For some strange reason, I have been thinking about the strain gauge phono cartridge. And, here’s the weird thing. I have never heard one. What’s interesting to me about this strange beast is how different it is from your conventional phono cartridge. I am always fascinated by truly different. Most phono cartridges are generators. They […]
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When I wrote about my memories of the strain gauge cartridge it was presented as mere ramblings. Since that post, there’s been a swirl of controversy and questions. Who knew? One question, in particular, revolved around the cartridge’s supposed disregard for the need of the RIAA curve. Several among you, including my friend Richard Murrison, questioned the […]
Paul McGowan: Some amplifiers work better with some speakers. Who do you know which one to choose for best sound quality? Watch Now
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan I think one of the very basic problems with people’s opinions on class D amps is the hierarchy of labeling – I mean, as a child if you get an “A” in school you’re pretty happy; get a “D” or an “F” and you’ll probably be having a conversation with […]
I like to imagine the art of compression is like the proper setup of a subwoofer. Properly done you shouldn’t notice it is there. Unfortunately, that’s not the norm. So many of today’s recordings have enough compression on the voice that we hear it: the singer gets loud but the sound level does not. Another […]
Paul McGowan writes: Audio equipment used to be hand wired in a process known as point to point wiring, but now most everything is without wires using thin strips of copper clad to fiberglass instead. What’s better, point-to-point or PC boards when it comes to sound quality? Watch Now
How does one measure the differences between amplifiers when they clearly sound different? The first and simplest measurements are frequency response and noise levels: frequency response shows us that everything we put in makes it through to the output and noise levels are an obvious thing to measure so we don’t have hiss. Fancier measurements […]
Paul McGowan: If you’re serious about building a high-performance audio system you have to pay attention to the AC power. It’s a constant theme with me because power is the foundation of our systems. There aren’t many great structures standing on weak foundations. Power Plants solve many problems but they need a head start. One […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Just heading out the door, went to fire up the dishwasher and the marketing pitch on the soap caught my eye. “Now, Hypo Allergenic!” What the hell does that mean? It was the main selling feature of the dishwashing soap and for years I have taken it for granted. In […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Of all the questions we are asked by customers, finding and fixing hum is perhaps number one. Ground loops would be our first suspect, but a close second is hum and noise from turntables. Ground loops occur when two pieces of interconnected equipment find themselves grounded at different levels (one […]
I often speak in terms that make a few people nervous. Take for example the notion that speaker cables damage sound quality. To me, this is a fairly obvious notion. Since cables are passive they cannot addanything, but they sure can subtract. When a conduit of sound subtracts from that which was intended to be delivered […]
Following my post about cable damage, it occurs to me that there is an opportunity for an interesting experiment. We’ve all seen the techno-wizard’s proof that cables make zero difference. They routinely put a cable on the AP and under real world conditions show that what goes in comes out the other end. I am certain their […]
There are very few systems that are truly full range. The shortcomings of rooms and speakers often preclude simple setups from delivering all there is on a disc. Take Music Room Three at PS Audio. The spot in the room where the FR30s disappear and one finds themselves totally immersed in the music happens to […]
Capacitors are interesting components. They serve as frequency dividers, energy storage units, and DC blockers (among other things). I’ve written before about my experience so many years ago learning about capacitor bypassing—adding a smaller capacitor in parallel with a bigger one to improve the sound quality of an amp or preamp. Why is that better […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan In 1897 a former patient of Dr. John Kellog, Charles “C.W.” Post, mixed a batter of wheat and barley together then baked it in his oven. What came out was a hard brown sheet of material with a slightly sweet and nutty taste. Post then broke apart the sheet and […]
I don’t know about where you live but here in Boulder, Colorado, most every bike rider looks like they’re getting ready for the Tour de France. Is all that expensive gear effective? Does the money spent on high-tech racing clothing noticeably improve performance? If you look at the marketing pitch on this gear it reads […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan I have yet to meet anyone that hasn’t been able to hear the benefits of playing music on a high-end audio system like that in Music Room II. Time and again, people unaware of what high-end audio has to offer are jaw-dropping surprised at how much better a proper high-end […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan One of our readers emailed me asking about proximity to his speakers. It was an interesting question. “As I move around the room I find the sweet spot to be 2 feet in front of my 8 foot separated speakers. Am I too close?” First, let me say I admire […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Gosh, people struggle so hard to understand that which does not make sense to them. It’s a rare person that can leap from faith. On our YouTube channel, I do my best to share with folks my experiences with what I hear, with what we hear, as a company. It’s not made […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan For many years, the only reference I had to a shorting plug was the handmade kind we built in engineering. Here, we took an RCA connector and to its body, we soldered a wire tying its center pin to the outer shell. We made similar versions for XLR connectors. We […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan One of our readers emailed me asking about proximity to his speakers. It was an interesting question. “As I move around the room I find the sweet spot to be 2 feet in front of my 8 foot separated speakers. Am I too close?” First, let me say I admire […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan I would suggest that throughout time it’s rather commonplace to hear people discounting or dismissing the experiences of others when worldviews do not match. Sometimes that’s helpful. If I see the world as flat and declare it so, you can help me by explaining the well established facts. That’s a […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan If you had a chance to read my post of several days ago titled The Bypass Cap you might have been thinking it was about headwear. Or, you might have gotten my analogy of using a super tweeter to augment a standard tweeter. Here’s another for you. If you were to take […]
PS AUDIO / Paul McGowan Many of the products of science we take for granted were discovered by accident: penicillin, Viagra, anesthesia, the microwave oven, chewing gum, brandy, and even silly putty. The key to those discoveries lies in the inventor’s openness to observations unrelated to the original experiment. Take for example, when in 1879, […]