About Paul McGowan
Paul McGowan is the co-founder of PS Audio (The 'P' ) and has been designing, building and enjoying high end audio since 1974. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his four sons: Lon, Sean, Scott and Rob. His hobbies include hiking, skiing, cooking, artisan bread baking. His current big project, other than playing with stereos, is writing a book series called the Carbon Chronicles. Book One, the Lost Chronicle, is a work in progress. You can view his efforts at http://www.paulmcgowan.com
I, too, have a dry house in the winter. When the humidity gets low, my electrostats make a cackling noise. I know have humidifiers in my listening room and my bedroom. The humidity is at 40%. I know longer have itchy skin, sleep is better, and my electostats no longer make unelicited sounds.
Thanks for your videos.
I love everything (almost) with Japan also.
Lovely story!
Maybe some psychology there, in addition to the gentleman’s perfectionist fine tuning. A room with no decorations, artwork, etc makes a blank canvas for the music – nothing distracting the listener?
I really loved the story. I love when Paul gets extremely surprised.
Wilson Audio makes damn good speakers and the Japanese are elegant and crafty culturally. Look at sushi for goodness sake.
It is awesome. 😉
Great story. Sounds like the type of experience that makes investment in good audio equipment and the love of music in general so rewarding and joyful. Brad
I love the sound of the Wilson speakers!
But the only problem I have with the Wilson speakers, is the prices on them.
Their smallest and cheapest pare of speakers, are about 25,000 dollars a pare.
Their most expensive pare, cost around 500,0000 dollars a pare.
But that power amp and preamp that Paul was talking about in his video, the sound of those components is a little too bright for my liking.
I put those up there, with speakers that use titanium domes for tweeters.
They sound a little to bright to me too as well.
If I can’t control the sound of stereo gear, then perhaps I’m better off without them.
I would love to hear them someday. They still use treated paper material in their drivers. Paper is underrated.
Hey Joe!
For the most part, I agree with you.
Paper cones in speaker drivers, isn’t seen too much anymore these days.
But however, I rebuilt my speakers using Peerless by Tiffany components.
I have a pare of 15inch woofers and a pare of 5.25inch mid ranges in my speaker cabinets.
The cones in all of my drivers are made of paper.
Just ask my wife, they can really rock the house!
But if you want to see how far the paper cones are going, check out a pare of Avantone Pro CLA-10 Studio Reference Monitors.
I have two pares of those, and they rock the house too!
You can check them out at this site:
https://www.avantonepro.com
They make paper cones for their AV10LFM drivers!
I will check it out thanks. I own speakers with awesome sound from polypropylene, Kevlar, and metal materials too but paper also should not be dismissed as providing great material for cones. There are pros and cons to all. Papers strengths are unique. Paper has speed resulting in a superb natural airy transparency in the bass and midrange that portrays extreme realism. There are so many factors that go into great speakers and the result is based on the sum of the whole.
Do you hear that immediacy sound in paper that I hear? They really disappear well leaving only the music. I’m not saying other materials don’t sound good because they do but they all sound good in different ways, like different wines. I’m sure paper has it’s negatives too. You can fix those negatives with the use of other materials but then you lose something.
It’s a matter of fact Joe, yes I do hear all of that!
Everything you said about speakers, you happened to be correct about all of it.
I’ve both seen and heard speakers that have paper cones with a fin layer of plastic over them.
I didn’t see and or understand the perpis behind that Cond sept, but I guess that this is the lazy way of waterproofing the cones?
That’s way over my head.
I’ve seen the polypropylene cones as early as 1983.
But speakers equally the same size as those with paper cones, had much deeper bass.
And also, the bass was much titer too as well.
Another thing to keep in mind, is they’re using other materials to make cones for speakers because you have to chop down a lot of trees in order to get the wood to make paper out of it.
But I guess we all have the environmentalist to thank for that.
Agreed.
Paul…try this for your dry skin condition. Its wonderful.Non greasy and works like a charm!
Medline – MSC094420H Remedy Skin Repair Cream with Olivamine
What “tweaking”? He just bought expensive stuff.
Paul if you’re ever in the Buffalo, Niagara Falls area come visit me, my system will raise some goosebumps.