Paul's Posts

People sometimes assume better equipment will automatically make every recording sound spectacular. I wish that were true, but it’s not how audio works. A playback system is ultimately a translator—it... Read more...

A trip to the clinic

As long as we're reminiscing about the past.... How many of you remember the McIntosh Laboratories amplifier clinics? Owners were invited to bring their equipment—McIntosh or otherwise—and have it tested... Read more...

Blown away

Yesterday I wrote about the old live-versus-recorded demonstrations where audiences struggled to tell which was which. Those shows captured the spirit of what the audio industry has always been chasing—the... Read more...

Live?

There was a time when the biggest brag in high-end audio was proving that a recording could be indistinguishable from the real thing. Back in the early days of stereo,... Read more...

Seaparates

The industry is steadily moving toward doing more in fewer boxes. Is that a good or bad thing? I am always watchful of trends and their sonic impacts. You? Integrated... Read more...

Sweet spots

Widening the sweet spot always costs something. I understand the desire. No one wants the magic to disappear the moment they shift in their chair. The physics are straightforward. A... Read more...

2 or 12?

Combining two-channel purity with home theater ambition is always a compromise, but not necessarily a bad one. Purists sometimes recoil at the idea, fearing sonic dilution. Yet for many music... Read more...

I don't like beets

Active loudspeakers promise simplicity, but they also make choices for you. I love the elegance of an active system. One cord to the speaker, a signal cable from your source,... Read more...

Narrowing the gap

Streaming has become the mainstay of modern listening, yet the humble CD (and the elegant vinyl) both still hold a quiet edge. I’m often asked if physical discs are dead,... Read more...

A matter of taste?

In yesterday's Post I shared with you a great question about high-end audio trade shows: "While at the Florida Expo...I was honestly amazed at how many very high-dollar systems —... Read more...

A pointed question

I received this question as an Ask Paul one but I thought it so on target and observant that it really needed to be more than just a video. Today,... Read more...

Can't measure everything

Measurements tell us a great deal—they are essential to our design process—but they don’t tell us everything. As a designer, I rely on data. We all do. Frequency response, distortion... Read more...

Luxury

A dedicated listening room is one of the greatest luxuries we audiophiles can have. Most of us share our systems with daily life. Living rooms double as family spaces. Furniture... Read more...

A hard truth

There is no full-range system without a subwoofer. And it’s not because full-range speakers can’t produce bass. They absolutely can. Our Aspen series, for example, delivers deep, articulate low frequencies... Read more...

The upgrade trap

It’s easier to tweak what we have than to admit we bought the wrong thing in the first place. I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. A... Read more...

The emotional test

If a system doesn’t move you, it doesn’t matter how good it measures. I have deep respect for measurements. Frequency response, distortion spectra, signal-to-noise ratio—they matter. A lot. They guide... Read more...

What we owe the recording

Every system is either revealing the truth or hiding it. A recording captures more than notes. It contains spatial cues, harmonic textures, dynamic contrasts, and the acoustic fingerprint of the... Read more...

You know what they say....

It’s tempting to equate size with performance—that was the standard line when I was a young man. Today, bigger speakers, bigger amplifiers, bigger transformers. Sometimes that works. More cone area... Read more...

Being selfish

If I wouldn’t put it in my own system, we don’t build it. That simple idea has guided us for more than fifty years. It sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly... Read more...

The benefits of noise

Well, at least less noise. Lowering the noise floor doesn’t just make things quieter; it makes things bigger. It sounds counterintuitive, but reducing background noise expands perceived space. Microdetail lives... Read more...

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