Paul's Posts

Creating a complex product that features an elegant simplicity—like an iPhone—is exponentially more difficult than building an elegantly simple, but basic product. To the user, the two might seem similar but... Read more...

So....

Before we get started there are two housekeeping items to attend to. First, apologies for yesterday's long post. Second, as some correctly pointed out, a byte is technically 8 bits... Read more...

Bits vs. bytes

Want to cross your eyes this morning? There's always a lot of questions when it comes to how we at Octave Records make our recordings. Why? Because we don't do what... Read more...

Dealing with the good and the bad

One of my greatest life lessons is to be good with the bad. By that I mean getting not only comfortable with my weaknesses, but actually embracing them as strengths. As a... Read more...

Scientific versus purist

One definition of distortion would be to say any deviation whatsoever of the original audio signal. If the output of our amplifier is identical in every respect to its input then... Read more...

Sub ins

In yesterday's post, Sub outs, I fear I got so involved in the discussion as to completely ignore a long standing rule that the best way to connect a subwoofer... Read more...

Sub outs

If you're running a subwoofer to help achieve a truly full range sound, it might make sense to feed it with a dedicated subwoofer output on your preamp. But, there's a s problem. A... Read more...

Twin approaches

In a prior post I pointed out that no one parameter like distortion or timing is more important than the others (assuming a reasonable level for all parameters). That concept is... Read more...

So real you can...

Defining something we hear as "so real you can touch it" is the perfect description of what we all hope for in our high-end audio systems. And what parameters impact the... Read more...

Deniers and skeptics

I was recently called out for using the term Deniers as a way of referring to those who scoff at the notion cables matter. The reader said the term is pejorative and suggested... Read more...

Better or the same?

One of the things I dearly love about our community is the questions I get asked. They are always so interesting. Would transcoding a person's MP3 library to DSD be a... Read more...

Over the top

If the majority of people listening to music don't care about quality why would the high end audio market make sense? After all, wouldn't we have a bigger marketplace if... Read more...

Upside down amps

A Stellar M1200 power amplifier sounds different when placed upside down. Now that's a rather silly statement, right? Not so fast. Consider for a moment the difference in sound quality... Read more...

Sonic penalties

When there's cake to be had we want to eat it. Features and services? We want those too just not with any added sonic penalties. Take for example the idea... Read more...

Badmouthing AES/EBU

A few days ago I wrote that in multiple listening tests we've found that there's no sonic advantage to using the XLR AES/EBU inputs on a DAC rather than the... Read more...

Mount Massive

Big sonic improvements are rare. Smaller improvements feel big and I am the first to jump up and down with excitement when I hear a layer of the sonic onion peel... Read more...

Being best

My sometimes (often) over exuberance at how something sounds or performs is probably something I'll never get over. I like getting excited and I thrive on being part of something that... Read more...

Coax vs. USB

One question that comes up a lot about the new AirLens is it's lack of a USB output. To explain, the AirLens has two galvanically isolated outputs to feed your... Read more...

The AirLens

It's never easy to develop, test, manufacture, and get to market a product. Even the simplest of products go through an extraordinary amount of hoopla to get from the twinkle... Read more...

The well traveled road

It's never a clear and easy choice to figure out what next to upgrade to. On the one hand, DACs and digital are the go to upgrade because it feels like... Read more...

Country/Region

Country/Region