Hello Folks, Since re-veneering my Rega Ela’s a few weeks ago i started to use my Hi-Fi and listen to music a bit more. getting the use of a proper Hi-Fi system after months of low grade car audio and a small kitchen transistor radio was obviously a great aural feeling. i do also have […]
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Paul McGowan writes: So, whatever happened to tone controls? You know, the bass and treble boost/cut controls that used to adorn just about every 1950 and 1960′s era preamplifier? They fell out of fashion in the 1970′s because purists didn’t want them. The analog audio path must be absolutely pure. They fell back into fashion […]
I have been reading many views on the Forums (not just here) about the 1200/1210’s and the deck has been received with mixed views. Many just don’t want to be asociated with a ‘DJ’ playing ‘Happy Birthday’ by Altered Images at a kids birthday party and others who want to know more but maybe to […]
A member writes: My speaker cables are 2.5m and XLR interconnects are 1m. With a minimal stacked “two component” floor height of 12″ (set between the speakers-CD source variable outputs driving power amp inputs) and wide dispersion stand monitor baffles centered at 40″ listening height, there is no sonic deterioration of imaging or soundstage holographics […]
Hi Howard. I know you are into this type of 60’s music and so what can you tell me about The Blues Magoos please? What should I avoid of theirs? Thanks Laurence Rode. Hmm, well ….. the short answer is ‘not much’. But yes, I am into this genre and many similar ones too. I […]
Gustavo Guardiola, Composer, bass player and professor of music composition for more than 22 years. He was certainly angry. On October 6th of 1802 Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers Carl and Johann. This letter has been known as the Heiligenstadt Testament -or you can call it the testament of Beethoven. In this letter […]
PHILIP RICE answers: Not “supposedly deaf”. DEAF! Here’s the thing. When you know enough music theory and have been around the block, and are one of the most talented musicians in history…. You look, or write notes on a page and know EXACTLY what it “sounds like”. This is called hearing a score in silence […]
JN writes: 80-90 % of the sources that run through my stereo set-up are multy channel capabele sources, TV settup box, Apple TV or the Amazon like alternatives, BluRay player, which provide surprisingly good sounding CD quality, MS X-box, Nintendo switch, and other great game consoles and yes I play vinyl too. But talking about […]
Chris writes: When I was young, which was a long time ago, we listened to music on cheap little transistor radios. That was an external music source, and so the step up to a stereo was logical. The paradigm started to shift with the introduction of the Walkman. You listened to that through earphones. Portable […]
Mr. P writes: The Myth of Vinyl is just that, and I grew up on Vinyl and had a huge collection. I would never buy a CD! Never, ever, then I heard a top-end Sony SA7ES player with a CD of an LP I had, I went back and forth at the hi-fi store and […]
H writes: I would almost guarantee that the person who posted this question owns Focal speakers. There has been a ton of chatter about the quality of the crossovers used in their lines. The Sopra line seems to be the one most are upset about given it’s higher price point. For the record I own […]
ROBERT F writes: After the untimely demise of drummer John Bonham in the fall of 1980, Led Zeppelin collectively decided that without their fallen comrade there would be no way to continue. Which meant, after 11 years of recording, relentless touring and being among the most heralded and famous people on earth, they were once […]
Debate: This is a great topic. Paul, could omni directional speakers compensate for expanding the sweet spot vs a conventional speaker? Not sure what the pros/cons are of these types of speakers. Paul replies … You might get a broader more diffuse sweet spot with omnis or the whole affair might become muddled. Hard to […]
PETER B writes: Agree that it’s not ok to record music with crappy stuff or methodes, it’s an insult to the musicians. But I would prefer a great artist and or performance in a mediocre sound quality to a mediocre artist and or performance on a top notch recording. Music over soundquality. In other words: […]
GARY L writes … One thing to mention about Nyquist Theorem, is the “at least” part, which is often overlooked. If your at the limit (half the frequency of the sample rate) and the sampling lines up nicely with the phase of the recorded frequency, then yeah you get the full amplitude of the sine […]
JOHN D writes … DSD (1 bit Pulse Density Modulation, Sigma/Delta Modulation is not digital. PCM is digital. ‘Direct Stream Digital’ is simply a marketing ‘logo’ created by Sony/Phillips. The problem is you cannot keep running off tape copies to vinyl – tape deteriorates every time you play it. With old tape you have to […]
PAUL S writes … The problem I had with my audio dealer was the fact that the availability of dealer’s products are limited to the brands of his distributor network. I had to „force“ my dealer to order a PPP demo unit from a distributor outside of his distributor network when I was totally unsatisfied […]
PAUL S writes: I have encountered the best sound quality ever from a tiny vacuum tube power amp (single ended triode) driving a single driver crossoverless wide-banner loudspeaker. The only limitation: no wall & floor shaking bass and limited overall SPLs – but perfect for near-field listening. JOE writes: in my opinion hybrids make no […]
Mr. R writes … Terminations are only required for bundling odd shaped, large or solid conductors, or pre terminated for people that have trouble terminating conductors them self. Use indeed spades, these allow much, much higher contact pressure than banana’s. But, any stranded conductor fitting straight into the terminal of the amplifier or speaker: go […]
PAUL writes: Reconstruction of a sine-wave based on only two sample-point is only possible because the “algorithm” was told to construct a sine-wave! Neither a square-wave, nor a saw-tooth wave etc! However music is characterized by more or less steep transients being only captured and reproduced when using DSD as you mentioned, Paul, for those […]
DOUG writes … Bob Carver had a circuit he called the digital time lense that was supposed to help with CD harshness. It sounded like an eq to me overall, and I never used this feature as a result. Other things claim to improve Mp3 files. Not for me they didn’t. Your suggestion of replacing […]
FP writes … The beauty of buying home-audio gear from reputable companies that allow their prospective customers to have a 30-to-45-day in-home audition is that the customer can’t really go backwards because they can do a direct comparison with their current piece of equipment…whatever that might be…& decide for themselves whether the new piece is […]
JCK writes No. He once cut himself accidently and was bleeding and Barbara Valentin tried to help him and he screamed at her to get back because, once he suspected he had HIV, he didn’t want to infect her. Also, his dear friend Montserrat Caballé went to hug him but he stepped back to which […]
Good morning to everyone in our grate big hifi family!Paul, I can remember 2 years ago, you told us all that, you came up with the power plant regenerator in 1990.For anyone on here that’s in to doing math, that was 32 years ago.But as for making mistakes, ya, I’ve made lots of them.But I […]