Retirement…Effective Today!
Today, August 17, 2025 will always be a special day in my life. After working in the California State University
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NEWS
Power Cord Snake Oil…Again!
The June 14th 2025 email from The Absolute Sound featured a brief promo piece for a $34,000/ 6 foot power cord! The headline reads “2025 AC Power Cord of the Year: Crystal Cable 20th Anniversary Infinity.” OK, more of the same nonsense from a publication that lost its credibility a long time but it was the opening sentence that prompts me to write once again about the BS that gets peddled as truth in high end audio. Jonathan Valin, the author of the single paragraph extolling the virtues of the “best power cord (he has) auditioned this year” begins his piece with a statement so utterly ridiculous that I actually laughed out loud.
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One Mic vs. Multimic Recording
I opened up an email today from Sound Liaison promoting their preferred recording technique – “one mic recording.” The opening
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Pure Audio Streaming Service Announced At High-End Munich
I have known and been friends with Jonathan Reichbach, of Amarra fame, for over 30 years. He was a software
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AIX Records: Post Fire Update
Yesterday was Friday March 21, 2025. It was Johann Sebastien Bach’s 340th birthday. My favorite composer among the giants that
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Analog Tape Part II – Expensive Fun
I was prompted to begin writing again for a couple of reasons. First, the challenges of having to deal with
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2025 Happy New Year! Well Not So Much…At Least So Far.
It’s been a very long time since I wrote a blog post. I’ve been busy with challenges of various types:
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Apple Lossless Audio is Death Knell for MQA
Apple Music issued a press release on May 17, 2021 announcing that the “next generation of sound” would arrive for subscribers in June — without any additional cost. Apple Music subscribers can listen to any track, anywhere, in CD fidelity for only $9.95 month. What Apple Music defines as the “next generation” of sound includes support for Spatial Audio in the form of Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio.
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MQA Really Is A Fraud!
A number of readers have forwarded links to the video below. In fact, I was in the middle of viewing it when I received a couple of emails. It was produced by a UK-based commentator under the name GoldenSound and it is absolutely spot on in its analysis and conclusion regarding the MQA format. I highly recommend you find 38″ and watch this video.
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Analog Tape: Doing It Right the First Time!
In October of 2019, I wrote an article on probably the single most important link in the long chain of production steps required to bring a classic analog master tape into our digital music world. The importance of maximizing the fidelity of the tape playback using a state-of-the-art reproducer and associated electronics cannot be overstated.
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