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Looks can be deceiving
The popularized term for not wanting to face hard facts is to bury your head in the sand as an ostrich does. Only, the myth that these big birds bury...
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Defining high-end
It's easy enough to bandy about the term high-end audio. Right? This is high-end, this is mid-fi, this is low-brow stuff. But, as easy as it might be to point...
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Power the Performers
There are very few add ons to our stereo systems that aren't double-edged swords—they help and hurt at the same time. I remember the first time I played around with...
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The death of tradeshows?
With the recent cancellation of the 2020 AXPONA show, coupled with all the other cancellations, it's clear we'll not be getting together to play with our stereo systems en masse....
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The color of music
I often think of music in shades and hues: a light amber sheen from the delicate bowings of a string section, the fat gold honeypot of the double bases, the...
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Narrowing focus
When problems arise in our stereo systems we're often at wit's end to resolve them. I cannot tell you the number of exasperated calls and emails I have received from...
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Struttin'
Who doesn't like to strut their stuff? I remember well my first acceptably cool car, a '55 Chevy Bel Air. True, it was a 4-door and that wasn't as cool...
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Lists
I don't know about you, but I have multiple lists: long term, mid term, short term goals; gotta dos, wanna dos, hope to dos, nice to dos. Lists of lists....
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Broad to specific
If you want to make fennel salad you need to balance its flavor by adding a little acid. Armed with this broad knowledge, a cornucopia of acid types opens up...
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Design partnerships
There are many fine examples of partnerships—situations where more than one person, step or process is needed for best results. Take cooking as an example. We can single-handedly follow perfectly...
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Connection rituals
Music somehow sounds closer to me if I am the one removing the album from its jacket, cleaning the disc, placing the needle in the groove. In that ritual, there's...
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An easy better
One of the pitfalls of audio testing is loudness between devices under test. One must be scrupulously careful to gain match anything you're comparing to. If a new amplifier, even...
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Up or down?
There are HiFi systems that bring me up. They energize me, fill me with a desire to hear more and encourage upward volume level nudges. And then there are the...
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Competition
I was never good at sports nor do I have any interest in watching others play it. Which is perhaps why the notion of competition eludes me. Since the day...
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Palpable sound
When an illusion is real enough it feels as if we might be able to fondle it. Palpable. That's what we strive for in our voicings of products, sound so...
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If it walks like a…
When we think of products in terms of functionality they're all somewhat the same. DACs convert digital to analog, power amps drive speakers, preamps control the level. But, that's often...
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Loud voices
The loudest voices get all the attention. Yet, softer's likely the better path to follow. That is if you're interested in traveling the road of a reasoned approach. From politicians...
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Emotional tuning
I was attempting to describe to a good friend outside our industry what we do in engineering. It was a strange conversation explaining how, through materials, design choices, and component...
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My system's temperament
Fortunately, my music system isn't temperamental, but it certainly has a personality all unto its own. A temperament. Now that I have to wait until the evening hours to sneak...
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Does music speak to us?
*Chapter 30 of Resurrection is now available to read here. This is the last of the chapters. Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek. Some of the music I listen to...
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