Dr. AIX

Mark Waldrep, aka Dr. AIX, has been producing and engineering music for over 40 years. He learned electronics as a teenager from his HAM radio father while learning to play the guitar. Mark received the first doctorate in music composition from UCLA in 1986 for a "binaural" electronic music composition. Other advanced degrees include an MS in computer science, an MFA/MA in music, BM in music and a BA in art. As an engineer and producer, Mark has worked on projects for the Rolling Stones, 311, Tool, KISS, Blink 182, Blues Traveler, Britney Spears, the San Francisco Symphony, The Dover Quartet, Willie Nelson, Paul Williams, The Allman Brothers, Bad Company and many more. Dr. Waldrep has been an innovator when it comes to multimedia and music. He created the first enhanced CDs in the 90s, the first DVD-Videos released in the U.S., the first web-connected DVD, the first DVD-Audio title, the first music Blu-ray disc and the first 3D Music Album. Additionally, he launched the first High Definition Music Download site in 2007 called iTrax.com. A frequency speaker at audio events, author of numerous articles, Dr. Waldrep is currently writing a book on the production and reproduction of high-end music called, "High-End Audio: A Practical Guide to Production and Playback". The book should be completed in the fall of 2013.

9 thoughts on “A Few Things…

  • What do you mean “used to be a woodworker” ? That particular use of hands never stops. As soon as you smell the shop, you’ll be knee deep in shavings !

    Anyway that Pono box should take the shape of what it really is, a Trojan Horse !

    Related, just read some HIfi mag reviews and dismayed to see there are a few more “convert all to DSD” rollouts. The “me too” market with narcissistic attitude.

    Reply
    • I would love to have a shop again. I cut dovetails, built furniture, puzzles etc but it was 30 years ago. I would be curious to hear about companies other than PS Audio that are mandating conversion to DSD. It’s hard to believe that people are falling for this crap.

      Reply
  • Patrick J Sandham

    When you fire up the Pono be sure to try the balanced mode. Looking forward to your thoughts..

    Reply
    • I will…although it may have to wait until after the Newport Show.

      Reply
  • Man this blog is getting like a daytime TV soap opera, you left us with at least 3 cliffhangers today. 🙂

    I have no issue with the Pono player, it’s just one of several HD capable portable players on the market. If it sounds half as good as the competition that’s priced at 2-3 times its cost, kool.
    It’s their music store and their claims of HD files from SD sources that’s deceptive.

    Will tune in tomorrow for the next episode of Days of Our HD Lives. Lol

    Reply
  • I believe the Pono player box is made from bamboo. Please do set the player to balanced playback mode and give a listen.

    Reply
  • I do just the opposite. I convert all my DSD files to PCM for playback.

    Reply
    • Same here. Because I need to “subtract” the room influence from the actual in-room-response at the listening position or else I’d not able to listen to the content as it was intended by the artist. It’s simply because of the fact that even the most linear speakers put in a room, are not going to be flat at all. The room is the biggest contributer to colorations of what we hear and its influence is magnitudes higher than anything we see from preamps, power amps, cables and what have you (+/- 10 dB).
      So I consider it kind of mandatory to “counter” my room via room equalization. I use DIRAC to apply this room correction to all my playback and it’s excellent. However, for SACDs this requires a DSD-to-PCM conversion beforehand as the correction filters applied by the DSPs can only work on PCM signals.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *