Paul's Posts

The classic armchair quarterback can be a valued member of any team. Their dispassionate views often add value to those actually making the plays. But making the plays, designing the... Read more...

Hope For The Future

There are many reasons why we launched Octave Records, but chief among them was to add to the small supply of high-resolution recordings as well as to help set standards of what... Read more...

Direction Matters

Direction matters in at least diodes, capacitors, one-way streets, and game plans, but it is to the last on this list we write about today. Being the impatient type I... Read more...

The dog gets it

When HiFi Family member Ed Spilka sent me the following note I just had to smile. How many times have I heard a similar story? Too many times to count.... Read more...

Last but not least

Following the past few day's posts about amplifier efficiency, Class AB biasing, and Class A biasing, let's wrap our little mini-series up with another topology most of us have not... Read more...

The Strange Case Of The A Class

If you’ve been keeping up with my rant on amplifier classes you’ll recall that in yesterday’s post I explained class AB operation. One of the takeaways from that explanation would be that... Read more...

Class Dismissed

When I was attending school there were no sweeter words than the headline of today’s post. Free at last. Let me start today’s topic with an apology. Because I disliked... Read more...

Amplifier efficiency

There seems to be a lot of misinformation swirling around an amplifier's efficiency. Maybe I can help by explaining a few things. First off, what do we mean by the... Read more...

Finding the golden nugget

The sweet flesh of a Bing cherry exists to support that which we throw away. The pit. From the cherry's perspective, it's all about the seed. From the eater's perspective,... Read more...

Getting it wrong

In 500 BC Heraclitus of Ephesus is credited with observing the only constant is change itself; an idea he expressed in the saying, "No man ever steps in the same... Read more...

A little dab

In 2008, authors Karl Johan Åström and Richard M.Murray wrote about feedback: "Simple causal reasoning about a feedback system is difficult because the first system influences the second and second... Read more...

Card decks

When we enter this life we're each dealt a hand of cards. Each hand has a different distribution of good ones and bad ones and it is up to us... Read more...

Big vs. small

I am struggling to think of a smaller company that's gotten better after being acquired by a bigger one. I cringe at the aftermath of Harmon's purchase of Infinity, and... Read more...

Road trip

Golden opportunities don't often come our way but, when they do, we should grab them. Life's short enough as it is. One of our HiFi Family members had emailed me... Read more...

Mastering

After more years than I can count I am still trying to figure out mastering. This might seem kind of odd considering our own in-house mastering engineer, Gus Skinas, is... Read more...

The soft effect

A very kind HiFi Family member generously sent me a few Sheffield Direct to Discs. These treasures are hard to find and I was extremely grateful to have received them.... Read more...

Attributions

Knowing what attributes are important and why can be valuable. For example, if we understand that AC voltage regulation is beneficial to performance, it behooves us to know why. Otherwise,... Read more...

Fundamentals first

I am often asked to weigh in on upcoming decisions for stereo system upgrades: Bi-wire or bi-amp, what to do with the room, which amps, speakers, power products? Where to... Read more...

Patching it up

In yesterday's post I shared with you the fact we've made some changes/modifications in Music Room II. I was quite surprised to find reactions to that news varying from outright... Read more...

Saturday morning

Depending on where you are in the world this post will arrive at your doorstep on Saturday morning. What a fine day to finally get off the old duff and... Read more...

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