The state of the industry
Time for a musical performance and a brief rant. In the early days, hi-fi writers would talk about “goosebump experiences” … the hair standing up on the back of their neck. This performance by Sarah Rogo captures it better than I can write, and I’ll let her do most of the talking.
Sean Carroll holds the Richard Feynman chair in physics at CalTech , and hosts a multi-disciplinary podcast named “Mindscape”. In this episode, he interviews two jazz musicians who have been exploring the neuroscience of music and creativity – both from the perspective of the performer as well as the listener.
One of my diversions involves building and rebuilding Fender style guitars. This particular project has been ongoing for quite some time, and as I’ll explain, it’s been fraught with pitfalls, much like trying to dial in your hi-fi system. So you might ask … other than this being a musical instrument, what this has to …
In the second post in this series, I alluded to system issues that can fool you into thinking you have a setup problem with your turntable. I’ll cover a few of these situations in this post.
A few days ago, I wrote about musicans’ risk taking and how we make similar decisions when configuring and setting up our hi-fi systems. In this post I’d like to comment on some misunderstood setup parameters, and in the next one, I’ll cover system configuration. As I wrote earlier, I’m all about dynamics, tone color, …
Yesterday, I was searching for words to describe my system building approach to a customer. I started off with a description of attributes I consider to be non-negotiable – tone color, dynamics, transient speed, that sort of thing. The idea of risk-taking occurred to me …
It’s all too infrequent, that beautiful mechanical construction and good sound come in the same audio connector. It had gotten to the point where I developed a prejudice against “pretty” connectors. ETIs new power connectors are one such instance where the twin stars of beauty and function align.
This was a transitional year for the Rocky Mountain Audiofest – a new, larger venue along with an earlier date. Upon first first-siting of the massive, Gaylord Hotel (the photo doesn’t convey the scale of this place), I experienced sensory overload, and visions of ‘Vegas swirled through my head, and with that, Johnny Depp and …
And now for something completely different … auditioning DACs. Our neighbor, friend, and Positive-Feedback reviewer Lynn Olson brought over two Exasound DACs for this analog diehard to sample (pun intended). I’m a turntable designer, and many think of me as an analog only kind of fellow, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
What do polyester leisure suits have to do with hi-fi cables, why are people returning to cotton underwear, and most importantly how could anyone wear such an ugly suit?
