Paul's Posts

I'm sure you've heard the joke. "Audiophiles buy music to hear their HiFi systems." And sure, there's an element of truth to this: that great recording that drops jaws, the... Read more...

Being in the room

I often describe the desired experience of high end audio as one of live—as if the musicians were captured live. One of our HiFi Family members pointed out a problem... Read more...

Deviating from the script

For a musician to play precisely what Beethoven or Mozart penned takes years of practice. And even then, not everyone can reach that lofty goal. But it is the rare few... Read more...

In or out

One of the great audiophile mysteries seems to revolve around how much to toe-in or out your loudspeakers. I've seen everything from no toe-in to speakers aimed like headphones. How... Read more...

Nothing is the same

Every day is new. It might seem the same: get up, breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed. But that sameness is just an illusion. Each and every... Read more...

Hear the difference

I have, on occasion, riffed on the importance of mixing and the equipment it is performed on. After a recording's been made the next step is to mix that recording. Because... Read more...

It might seem a contradiction...

In all of our amplification products such as power amps and preamps we work hard at extending their bandwidth to way outside the limits of human hearing. And, on the... Read more...

Pretty faces

We all love a pretty face. Pretty faces can take any number of forms, like for example, the front panel of a piece of stereo gear. You're either attracted or... Read more...

The shame of Spotify

I had to smile. One of our customers reluctantly reached out to me with a problem and had to admit he was a Spotify listener. He was worried about how... Read more...

Long or short

As anyone having spent time in our music rooms knows, we are fans of short speaker cables and long interconnects for hooking up the preamp to the amplifier. Of course,... Read more...

Just like old times

*I am writing this a day earlier than you are reading this. Today, Thursday the 13th, finds us back again in Chicago on setup day at the Axpona show. It's... Read more...

How could it not?

One of the most common questions I am asked to answer is why the same music/recording sounds so different on vinyl as opposed to digital. Over the years I have... Read more...

Homemade Cables

Fatter wire sounds fuller, skinnier wire sounds thin, shielded wire sounds cleaner but veiled, stranded wire sounds one way and solid core thicker wire sounds yet another. These findings were... Read more...

Upgrade or bi-wire?

If you have a pair of speaker cables that are perhaps a bit lacking, is it better to spend the money upgrading them or try and use what you have in... Read more...

Today's the day

Today, Monday April 10th, is the official launch day of my new book, The Aurora Project. It's been nearly 15 years in the making. For those of you that asked,... Read more...

Preamp headroom

Headroom is the amount of space between the highest level of an audio signal and the maximum level that the system can handle without distortion or clipping. When we think about... Read more...

GIGO

Garbage In, Garbage Out. That acronym is used in the computer industry to mean if you feed the computer garbage data, that's what it'll spit out. But GIGO can also... Read more...

Do it yourself

Back in the early 1970s there were very few people I knew without a pair of speakers, a receiver, a turntable. and a stack of records either on the floor or lining... Read more...

Is one enough?

I have long been an advocate of stereo subwoofers: one for the left and one for the right. Today, I am a bit more cautious when making such a recommendation.... Read more...

Point of perspective

Having been raised on Fahrenheit, feet, and inches, it's a challenge to know how hot or cold something is in centigrade. 40 C seems like winter. Much of how we... Read more...

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