Paul's Posts

In yesterday's Post I shared with you a great question about high-end audio trade shows: "While at the Florida Expo...I was honestly amazed at how many very high-dollar systems —... Read more...

A pointed question

I received this question as an Ask Paul one but I thought it so on target and observant that it really needed to be more than just a video. Today,... Read more...

Can't measure everything

Measurements tell us a great deal—they are essential to our design process—but they don’t tell us everything. As a designer, I rely on data. We all do. Frequency response, distortion... Read more...

Luxury

A dedicated listening room is one of the greatest luxuries we audiophiles can have. Most of us share our systems with daily life. Living rooms double as family spaces. Furniture... Read more...

A hard truth

There is no full-range system without a subwoofer. And it’s not because full-range speakers can’t produce bass. They absolutely can. Our Aspen series, for example, delivers deep, articulate low frequencies... Read more...

The upgrade trap

It’s easier to tweak what we have than to admit we bought the wrong thing in the first place. I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. A... Read more...

The emotional test

If a system doesn’t move you, it doesn’t matter how good it measures. I have deep respect for measurements. Frequency response, distortion spectra, signal-to-noise ratio—they matter. A lot. They guide... Read more...

What we owe the recording

Every system is either revealing the truth or hiding it. A recording captures more than notes. It contains spatial cues, harmonic textures, dynamic contrasts, and the acoustic fingerprint of the... Read more...

You know what they say....

It’s tempting to equate size with performance—that was the standard line when I was a young man. Today, bigger speakers, bigger amplifiers, bigger transformers. Sometimes that works. More cone area... Read more...

Being selfish

If I wouldn’t put it in my own system, we don’t build it. That simple idea has guided us for more than fifty years. It sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly... Read more...

The benefits of noise

Well, at least less noise. Lowering the noise floor doesn’t just make things quieter; it makes things bigger. It sounds counterintuitive, but reducing background noise expands perceived space. Microdetail lives... Read more...

Working hard at sounding easy

The best systems make the hardest work sound easy. There’s a particular quality I listen for when evaluating a system: ease. Not softness, not warmth, not politeness—ease. When an amplifier... Read more...

Streaming vs. engagement

Convenience has never been the same thing as engagement. Streaming has given us access to nearly every piece of recorded music ever made. It’s astonishing. With a few taps, you... Read more...

HiFi Family connections

High-end audio may be about sound, but it thrives on human connection. Every year, as Axpona approaches, I feel a familiar sense of anticipation. This year it takes place April... Read more...

The luxury of listening

To sit quietly and do nothing but listen to music has increasingly become a lost art. I sometimes wonder how many people still do it. Not as background. Not while... Read more...

The destination myth

It sounds trite to say the journey matters more than the destination, yet it keeps proving itself true. I’ve spent much of my life chasing mountaintops. The idea is always... Read more...

Uncovering the obvious

The strange thing about improvement is that it often reveals what was there all along. When a system reaches a certain level, changes stop sounding like changes. Instead, they feel... Read more...

When logic gets in the way

Some of the most important lessons I’ve learned came from being wrong. And I am right about that. :) As a designer, I’ve always trusted logic. If something adds circuitry... Read more...

Spirals

Progress in audio design rarely moves in a straight line. Early in my career, I believed that if we just took enough careful steps forward—measure, listen, refine—we’d eventually arrive at... Read more...

Is bigger better?

There was a time when bigger meant better in audio. I still remember the console stereo my dad bought in the ‘50s. Walnut veneer, glowing dials of the Stromberg Carlson... Read more...

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