Filtering

We’ve worked our way through the internal DAC chain to a point where we have finally decoded the numeric musical data into current steps, then converted those steps into voltage. It is at this point that [...]

Conversions

Yesterday we traced the digital audio path from the input of the DAC all the way to the output of the DAC itself, which outputs a series of current steps, and are in the process of [...]

Amperage alchemy

We’ve briefly discussed getting the digital audio stream into the DAC and then decoding those bits back into a form of analog that gets us a lot closer to being able to play it on our [...]

DAC attack

Yesterday we detailed the layout of a PCM DAC and its 4 components that make it work: the input receiver, DAC itself, Current to Voltage converter and finally the analog stage: the subject of this series. [...]

Inner workings

We’re starting down the path of trying to unravel a bit of the topic why the analog output stage of a DAC is so important: perhaps more important than the DAC itself.  To begin let’s first [...]

Analog matters

I thought we might delve into a new subject this week: the all important analog stage at the output of a DAC.  I think this may make for some interesting posts as a disproportionate amount of  attention is [...]

Merry Christmas

Today’s a day for us to spend with our family and friends and enjoy life, music and the pursuit of happiness. I just wanted to pass along some good cheer and thank all of my readers [...]

Timing is everything

I wanted to finish up our little series on how Class D amps worked today, tomorrow we’ll enjoy Christmas with our families and then onto new and fertile grounds for audio the day after. We’ve learned [...]

Yesterday we covered Analog Coding showing how we have analog in and analog out with a Class D amplifier and no magic decoding process is required as we have in PCM. The direct output of the PWM [...]

Analog coding

One of the reasons Class D amplifiers are considered by most to be digital (technically they are not) is the need to encode the continuous analog input signal into another language to work.  So it may [...]

Just in case the world doesn’t end…

Sorry, I am writing this yesterday and when I went to input the publish date I saw it would be the 21st, winter solstice, my son Sean’s birthday and “the end of the world”.  So I [...]

Amp classes

In the past few days we’ve covered a lot of ground learning about the various amplifier classes like A, AB, B which are the main amplification classes, referring mostly to how the output stages of the [...]

Different strokes

Yesterday we explained how a single ended power amplifier worked and what the differences are between our traditional power amplifier output stage and this unique topology. Today I want to wrap up the background series on [...]

Single ended frying pan

We’re in the middle of our series on amplifier classes (not learning classes, but output classes) and getting on to understanding one of the very different classes of analog designs, Class D. Along the way we’ve [...]

A+B makes it all sound better

Yesterday’s post covered what Class B in a power amplifier means and the day before we explained Class A.  It’s probably instructive to review what we’ve learned so far as there are new readers jumping on [...]

Better than Fruitcake: Mozart, Britten, More

Unusual gift suggestions, including rarities from Mozart and Zelenka, bracing masterworks from Britten and Bach, and well-roasted chestnuts from Martha Argerich. [...]

Class B

Yesterday we covered Class A and what it means when it comes to a power amplifier. It’s been pointed out in our comments section that Class A biasing doesn’t have to apply only to a power [...]

Class warfare

First off, we’ve published a new video https://vimeo.com/55572974 which is a behind the scenes look at what goes into building a PerfectWave product.  It’s pretty interesting if you’ve never seen what it takes to make a modern [...]

Vibraphones

In this installment, we will absorb the very mellow and cool vibes of the vibraphone. When I was growing up, those who were, wanted to be or considered themselves as “real cool”, not only listened to [...]

Start at the beginning or the end?

I was going to jump feet first into amps this morning but got blindsided by all the mail I receved on the order of importance when selecting equipment in Tuesday’s post Gnats and Whales.  It’s probably worthwhile [...]

Digital amplifiers?

Whenever a conversation comes around to Class D amplifiers, they will inevitably be referred to as digital power amplifiers; a common mistake.  They are not digital power amplifiers.  They are as analog as class A and [...]

Gnats and whales

As we wind up the beta testing on the newest product launch, the PerfectWave PowerBase, I am really pleased to see the positive comments and great reviews.  But I am reminded that something like the PowerBase [...]

Fatigue

I am reminded by several of our readers that one of the best means of evaluating equipment is fatigue.  Yeah, I know that sounds ominous but I am guessing we’ve all experienced our system’s sounding so [...]

Music is so much more than sound

One of our readers posted the topic subject in the comments section yesterday and it really struck me as getting to the core of it : lest we lose sight of where we’re going and where [...]

That old analog sound

In response to my post on the sound of analog reader John Van Polen from the Netherlands wrote me the following: “It’s a shame people tend to use the word “digital” as an equivalent of “bad” and “analog” [...]

The sound of analog

For those of you that followed along with our series on designing and building the PowerBase I thought I’d share with you a short behind the scenes video you might enjoy watching.  You can click on [...]

Building a pattern

One of the most valuable tools I have in my listening arsenal is a set of favorite recordings I use over and over.  Most of you probably have a few favorites as well, but in my [...]

Comparing notes

Think for a moment how challenging it must be to review a product for one of the publications that do so.  You’re sent a new product, perhaps a DAC, and you’re asked to let the world [...]

Emotions on high

I wrote yesterday about the furious battles over double blind ABX testing yesterday and why they don’t work for finding out the truth in listening.  I should also mention that it is a shame this happened [...]

A or B?

In our ongoing series of the Art of Listening it makes sense to touch on ABX testing, a subject that has caused no end of confusion and mistrust over the years.  The affair became public back [...]

Suspicions confirmed

Yesterday we discovered through our new found listening and relating skills that despite what our meters were telling us, we made a much better sounding phono preamplifier by increasing the headroom beyond anything that made sense. [...]

First differences

Yesterday I touched on one of the first big learning experiences I had as a designer: trying to sort out what I heard relative to what was happening electronically.  It’s a very different discipline to try [...]

Enjoying or working?

Happy December!  I was just watching some silly show last night and was reminded the Mayan calendar says the world ends in 21 days.  Let’s make the best of what we have left  Sorry, I just [...]

From the heart or the head

Most of us understand that we can connect to music from multiple angles: emotional, analytical, as a student, as a teacher, as a critic or just just casually.  However we are connecting we can easily tell when [...]

Trying too hard

When we first started PS Audio in the mid 1970′s Stan and I were hell bent for leather on getting as close as we could to our reference preamplifier’s sound, the Audio Research SP3A4 which is [...]

Court and Spark

Back in the mid 1970′s when Stan and I were first starting PS Audio we both had a lot to learn: Stan electronics, me listening.  Stan was the Audiophile while I was the nerd who knew [...]

The art of listening

One of the best listeners I know is my wife Terri.  She can sit down in the listening room and hear a track she likes, listen to the same thing on another piece of equipment and [...]

PS and DSD

Over the last few days we’ve been discussing the two main technologies in digital audio today: PCM and DSD.  In my mind there’s no doubt that DSD is superior to PCM – if for no other [...]

So how come?

As we end our series on PCM and DSD I have been fielding a lot of questions concerning our products and the lack of a DSD input.  A few of you have also asked why we [...]

Recording it all

There are about as many opinions on the sound quality of DSD vs. PCM as there are people who have them but the general consensus seems to favor DSD.  I know from personal experience with my [...]

Errors upon errors

How many errors must a DAC make to get it right?  Well, in a classic PCM DAC, the answer is none.  16 bit DACS of long ago relied on a perfect conversion process without any errors [...]

Have a happy

To all my readers the world over, have a happy, healthy day today and please don’t forget to give thanks for everything good and great in your life. May we all share in the joy of [...]

Young Verdi

How Verdi got started as a composer, revealed in new recordings from a surprising source. [...]

Getting it wrong

We’ve been covering how a DSD/SACD converter works and we learned a few days ago that just about all modern DACS, certainly those that advertise 24 bit resolution, use a type of DSD on their outputs. [...]

Timing is everything

Yesterday we discovered what 1-bit DSD looks like and how it’s fundamentally different from that of the standard CD format, PCM.  I am going to spend a few posts helping folks understand a little better detail [...]

How dense are you?

Yesterday I surprised a few of you when we learned that the output of just about every modern DAC with 24 bit resolution is actually DSD, or Pulse Density Modulation, also commonly known as 1-bit.  We [...]

Can’t get there from here

The day of the 16 bit ladder DAC is pretty much over.  If you were particularly fond of the beast, despair not because we have something better called DSD. The classic ladder DAC relies on a [...]

Smoothing ruffled feathers

I announced in yesterday’s post we’d find out today why traditional ladder DACS are no longer used in high-end audio but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow as many of you wrote back and said whoa, [...]

Telling the truth

In our ongoing series on the differences between CD’s and SACD’s we’ve covered the first part of the CD process, encoding audio into a digital format known as PCM, and next we’re going to explain how [...]

Dynamics

In our continuing series on PCM vs. DSD I mentioned a day or so ago that bit depth controlled two things: granularity as well as dynamic range. Granularity being the fineness of each step in voltage [...]

Jittered bread

Yesterday we summed up how PCM encoding works in the broadest of senses.  I used the moving train analogy hopefully to good effect but my friend Len Schneider sent me yet another one that I think [...]

Bits and bits

Yesterday we explained how we take snapshots or pictures of the changing voltage stream known as analog.  Each picture is actually a single voltage measurement at a fixed point in time.  Once we’ve measured the voltage [...]

Breakdown

Oops.  Yesterday I proclaimed that the 26 letters of the English language were a type of code restricted to a finite number of possibilities based on 226 and this is simply wrong as many of you pointed [...]

67,108,864

We’re working on a new series that will help us get a better understanding of SACD’s vs. good old CD’s.  At the heart of everything is really two competing digital audio schemes: DSD (PDM) vs. PCM. [...]

Telegraphing music

I hope you’ll indulge me on this series as I want to take it in smaller, slower bites one day at a time.  I do get mail from time to time from those that want longer [...]

CD vs DSD

Today’s post marks the start of yet another one of our “discovery” series where we try and get a little learning under our belts.  These series seem to be ok with most people and they are [...]

Beer and Hi Fi

Colorado is one of but a few States at the heart of the craft beer revival in the US and, coincidently, one of but a few States that has been at the forefront of hand crafted [...]

The best way to organize music files and folders

As the writer of the Music Library Management blog I get a lot of emails asking for advice. And a lot of those emails concern the best ways of organizing file and folder paths. Should I [...]

Sense of pride

Yesterday Terri and I returned from new York City.  We travel to New York once a year to volunteer with the NYC Marathon’s medical team: I run the communications and Terri drives one of the Central [...]

Differences

Yesterday’s post covered common mode noise and today’s will cover differential mode noise. To refresh your morning brain, common mode noise is radiated noise from cell phones, WIFI, etc. that get received by both wires in [...]

Common and not so common

If you’ve been following along you’re now up to speed of how the upcoming PowerBase product came to be.  Born out of the idea that isolating equipment from both mechanical as well as electrical problems really [...]

One way gates

Yesterday I wrote about the need for a one way gate for the power – meaning we want to see if we can’t reduce the generated power line noise each piece of equipment produces from going [...]

We found the problem and it is us!

Our story of the development process of the PowerBase continues in today’s post. I might mention that the final product will not be ready for anyone to see or try until the end of this year [...]

The Oasis

Through a lot of painstaking trial and error, coupled with a lot of failures and a few successes, I landed on a pretty unique combo of a heavy steel plate sitting on large diameter Sorbothane feet [...]

Head scratching

In our continuing story about trying to figure out why isolation bases mattered, how they worked and what we could do to perhaps make our products less needy of their services, I endeavored to build my [...]

Turning hobbies into products

Picking up on our story of the isolation base shootout at the Munich High-End show of a few years ago,we move back to Boulder Colorado and jump ahead a few years. In our main listening room [...]

The beginning

Reader David Zigas sent me this quote after reading yesterday’s post titled 1+1=3.   ”As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do [...]

Dexter Wansel

If there was ever a list of musicians that don’t get the recognition that they deserve, Dexter Wansel is very high on that list. And it would not surprise me if the majority of the reading [...]

1+1=3

We’ve covered some good ground in the last few days: power and why it matters, vibrations and microphonics and why they matter.  I have also ruffled a few feathers on these topics and that’s ok – [...]

Counterintuitive

Yesterday we discussed that cones and spikes under electronics is probably not the best idea if you want to really address the problem of smearing caused by microphonics.  Yes they work and yes your equipment will [...]

Diffused vibrations

We’re in the middle of our mini series on power and vibration control for our hi fi systems.  Yesterday I explained that vibrations, caused by the loudspeakers in our listening rooms, were inevitable and instead of [...]

Ghostbusters

We’ve been focusing on microphonics and how they affect the performance of our AV equipment.  Vibrations from the output of the loudspeakers in our room generate airborne as well as floor-borne movement that is coupled into [...]

Fighting the good fight

I remember years ago when one of our more obsessive customers drove a 100 miles to visit us in hopes of offering some enlightenment to Stan and I.  The claim was that this person had discovered [...]

Singing stereos

We started our discussion yesterday on microphonics and how everything in our hi-fi systems can act like a microphone picking up sound in the room and adding it to the music. So why is this undesirable? [...]

Making some noise

We’re starting part 2 of our continuing story of how AC power affects the quality of our hi-fi systems, how vibrations and microphonics do the same and then part 3 will be how we deal with [...]

End of part 1

Understanding AC power was the first topic in our 3 part series on watching us develop a new concept for high-end audio.  I will wrap it up in today’s post and then tomorrow we move on [...]

Shape matters

Our Hi Fi systems are hungry for clean power: the better the power the better the sound.  I don’t suppose the crowd reading this is unaware of the importance of power to the sound quality of [...]

Sine waves

Our Hi Fi systems depend on power to operate and the power they need is DC – yet we feed them AC.  Most of us are familiar with battery powered stereo products as they were all [...]

Tesla puts it together

Now we’re getting to the core of understanding how power in our hi-fi system is transferred from the wall and in the next few posts we’ll start to understand how we convert this power into music. [...]

How many turns?

Yesterday we learned that a transformer is really simple: two coils of wire in close proximity to each other.  The power you put in one end is transfered magnetically to the other end with great efficiency [...]

Transformers

Power transformers are found in every piece of high-end audio equipment you have in your home.  Part of our ongoing series on understanding power has to involve the use of transformers, how they work and why [...]

Best Classical Summer 2012

Our quarterly collection of great new classical recordings. [...]

Problem solved

We’re on the trail to understand why our homes and our stereo systems get AC power at all – power we rarely ever use in its native form – instead having to convert that AC power [...]

Oops

In yesterday’s post we discussed how Edison and several wealthy investors electrified New York City and turned the lights on only to run into a fundamental problem; he couldn’t keep the lights the same brightness.  Even [...]

The first lights

After Thomas Edison figured out how to mass produce the light bulb and keep it affordable his next task was to figure out how to get it accepted into people’s homes.  Edison’s brilliance lay in his [...]

What we have isn’t what we want

What comes out of your home’s power wall socket is not what anything in your stereo system needs.  In fact, what comes out of your home’s wall socket is the wrong thing for 99% of everything [...]

Using what we don’t want

Yesterday I wrote that the power coming into your stereo system is every bit as important as the bits of analog or digital that are used to manipulate it into music.  What I failed to mention [...]

Let’s switch gears

We’ve been focusing on streaming audio recently and I want to take a bit of a break and spend some time exploring power and microphonics and I’ll tell you why: I have recently become fascinated with [...]

Beethoven was not the artist

Another consistent error I see is listing the composer of classical music as the artist or album artist.  If you have a copy of a recording performed by Ludwig Beethoven you probably have something worth a [...]

The greatest concert I ever attended

Thirty years ago, a mere lad of 25, I was already a veteran classical music and jazz fanatic. I bought LPs, attended classical concerts with the Miami Philharmonic, recitals by some pretty great pianists, operas, and [...]

Consistently different

It’s amazing how difficult it is to achieve simple clarity in anything.  We all admire a simple easy to understand operation of a product that seems so obvious to us when it works just the way [...]

Consistency

I mentioned yesterday that perhaps the single most important aspect of a music library is maintaining consistency in the way you tag and list your albums and tracks. When you go to look for Mozart and [...]

Dog ate my homework

OK, let me guess.  Only a few of you actually read any of the material I assigned for homework last night, right? Instead, most of you were probably enjoying your hi-fi systems, your families and life [...]

Getting a music library started

We’ve been focusing on storage hardware for your music library and now it’s time to start thinking about the actual library itself.  This is an important step if you’re starting from scratch – perhaps even more [...]

On the road

I travel a lot for our company and visit with audio clubs, customers and speak at a few of our dealers.  When I go on these trips of course I want to play music and show [...]

2.0 or 3.0?

We’ve been discussing HD storage for our music collections and I have been recommending you build your library based on USB connected hardware to your computer.  A 2tB hard drive can be purchased for $100 and [...]

What a nickel buys you

If you’re hell bent on relying on the computer built into a NAS rather than the one sitting on your desktop to stream music, then by all means make sure you get a good NAS if [...]

So, what does work?

Thanks for the great feedback on our continuing ideas on music storage and how to best build a library from a hardware perspective.  Several of you have asked me what my recommendations are for putting together [...]

Ahhh, software

Computers are like vehicles and software’s like the gas they need to go.  One without the other doesn’t work and the quality of the gas makes all the difference in the world. We’ve were discussing the [...]

Albert Mangelsdorff

As we continue our tour of the bandstand, I submit to you trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff (September 5, 1928-July 25, 2005). “Mangels who,” you ask. Let us briefly delve into how Mr. Mangelsdorff’s journey led him to [...]