Skip to content
Cones
The material a woofer cone is made from matters less than most of us think — and it matters differently than most speaker specs let on. The cone's job is...
Read more...
Vintage
What would happen if we auditioned vintage PS Audio electronics from a few decades back, then swapped in the current gear? Would what we consider musical magic still be there?...
Read more...
A "bit" of a story
Both coax and I2S carry the same bits from a streamer to a DAC. What makes them sound different is what happens to the clock along the way. A standard...
Read more...
Why new matters
In yesterday's post, I mentioned finally seeing something that had always been there and discussed the idea of becoming more aware. My friend, John Nieuwenburg, added the name of the...
Read more...
Right in front of you
There's a railroad crossing on my way to work that I've been driving over for years. The other morning, for the first time, I noticed a small metal sign bolted...
Read more...
The cashew case
Buy a bag of mixed nuts, and what's always inside? Cashews. But, here's the thing. Cashews aren't nuts. Botanically, a nut is a hard-shelled fruit where the shell doesn't split...
Read more...
Audio gambling
Writing software is a lot like gambling. You study the situation, develop a strategy you believe in, put in the work, and then push your chips across the table. Then,...
Read more...
Fireworks
I am writing this note near the end of June, but I thought I'd save it for the 4th of July—a day of fireworks—because that's what it is. Once in...
Read more...
Life and code
Picture the simplest program imaginable: a square that toggles black to white and back. Two states. You can test both, prove it perfect, and walk away. It can be flawless...
Read more...
Complexity
I've spent more than fifty years building audio equipment, and the last stretch of months pouring myself into Maestro, the music software I've been quietly obsessed with. People sometimes ask...
Read more...
Ella
Of course, the greatest and most revered Ella in the world is Ella Fitzgerald...amazing even to this day. Which is one of the reasons I chose Ella for the name...
Read more...
Expensive mistakes
The most expensive way to build an audio system is to ignore synergy. I've watched people spend serious money on components that don't work well together — an amplifier that...
Read more...
Recording arsenals
Reference discs and playlists should be an important part of your arsenal. Without reference materials you'll never be able to set a standard for evaluating everything from system tweaks to...
Read more...
Listening and learning
The albums we know best teach us the most about our systems. I have records I've listened to hundreds of times. Not because I couldn't find anything new — I...
Read more...
Groovy
A vinyl record is a physical imprint of sound. Not an approximation. Not a code like digital. The actual shape of the sound wave — compressed into a groove cut...
Read more...
Magical moments
Magic happens when you least expect it. Not a gradual appreciation. Not a slow dawning. One moment, in someone's living room or a hi-fi shop or a friend's basement, when...
Read more...
Tired?
Some systems make you want to stay. Others make you reach for the volume control. Listening fatigue. The most common cause is distortion, but not the kind we easily measure....
Read more...
The sounds of silence
The quiet parts of the music are as important as their counterpart. We spend a lot of our attention chasing the loud moments — the crescendo, the impact, the sweep...
Read more...
Future proof?
Imagine you're an archaeologist a hundred years from now, holding a hard drive you've just excavated from the ruins of a data center. You have no context. No manual. No...
Read more...
Bookshelves
The term "bookshelf speaker" has been misleading people for about seventy years, and the name shows no sign of going away. In 1954, Edgar Villchur and Henry Kloss introduced the...
Read more...
