Paul's Posts

Some of the very best recordings I love are standard resolution CD quality and the opposite is also true. Some of the worst are high resolution. This means, of course,... Read more...

Madman Muntz

One of our newest writers for Copper Magazine is Ray Chelstowski, the former publisher for Rolling Stone Magazine. In his latest article, Eight-Tracks: Taking The Plunge, he reminisces of 8-Track... Read more...

Building your own

When I was 15 years old I built my own HiFi system. I swear it sounded better than anything else I had ever heard. I wonder how much of that... Read more...

Building up the chain

I think it's instructive to visualize the components in our systems as links in a chain. But, instead of the standard model of a chain, where each link is identical... Read more...

What to first turn to

When evaluating a new piece of gear—perhaps that new Power Plant, DAC, cable, or speaker—what's the first track of music you turn to? Is it always the same? Does it... Read more...

Galvanic isolation

As we talk more of the virtues of galvanic isolation in digital audio, perhaps it's of value to take a moment out of our busy day to understand just what... Read more...

Rip or play?

As we move closer to releasing for beta this September the new SACD Transport, there comes again talk of the virtues of playing discs relative to ripping and/or streaming. Which... Read more...

Bad Friday

For those YouTube visitors keeping up with our attempts to harvest our first big crop of Colorado peaches, consider this a sad update. First, a little backstory. A few years... Read more...

Stepping out on a limb

While the idea of stepping out on a limb may be frightening it's often beneficial as that's where the fruit is. We have various names for stepping outside of our... Read more...

Nail biting

When we start a design process for a new product there's always a lot of high hopes and nail biting. Investing as much in the design as we do, it's... Read more...

Room, speaker, recording, amp?

One of the great mysteries to me has been compression of peaks on big orchestral pieces. The louder the orchestra plays the more the character of the music changes to... Read more...

Fundamental differences

A planar ribbon is fundamentally different than an electrostat and, because of that, they sound quite different too. In both types of drivers, we start with the same sort of... Read more...

What makes a reference track?

In yesterday's post, I offered an extended list of my reference tracks. Some of you may have noticed that not all tracks are great recordings. What gives? Diversity. Whether you're... Read more...

Paul's Picks updated

For several years now, my list of favorites has made its way around the internet and shared by many. That's great. I thought perhaps it's time to update and extend... Read more...

Panel speakers

It's been 23 years since I owned a reference level box speaker. Back then it was a pair of Revels that I had built a room around. They were very... Read more...

I’m Not Convinced

Boy oh boy, my simple post about our lunchtime conversation concerning cable elevators has once again let all the worms out of the can. Of course, the controversy is to be expected.... Read more...

Sonic Signatures

If the goal of a high-end audio system is to have no sonic signature—to be as neutral as possible—then why do we insist on tailoring our systems to our likes... Read more...

If a cable sings in the woods…

I had to smile while reading this comment to a recent video: "I agree with most you say....except about the wires and power cables....but I still subscribe and like! so... Read more...

Cable elevators

Over lunch with engineer Darren Meyers we got to talking about systems and when it's time to turn to cable elevators for improvements. Cable elevators get the speaker cables off... Read more...

Capturing soul

Listening to a beautiful piece of music, Variations on One String on a Theme By Rossini: Moses Fantasie - Janos Starker - Janos Starker: Virtuoso Music for Cello, on Qobuz... Read more...

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