Paul's Posts

Engineers work with compromise because there are no design projects without limitations. Even the most exotic projects run up against the laws of physics from time to time. Which is... Read more...

Approval

Stepping outside our comfort zone is sometimes difficult. We've heard of a new way of doing something, or perhaps a new piece of gear, tweak, method, or technology. We often... Read more...

Quality vs. content

I don't listen to many bad recordings, even if the musical content's great. It was once a quality vs. content issue because bad recordings were made worse while good recordings... Read more...

Our differences

I am pretty certain we don't agree. We have our differences, right? We've differing tastes in food, music, politics, cars, travel, and the list is endless. And yet, we're all... Read more...

Steam power

I love the term "running out of steam". It's an obvious reference to the beginnings of the industrial age where our world transitioned from animal power to steam power. When... Read more...

Secret ingredients

You cannot light a sheep on fire. If that particular endeavor happened to be on your bucket list, then I apologize for ruining your day and shortening your list. The... Read more...

Listening to power supplies

A power supply converts the AC wall voltage into something useful for our audio equipment—typically DC. That conversion process of AC to DC sounds simple enough that we might imagine... Read more...

Respect

Respect is what Aretha Franklin sang about, and what much of today's noisy chatter ignores. When we respect the experiences of others and give them the courtesy of listening with... Read more...

Change of vantage

Music Room Two, with its magnificent Infinity IRS V, BHK monoblocks, multiple P20 Power Plants, BHK preamp, DirectStream DAC, and Stellar Phono is one of the most revealing systems I... Read more...

Breaking the chain

Our Hi-Fi systems remind me of a chain where each component is a link and together we get music. Each link in the Hi-Fi chain contributes to the whole. If... Read more...

Rising tides

When the 6th largest economy in the world, California, raises automobile emissions standards the rest of the world is forced to go along and we all benefit from cleaner air.... Read more...

Squandering skills

What few maths skills I once possessed rusted away at the hands of a calculator. And similarily, I used to be a whiz at turntable setup, but now it all... Read more...

Feels wrong

I remember how proud I was upon learning the trick of screwing a stubborn lid onto a jar. Though it feels wrong, my father counseled, you first unscrew the lid... Read more...

Pediophobia

Remember Chucky the scary clown? In the 1988 movie Child's Play, film producers took advantage of a particular phobia that more than a few people have. It's known as Pediophobia... Read more...

Ho, Ho, Ho

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from your Hi-Fi Family. I thought that perhaps given this day of family and good cheer, I would simply write a short note of thanks... Read more...

Intimidating comments

Last month we had 56,080 unique visitors to our forums and of those, 45,463 were newcomers. Those same viewers collectively read parts of (or all of) 371,443 pages. That's a... Read more...

Active battles passive

There's always strong debate when it comes to AC power. One camp believes a passive collection of coils, caps (and sometimes) exotic materials does a better job with delivering AC... Read more...

4-channel audio

There's a lot of information in a stereo recording that some systems don't reproduce well. In fact, most systems keep the room cues and ambiance locked away in our recordings.... Read more...

The sound of class A

I am often asked what's the difference in sound between bias schemes like Class A and Class AB? I understand the motivation of placing labels on circuits when making a... Read more...

Wrong side up

If you look at a globe of the Earth you'll note that New Zealand is upside down from where we live. So, it was with great relief that we didn't... Read more...

Country/Region

Country/Region