Paul's Posts

Bluetooth has come a long way. Whether it's gone far enough to satisfy us serious listeners is a different question. Anyone who remembers the early days — when Bluetooth speakers... Read more...

Choosing the right knob

When the preamp and the DAC both have volume controls, only one of them should actually be doing the work. This question comes up more often than you'd think. Many... Read more...

Bad sources

High-end audio means nothing if the recording is bad. Everything our gear does, it does in service of what's on the master. We spend a lot of time in our... Read more...

Just because it's served on a silver platter...

Not every SACD lives up to the silver disc on the cover. The format gives the recording a bigger window — but only the recording itself decides what's worth looking... Read more...

The loudness wars

Inconsistent audio levels on podcasts and streamed content are maddening. And worse? Commercials that are louder than the content. Whatever marketing genius that dreamed that scam up should be ashamed.... Read more...

Insurance

If you're unable to take care of your system's power through a Power Plant AC regenerator, then plugging straight into the wall often sounds best. Then a thunderstorm rolls through... Read more...

Spin cycle

Is 45 RPM Really Better? 45 RPM gives the cutting engineer more room to work with — and a 33 LP gives the listener more music. Both are real advantages,... Read more...

The same but different

Two DACs using the same off-the-shelf chip can sound completely different and... two DACs using completely different chips can sound nearly identical. The DAC chip (or technology) is but one... Read more...

Pure bliss

There's a comforting piece of audiophile folklore that says most amplifiers run in pure Class A at low listening levels. It's rarely true. A pure Class A amplifier keeps its... Read more...

Applause please

Two amplifiers can drive the same speakers in the same room and produce wildly different soundstages. The difference isn't power. It's character. Anyone who's auditioned a few power amps in... Read more...

Look up

Like obedient audiophiles, we obsess over side walls yet almost always forget the ceiling exists. Sound doesn't share our priorities. Ceiling acoustics matter as much as the side walls and... Read more...

In or out?

A recording captures the precise back-and-forth motion of air at the microphone. The loudspeaker should precisely reproduce that back-and-forth motion. But what happens if you reverse the plus and minus... Read more...

Ihe Inside scoop

I trust that a great speaker cable feeds your loudspeaker. That said, do you ever think about the cable inside? Once connected to the amplifier, the signal enters a few... Read more...

Audio warriors?

For years, recording and mastering engineers have crushed the dynamic range out of music. Can AI put any of it back? The loudness wars have been a curse on recorded... Read more...

Active vs. passive

For decades, the audiophile orthodoxy said linear (passive) power supplies sound better and switch-mode supplies were for laptops and cell phones. But times and technologies change for the better. A... Read more...

Point of view

A musician on stage hears the music from inside the band. The rest of us hear it from out in the audience. The two perspectives sound nothing alike, and our... Read more...

Holy Grilles!

Speaker grilles aren't acoustically neutral. They were designed to do an aesthetic job, and the question of whether to leave them on or take them off has a real answer... Read more...

Winners and losers

The biggest single variable in your audio system isn't your gear. It's the room you put it in. Change the room and you change everything. We've covered this many times... Read more...

Stop the theft!

Soundstage isn't built in the DAC. It's already in the recording — the DAC's only job is to get out of its own way. A stereo recording carries spatial information... Read more...

Dynamics!

A system that compresses dynamics (and most do to some extent) doesn't just reduce loudness contrast — it removes the emotional impact from the music itself. Dynamic range is the... Read more...

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