Speaker founder Arnie Nudell’s unfortunate passing, he and I were working on a new concept in loudspeakers, one based on the idea that it just might be possible to get closer to live orchestral sound levels than we have in the past. A full orchestra can hit peak levels as high […]
Paul McGowan: Have you ever wondered what recording studio engineers use for monitors? I’ll tell you – probably nothing you’d have in your home or system. For the most part they are anything but high-end. A few loudspeaker manufacturers proudly show us their products in the studios and mastering rooms of the world, but this […]
Paul McGowan: Looking at an issue of Hi Fi Plus, one of my favorite UK magazines, the cover shows a picture of the beautifully executed Constellation Audio products. These super expensive high-end audio pieces are beautiful on the inside and the outside and cost a small fortune to own. Much of that fortune is spent […]
Paul McGowan: …is that it leads to success. Perhaps the hard way, but sometimes it’s the only path there. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement about the amp not living up to what I wanted but, here’s the thing about failing, it pushes you harder to succeed and in the process of figuring […]
Paul McGowan: PS Audio’s YouTube channel has an entirely different audience than this post series. Almost 300,000 people have viewed our little videos, most just curious what all this crazy hi-fi stuff is about. While we’re not as interesting as cats juggling balls, apparently we still attract some sort of interest. And then there’s the […]
Paul McGowan writes: It has always struck me as funny that the holy grail of system setup is for the speakers to disappear. We know our system has reached the pinnacle of success when we can close our eyes and fail to point out the location of each speaker. It seems so counter intuitive to […]
Paul McGowan: What a shame. The 60th Grammy Awards show sound quality has made progress, but unfortunately in the wrong direction. It’s a bit worse than 2017 and a lot worse than 2016. Loud music passages were pinched off by over-aggressive limiters to the point of cringing. The Grammy awards are a chance for the […]
Paul McGowan writes ….. When upsampling programs add bits to digital audio our machines are happier, but there’s no new information to hear, no increase in dynamics to be had. It’s tempting to think otherwise. When you read that an analog tape or vinyl album has been recorded with 24 bits rather than 16, you’re […]
Paul McGowan: Many of you have written me asking not to back off while others want more – I think perhaps an increased effort on my part to balance the topics and posts would probably be appropriate. One comment really resonated with me “where else would I ever read about the audio designer’s perspective?” I […]
Paul McGowan writes: All power amplifiers share something in common: they are big valves connecting the amp’s power supply to the loudspeaker. How they do this is really all that differs between topologies in output stages: traditional amps use a variable valve that never reaches the maximum supply and class D amps use an on/off […]
Audio kits were once the rage and now you rarely see them anymore. What happened? Are any around? What’s up with building your own hifi components? Watch Now Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan If something sounds wrong how do you know if it is the recording or your system that’s at fault? There’s an easy way to tell and Paul shares it with us today. Watch Now ▸
Paul McGowan writes: How does someone train themselves to add their ears to the design tool set they use to build equipment and systems? The answer’s the same as the age old joke about “how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” asked by a lost violinist in New York City. The answer was “practice, pratice, […]
Boy, that sounds like a no-win claim. 🙂 In the case of a transformer, however, bigger is always better relative to what the designer is trying to accomplish from the viewpoint of power delivery at a certain frequency – at least from a sonic standpoint that’s true. Years ago we pioneered the use of oversize […]