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What sways you?
My eyes light up when I get the chance to audition a new piece of kit or circuit concept that enhances the performance of my system. I don't initially focus on...
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Loud and soft
With all the noise on the internet it sure is hard to be heard using the millions of YouTube channels, blogs, websites, forums, news outlets, and online magazines. In an effort...
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Achieving separation
Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in the art of Hi Fi is how the separation of instruments and voices is manipulated from inside an electronic circuit. There is certainly no...
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Rat's nest
The back of my HiFi system's rack looks like the proverbial rat's nest of cables and cords. It's definitely not something I am proud of but I will own up...
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Simply an opinion
A recent finger wagging poster on YouTube wrote the following: "Everything that's done in the name of hifi should be done with 1: workings 2: stated engineering facts and specifications...
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High octane
I drive an electric car so my experience at the gas pumps is rather limited. That said, I do notice the signs advertising the various prices for different qualities of...
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Emotions meter
Here's an idea. Because we don't have much in the way of equipment to measure the emotional connection of music, we could come up with some innovative tools. For example,...
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All-in-one
If we buy the story that designers know best how to make perfect audio equipment, why is it few among us would purchase an all-in-one system? Could it be the...
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Following the rules
If you follow the rules for crossing the street at a crosswalk, you should be safe unless someone else breaks the rules and mows you down. Their fault. Your loss. I...
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FBI
I suppose that with age comes an OK'ness with being comfortable in one's own skin. Take, for example, how a piece of malicious SPAM could make my day. Perusing through...
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Newsflash
95% of my daily life is made up of the ordinary day to day routine. That's hardly newsworthy. And that's the thing about news. We do not report on the...
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Like minded opinions
I value more the opinions of people I am familiar with and trust. A stranger wearing earbuds, telling me it's the best sound they've ever heard, probably isn't going to...
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HMV
More than 100 years ago, at London's 363 Oxford Street, a record shop opened with an interesting title. His Master's Voice. For years, that shop was an iconic staple until its closure in 2019....
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The sunk cost myth
I am guessing all of us have had to deal with dead end streets. We go down a hopeful road investing our time, funds, hopes, and dreams only to wind up realizing...
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Mistakes and all
One of the joys of live recording and performing are all the mistakes and recoveries. They bring life to the stage. When an artist comes to record at Octave Record's...
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Your first time
I still remember the time and place I first heard Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Peppers. These are indelibly etched in my head because these musical works were unlike...
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Musical chairs
In yesterday's post, I discussed the two main methods of speaker setup: straight ahead and far and wide. There is another, simpler, way of changing the systems presentation: that is...
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Chocolate or vanilla?
When setting up your stereo speakers there are two main approaches (and a handful of exotic different ones): straight ahead or far and wide. The straight ahead method is what most...
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The investigator
One the easiest ways to add credibility to a point you're trying to make is to cite the work of "an investigator". The investigator doesn't have to be real. He could...
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What are you looking at?
Find a great piece of music. Turn down the lights. Close your eyes, and let the music take you somewhere. What a treat! For many of us, we have the earned...
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