Paul's Posts

Live sound isn’t always better. I went to a local nightclub recently to hear a band I’ve followed for years. The musicians were tight, and the energy of the room... Read more...

The art of placement

Want to know the single most powerful upgrade that costs nothing? Speaker placement. I can't count how many six-figure systems I've heard that sound "meh" because someone didn't quite know... Read more...

Good enough?

It’s one of the most common setup questions I get: “How much toe-in should I use?” Most speaker manuals will tell you to angle the speakers in until they’re pointing... Read more...

Pops and ticks

You drop the needle. The music begins—but not before a little crackle, a tick, maybe a faint whoosh as the stylus rides the groove. Some call it charm. Others call... Read more...

The argument

Spend any time around this hobby and you'll notice something: audiophiles love to argue. Tubes vs. solid-state. Vinyl vs. digital. Measurements vs. listening. Power cords, break-in, speaker placement, toe-in, toe-out—you... Read more...

In the beginning

Ask a group of audiophiles if power cables make a difference, and you’ll either get an enthusiastic yes, a skeptical shrug, or a heated argument. But around here, there’s no... Read more...

Just one

We spend our audiophile lives chasing perfect stereo. Two speakers. A soundstage. Depth, width, placement, air. When it’s right, it’s magic—the illusion of a real performance in front of you.... Read more...

Hard to ignore

We spend so much time picking the right speakers, the right amp, the perfect DAC or turntable. And then we drop it all into a room that doesn’t care what... Read more...

First steps

Most of the time, your amp isn’t working hard. Even when you’re really into it—volume up, speakers cooking—you’re probably only using a watt or two. Maybe less. The average listening... Read more...

Life in a vacuum

In a world of vanishing distortion and near-perfect specs, tubes shouldn’t still matter. But they do. There’s something unmistakable about a great tube design. The way it handles space, the... Read more...

The grill

It's one of those little choices we all face when setting up a system: leave the grilles on, or take them off? When we were designing the Aspen speakers, this... Read more...

Looks are deceiving

It’s easy to look at a modest-sized speaker and assume it can’t throw a big stage. But size alone doesn’t determine scale. The Aspen speakers are a perfect example of... Read more...

Audio myth

I’ve been doing this long enough to know better than to dismiss what people hear. If someone tells me their new DAC sounded harsh out of the box, and that... Read more...

Getting close

Most of us listen from across the room. We lean back, center ourselves between the speakers, and let the system open up in front of us. That’s far-field listening—where distance... Read more...

Planars

I love planar magnetic headphones. Not as a replacement for loudspeakers—far from it—but as tools. They’ve become essential to my work in the studio, especially when I need to zoom... Read more...

Consoles

And while we're ruminating about history… Before the stack of silver boxes. Before the separate preamp and power amp, the racks of glowing tubes, the towering planar speakers and coils... Read more...

OTL amps

I love history. There’s a particular magic in the simplicity of a direct path—whether it’s a live microphone feed straight to the control room, or the cleanest signal from source... Read more...

Make someone happy

If you’ve been in this hobby for any length of time, you’ve probably got a closet—or a shelf—full of older gear. Maybe it’s a classic preamp that’s seen better days.... Read more...

Small works too

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a full-range loudspeaker. A proper pair of floorstanders—like the Aspen FR30s or FR20s—can deliver scale, weight, and dimensionality that just wraps you in... Read more...

The light switch

I’ve noticed something over the years—both in my own habits and in conversations with others. We spend a lot of time chasing upgrades, swapping cables, moving speakers half an inch... Read more...

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