Archive for 'Paul’s Posts'
Why I design with solid state exclusively
It may sound funny, the headline of this post. I love the sound of tubes, have owned tons of tube equipment and yet – I have never designed a tube piece ever. And add to that [...]
A bias right in the middle
How boring if you’re biased right in the middle eh? You don’t lean to the left or the right, you’re just middle of the road for everything – as if you don’t actually have an opinion. [...]
Best of both worlds
If you’ve managed to wade through this series of posts on tubes vs. transistors you’d know that while there are indeed fundamental differences between tubes and transistors that by themselves have a major impact on the [...]
Odd or even?
No doubt you’ve heard terms like class A, push pull, , SET, full complimentary, single ended etc. These terms all refer to how we use an amplification device rather than the amplification device itself (like a tube [...]
Solid state vs. fields
This post will most likely stand the hair up on the back of EE necks because it’ll be riddled with inaccuracies I will use to make a point about why devices sound differently in audio circuits. [...]
High voltage and linearity
In yesterday’s post we covered the fundamental differences between tubes and transistors and one of those we’re interested in is linearity. Tubes and transistors are only partially linear devices – which means they will not always [...]
The fundamental differences between tubes and transistors
In yesterday’s post we covered how the mysterious crystals used to make radio receivers first were spun off to the vacuum tube and later rediscovered to become transistors. Today let’s cover some of the fundamental differences [...]
From crystal radios to supercomputers
In yesterday’s post covering the invention of the vacuum tube and its principals of operation we learned that small crystals were used as the basis for radio receivers and that inventor Lee De Forest came up [...]
The Audion
This is the first post in our series on Tubes vs. Transistors. I’ll do my best to keep this fun, informative, not uber technical and to the point so we can all have something to look [...]
Tubes vs. transistors
Now there’s a hot subject for you, one that’s been debated for as many years as the two have coexisted in the world of high-end audio. First let me suggest that there can be no debate [...]
When is less more?
Good friend Bill Low, CEO of Audioquest Cables, sent me a note answering the question about purity and perfection in audio. “The answer seems obvious … Do No Harm … meaning that the inevitable compromises required [...]
The myth of the asynchronous DAC
Synchronous and asynchronous are two buzz words manufacturers realize gets people’s attention. We may not understand what they mean but we’ve figured out asynchronous is better than being synchronous. So a new class of DAC has [...]
The personality of equipment
Have you ever noticed that many dogs resemble their owners? I think the same is true for equipment and the personality of the designs. In our hand-crafted industry of the high-end many designs bear the sonic [...]
How do you describe truffle fries?
The language an artist uses to describe her work is by necessity vague and intentionally non-specific. How else could she describe the feeling of the work? The language a programmer uses to describe her work is [...]
In the garden of Eden
In the late 1960′s the way music was played over the airwaves was going through a major shift, much like it is today. For many years only songs of less than about 4 minutes were ever [...]
Pots in a box
In the early 70′s Stan (The “S” in PS) and I only made phono preamplifiers. They had no controls, just a turntable input and a set of RCA outputs. Designed to go into the auxiliary inputs [...]
How to explain the high-end
“The justification for a great music system is the same as for a great instrument: It makes possible a musical experience that cannot be duplicated by lesser means” My friend Jim McCullough who owns the Cello [...]
Should we support hoarding?
Yahoo is suing Facebook for violating some of its patents for technologies it both uses and doesn’t use. Yahoo waited years to take this action and it wasn’t until Facebook announced its IPO that they went [...]
It’s obvious
Ever notice how something is obvious only after someone points it out to you? In our post on Software Jitter I got several emails from folks telling me “that’s an obvious distortion path”. True enough but [...]
The death of the album?
Dave Paananen, our director of engineering, asked “Isn’t it obvious the need for an album or CD is rapidly becoming unnecessary?” At first I dismissed the thought, so ingrained is the notion of an artist creating [...]
Software jitter
Just when we thought we had it all figured out along comes a new form of distortion to tackle: software jitter. The culprit here is, unfortunately, a very necessary component in the chain of digital audio [...]
When it’s just good enough
Alan Sircom, writing in the April issue of Hi Fi Plus magazine, suggests that the problem with getting newcomers into the high-end is they already find their means of reproducing music “good enough” – so why [...]
It’s gotta happen in 3 minutes!
We wanted to be able to explain how a Power Plant regenerator works in less than 3 minutes to people who had zero technical knowledge. I didn’t want an ad or a fluff piece, but something [...]
Why everything matters in today’s high-end systems
In 1973 when we first started PS Audio everything mattered to the sound quality path: types of capacitors, types of transistors, resistors, circuit topology, connectors, power supplies, chassis builds and so on. Then we moved to [...]
Here’s what Apple is going to do next
Fundamentally change the form factor of their mobile devices from backlit LCD to see-through OLED. How do I know that? Because it’s the obvious thing to do to solve a basic irritation. Let me give you [...]
The problem with good ideas
There are just too many. I have lots of them especially when it comes to new products and new directions for our industry – and I am sure many of you reading this post have them [...]
Enjoying it all
In response to our little series on purity and musical truth one of our Australian readers posted this comment: “It’s all about enjoyment. I have listened to a number of systems that are very detailed and [...]
Opening up an age old debate
Several of you have written me suggesting the issue we’ve been discussing on purity has more to do with the playback equipment than the way it was recorded. I think it’s more complicated than that. There [...]
How to prove a point
I am convinced Bob Carver is a crazy genius. He’s given more to our industry than most and always surprises and delights with his innovative approach. His tiny cube amplifier, his miniature room shaking subwoofers and [...]
Is purity a myth?
In yesterday’s post Are vinyl records filters I think we struck a nerve. In that post I pointed out that many of us find vinyl records to sound more musical than a digital recording – yet most [...]
Are vinyl records filters?
Have you ever pondered the fact that many new vinyl releases today actually are recorded, mixed and mastered digitally before being transferred to vinyl? Because many studios today are digital based it’s easier for musicians to [...]
The Hi Fi season
As spring hits and summers is nearing hi fi manufacturers and dealers have to start figuring out how they will make it though the long hot summer of the hi fi season. Sales of hi fi [...]
If it’s not personal is it high-end?
Most high-end audio systems are very personal because they are hand assembled by the owner. Rarely are any two alike and that’s kind of what makes this sport fun. But if dealers sold pre-assembled “cookie cutter” [...]
What’s wrong with the two magazines?
In yesterday’s post Separating the wheat from the chaff, I mentioned that the retailer is the perfect sorting house – choosing and selling only those products that perfectly reflect the dealer’s brand promise and makes it [...]
How to separate wheat from chaff
For those non-farmers out there (like me) the wheat is the good part and the chaff is the throw away not worthy of eating. So if we were ever to set up some certification standards for [...]
To see or not to see
…that is the question from a great article just published on our magazine PS Tracks. Lawrence Schenbeck, our resident musicologist and fellow Audiophile, writes a wonderful thought piece about Blu Ray opening up the possibility of [...]
Why should I have to pay?
On the PS Community Forums we’ve been discussing a new product to serve music and how that product gained some features that not everyone agrees with: specifically a headphone amplifier. The question asked is “why should [...]
Here’s a whacky idea
We’ve been focusing on the importance of the room to a stereo system over the past couple of days. Let’s dive a little deeper. Nelson Pass designed an interesting product called the Shadow a while ago. [...]
Where did they all go?
Yesterday’s post about rooms and loudspeakers sparked a lot of questions about what diffusors to use and how to place them. Funny thing is, there’s really no good answer any more. I used to advocate RPG diffusors [...]
You might find this a bit shocking …..
Good speakers in a bad room won’t sound as good as bad speakers in a good room. Sorry, I know that’s perhaps not something you want to read. We spend a lot of time and money [...]
Is anything ever simple?
A great writer once said in a note to his friend: “I apologize for the long letter. I didn’t have time to write you a shorter one.” That note was from someone who commented on the [...]
What’s the value when it’s free?
Free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it: nothing. But is that true? If I recommend a technique to help your high-end system sound better and it works for you, what was that worth? [...]
How you can tell a servo sub from a slug
There are not many subwoofers out there that have servos running them and that’s a shame. A servo is like a little microphone placed right on the woofer that listens to what the woofer is doing, [...]
Pet peeves and credibility
I get a lot of SPAM in my inbox. When I go to unsubscribe I sometimes get a notice that my request will be processed in 24 to 48 hours. This implies there is some human [...]
Beware the mattress police
Yesterday’s post Perfectly Legal had a few of you scratching your heads about being law breakers. If you rip a CD and then sell it or give it away, technically you should delete the stored copy as [...]
Perfectly legal?
If you own a CD it is perfectly legal to sell that CD. It’s your property. It is also perfectly legal for you to make a copy of that CD for your own use on your [...]
Personality of vinyl
Hard to imagine that a piece of plastic has a personality but if you play vinyl records, each is an individual separate and distinct from all others. Vinyl personalities depend on the pressing, the number of [...]
Do you qualify as an Audiophile?
I was on the phone with our marketing company Creativello in Seattle and trying to explain what it’s like to be an Audiophile: what moves us, what motivates us, what really floats our boats. When I got [...]
Instant feedback
Back in “the day” a manufacturer would launch a new product to waiting Audiophiles and the first reviews of it would generally start to emerge perhaps 6 months later. In the meantime, many units were sold [...]
Ever notice how easy it is to say no?
When someone presents an idea it’s really easy to reject that idea and cite examples of why it won’t work. It’s really hard to do the opposite. One’s easy, the other requires work because to be [...]
A practical example
Much of the feedback on this subject centered around the name “high-end” and the general feeling the name’s a turn off because it equates to “high-priced” in people’s minds and doesn’t really describe the concept. I [...]
Shouting out loud
Once we have all the elements to grow the high-end community in place: brand, certification and access then we need to get the word out and watch it grow. This process may be best suited by [...]
Gaining access
I’ve posted about this before: there simply aren’t any good places to go to find pre-packaged entry or mid level high-end audio products. That’s a mistake. If we’ve gone to all the trouble to create a [...]
Identify and certify
Step 2 in building a growing high-end audio community is to identify, qualify and certify a group of products giving people permission to purchase. In the first step we created a simple understandable brand around high-end audio [...]
Building the high-end brand
The high-end doesn’t really have a brand or a neat way to bundle up its concept and present the package to someone interested. That’s a problem. For the process of engaging a new community of high-end [...]
4 steps to success
Since no one else in the high-end seems to have a clue of how to bring in new people, let me suggest a path towards success in this venture and perhaps someone reading this will have [...]
Why more is better
Audiophiles have a small close knit community. Why would we care if it gets smaller or bigger? Because small means fewer options for equipment, new technology and better recordings that brings us closer to the music [...]
Hi Fi generations
Yesterday we asked the question: why aren’t more new people getting involved with the high-end? I rejected a popular notion that the youth of today are different and do not seek quality. Today let’s remember how [...]
Bring in the new
If you read any of the magazines or blogs in our industry you’re probably aware that the high-end isn’t attracting a lot of newbies to the field. Why is that? I read a lot of opinions [...]
Do you think some posts are too long?
Yesterday’s post was long and several of you asked if I couldn’t make one shorter. [...]
Art on the internet
In my post Getting what you bargained for I talked about the rise of the second tier dealers who offer low prices instead of what the neighborhood retailer provided and how that’s changed the face of [...]
Status symbols
I’ve been noodling on a comment made a few weeks ago that high-end audio is mostly a status symbol owned by wealthy people who do not care about audio or music. I must say I find [...]
Do you have a life jacket ready?
In yesterday’s post we we lamented the shift away from the neighborhood dealer who provided our advice, information, opinions and service. There are a number of reasons why this has taken place and one we’ve not [...]
Getting what you bargained for
In our comments section of PS Tracks magazine I mentioned how we in the high-end got what we bargained for when we chose the lowest price over service and advice. I thought it would make a good [...]
Surprise and delight
Yesterday’s post Good enough raised the hair on a few people’s necks wondering why I had apparently thrown in the towel and accepted having to make products and services that were just good enough. I must [...]
Good enough
When is something good enough? I think the answer is complicated but if we boil it down to two simple measurements it becomes easier to answer: perfection level and expectation level. The perfection level measurement is, [...]
Redo your assumptions
We just released some new software that changed the sound of our PerfectWave DAC. As is normal there’s debate on whether or not those changes are better or worse. For me there’s no question they are [...]
A rose is a rose……
There’s increasing evidence that rhymes, poems, meter and cadence in stories were created not because they are beautiful but because they helped us keep the words straight before the advent of written language. It is how [...]
Why bad loudspeakers are ok
For the last two days we’ve been focusing on loudspeakers. We covered how they are anything but flat and why that’s not necessarily a bad thing – something good loudspeaker designers can use to their advantage [...]
Maybe flat isn’t good
Yesterday’s post about the gross inaccuracies of loudspeakers relative to the perfection of electronics raised the hair on a few people’s necks. So let me add to that. It isn’t clear that we even want our loudspeakers to [...]
It’s worth repeating
Why is it we are forgiving and tend to overlook loudspeakers as a source of coloration in our systems yet demand perfection in our electronics down to the tiniest degree? We are convinced that tenths of [...]
Can it get better?
I was chatting with one of our customers on a recent tour of our facilities and he asked if it would be overkill to strive for higher sampling rates and greater bit depth in recordings given [...]
Recycled vinyl
Reader Barry McCarthy wrote me: “I like reading your quick daily thoughts on the state of our hobby. Today’s post caused me to to think of over abundance and how we live with it. I have [...]
Offended
I have always smiled when I witnessed fellow designers getting offended by some engineering claim they either disagree with or can’t understand – that is until it happened to me. Recently our engineering team has been [...]
It’s free?
Several readers commented on yesterday’s post about adding features to our free music management program eLyric. The question asked is “why free”? It’s a good question and one that deserves an honest open answer. eLyric was [...]
How much to add
One of the challenges facing any designer is how many features to add – or put another way – how many features not to add. The general thought is the more features a product has the [...]
Hands on
I have been reading novels on my Kindle as of late: my son won’t consider it because he doesn’t want to give up the tactile feel of a book. On the other hand, I can’t enjoy [...]
Here’s an invention that will save your life
I love brilliant inventions – especially the ones that are super simple yet perfectly designed – rare as they are. A GFI is one such invention. You know, the AC plug near your bathroom sink with [...]
Do you listen to a sow’s ear?
I have been to homes and shows where I was asked to listen to some really bad loudspeakers – kit that is so far away from accurate that it’s laughable. And yet I can still hear [...]
Amazed
Mark Lewis our resident Brit working in our sales department and helping me with the Reference system installed a pair of Anthony Gallo Strada loudspeakers for me to hear – having never heard a pair. He’s [...]
Beware of magic bullets
Driving into work the other day I noted a sign that read “lose 15 pounds in 30 days without diet or exercise, guaranteed.” A magic bullet! Clearly this won’t work for me or anyone else and [...]
It’s on sale!
Opening my email I noticed a audio retailer was having a sale and it was tied to a calendar occurrence. Is it just me or do you think it’s strange retailers feel the need to tie [...]
A without B
In yesterday’s post about my dislike for Sample Rate Converters I must add one more thought: all sample rate converters are not equal. Some actually help the sound while most do the opposite. This is important [...]
The conspiracy
There’s a quiet conspiracy afoot and something you should be aware of. The conspiracy is one of “don’t ask don’t tell” from DAC manufacturers. PS Audio is just as guilty as the rest. The issue is [...]
Laziness
A couple of days ago I mentioned one of the emerging trends I am seeing is the desire of people to have someone else build their systems for them so they don’t have to do the [...]
Build your own
In yesterday’s post I mentioned the trend of Audiophiles wanting complete packages delivered to their doors that provide a wonderful listening experience. A pre-packaged approach. I was imagining just the opposite this morning. How cool would [...]
Simple and easy
In my travels I am seeing a shift from “hi-fi assemblers and tweaks” to the “gimme it all finished” mentality. In the not too distant past the trend was for Audiophiles to read the reviews, discuss [...]
Adding value
I’ve written recently about increasing the rewards of creators who add value to something and reducing the amount of those that bring the value to the table yet create nothing. With that thought in mind I [...]
EULA
Every time I install a new version of our free music management software, eLyric, I am asked to agree to the EULA before I can use it. It’s annoying and I never read it. In fact, [...]
Apple turntable?
You probably read that Steve Jobs of Apple listened mostly to vinyl instead of his fabled iPod creation. He was a real music lover and preferred the sound of vinyl to that of digital. What you [...]
Imbalance
I have written a lot as of late about the issue of musicians and how they get rewarded for their work. It has ruffled a few feathers and I think that’s good. To be clear, I [...]
All purpose audio
One of Paul’s Posts readers, Mark S, asks the question of why we manufacturers seem to work so hard at building kit that serves all music and all tastes equally well. I think it’s a good [...]
One foot in front of the other
Why do we innovate? Because innovating means jumping feet first into the new and that leads to being a craftsman of our future. [...]
Do warnings lie?
Do you think the gas meter on your car lies? You know the one – it tells you there are 10 miles to empty. I am guessing it’s “conservative” which is a kind way to say inaccurate. [...]
Kick start it
We’ve discussed plenty of controversy about how musicians and artists will get funded in this day and age of the internet. I haven’t any magic to offer but when I do see a small ray of [...]
Twenty five cent improvement
One of the cleverest solutions to amplifier designs came to our attention through our old friend Nelson Pass, then of Threshold. We always referred to it as the “sliding class A bias circuit” and what was [...]
One more thin mint
Remember the Monty Python skit of the fat guy exploding after eating one more thin mint? When it comes to music, do we ever have enough? When I look at my shelves full of physical media [...]
I want more!
The sorting order of a major music library is critical as I have written about as of late – composers by their last name, artists, orchestras and bands by the first/last names. Once you get the [...]
What happened to composers?
As I have been immersed in building my big library I have noticed something interesting. In classical music you sort your library by the name of the composer – Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak and in pretty much [...]
The Nest
In yesterday’s post Dedicated Hardware we talked about the beauty of buying a product dedicated to a specific task – simply because it is designed to do one thing – and do it well. Such a [...]
A bias right in the middle
True - which is ne of the reasons we use complimentary symmetry design
A bias right in the middle
But in a sense in your single ended example there is no real middle. I
Odd or even?
So that others can find it on the internet, read it for themselves and
Odd or even?
Why would you mention the individual's name in a post, which I believe
Odd or even?
I've heard this assertion for the longest time and I must say I can't