Do speaker grille cloths damage sound?
Posted sometime
Speakers generally come covered in protective grille cloth by their manufacturers. Is it better to take that off or leave it on as the manufacturer specified?
ASK PAUL
Have a burning question for our founder, Paul McGowan? How something works? How to get the most out of your system? Tubes? Transistors? Streaming? Servers? Stories?
Paul will answer one question each day and share it “live” and unrehearsed on video. Submit your own question through the form on this page and Paul will answer those chosen by our editorial staff. Please leave your first name, location, and email address so we can credit you for asking.
Don’t miss a video; sign up to our YouTube Channel here:
Are silk plants a secret weapon?
Posted 23 hours ago
Every consumer show PS Audio attends this viewer has seen silk plants placed in strategic positions near the speakers. Is this some untold secret for better sound quality?
Is damping factor a good indication of amplifier performance?
Posted 1 day ago
Damping factor is an important element in a power amplifier's ability to control a loudspeaker. Does that mean that the higher the damping factor the better the amplifier sounds?
Are discretes better than ICs?
Posted 2 days ago
Integrated circuit amplifiers have some of the best specifications of any circuits yet they are not the best choice for analog designs. Why is that and what makes them not quite as good as discretes?
Why do some volume controls have endless rotation?
Posted 3 days ago
Why do a lot of modern volume control knobs endlessly spin when controlling volume? It used to be they went up and stopped. What changed and which is better?
Why don’t amplifiers have clipping protection?
Posted 4 days ago
We understand that amplifier clipping can damage speaker drivers so why don't amp manufacturers protect from this happening?
How many drivers should a speaker have?
Posted 5 days ago
There's single driver, dual driver, triple driver loudspeakers. But how many drivers are best? If you didn't care about costs how many drivers would make the perfect speaker?
Why don’t PS Power Plants have balanced outputs?
Posted 6 days ago
This viewer has heard that balanced AC power is best but wants to know why PS Audio Power Plant AC regenerators don't use balanced power.
An explanation of Audiophile terms
Posted 1 week ago
Audiophiles have an entire lexicon all their own. Terms like transparency, warmth, and so on define what we hear on a high end system. But, what do those terms actually mean?
How to heat and cool a listening room
Posted 1 week ago
Forced air heating ands cooling is noisy and intrusive when it comes to high-end listening rooms. What's the best way to solve this problem?
Why don’t we see more monoblocks?
Posted 1 week ago
If monoblock amplifiers are better than stereo amplifiers why wouldn't a mono two-chassis preamp be equally desirable?
What are PS Audio’s ethics?
Posted 1 week ago
Does PS Audio practice the triple bottom line business practice? What are the motivations in the business and how are people treated?
Is high-end audio for me?
Posted 1 week ago
Walking into a famous dealer in New York City this person had hoped to find what they were looking for only to be treated with indifference. Paul helps out as best he can.
Are loudspeaker dust caps important?
Posted 1 week ago
We see dust caps guarding the inner workings of loudspeaker drivers all the time but just how important to the speaker and its sound are they?
Do people perceive sound differently in other countries?
Posted 1 week ago
We've heard of the British sound vs. the American sound in hi-fi circles. So, what does that mean? Do Brits and others around the world hear music differently than we yanks?
What is an Ohm?
Posted 2 weeks ago
We hear the term Ohm a lot when it comes to speakers and power amplifiers but what does it actually mean and how can we use it to help our stereo decisions?
Rebuilding the sound of musical instruments
Posted 2 weeks ago
Is it possible to rebuild the sound of instruments captured long ago on vintage recordings? It seems movies can be modernized by colorization, but what about recordings?
How does internal pressure affect speaker performance?
Posted 2 weeks ago
Speaker boxes have a great deal of internal pressure from the woofer. How does that affect performance?
Would the IRS sound better with a tube amplifier?
Posted 2 weeks ago
The Infinity IRS V is one of the best loudspeaker systems in the world. Would it sound even better if PS Audio switched from solid state amplifiers to vacuum tube ones instead?
How does the IRS speaker get ear level directionality?
Posted 2 weeks ago
With floor to ceiling speaker drivers how does the Infinity IRS V achieve ear-level tweeter directionality? It seems the IRS sounds the same regardless of seating height.
Do vintage speakers degrade?
Posted 2 weeks ago
We know that older stereo equipment gets worse with age and capacitors have to be replaced among other things, but how about speakers? Do they age?
How is volume controlled with HDMI?
Posted 2 weeks ago
How can your laptop as well as your receiver control the master volume when using HDMI?
Can the sweet spot be widened?
Posted 3 weeks ago
If your stereo system has a narrow sweet spot what can be done to widen it? Paul helps this viewer get a bigger soundstage and widens the sweet spot.
What is High-End Audio?
Posted 3 weeks ago
What exactly is high end audio and why do we refer to it as such? Is it that the equipment is expensive or that the practitioners are more focused or obsessed?
Why do headphones have better frequency response than speakers?
Posted 3 weeks ago
Loudspeakers don't come close to offering the full frequency range that headphones do. Why is that?