Silence reveals everything.
The quieter the system’s noise floor, the more detail emerges: microdynamics, spatial cues, and timing live in the quietest moments between notes.
Noise comes from everywhere: the power line, component circuits, grounding schemes, even mechanical vibration. Each adds a subtle veil, masking the very information that makes music sound real. Lowering that veil doesn’t add detail—it uncovers what was always there.
If you get a chance to hear a PMG preamp, what I am writing about will become immediately obvious.
A quiet system lets you hear the natural decay of notes, the air around instruments, and the subtle interplay in complex passages. It also improves dynamics, because contrast between silence and sound is preserved.
It’s easy to underestimate silence. But once you’ve heard a truly quiet system, you realize how much information hides just above the noise floor.
Music isn’t only made of notes—it’s made of the spaces between them.
