Have you purchased a Billboard top 10 CD lately? If you have, more often that not, it’s probably very loud. That’s awesome, isn’t it? Not exactly. Most of the public is unaware of this, but this is probably the worst thing you could do to sound reproduction. This is done through a process called Dynamic Range Compression (DRC). In simple terms, it reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal. In a normal song, there are highs and lows. Quiet chapters, and loud chapters. With excessive DRC, all the nuance and range between different parts of the song are lost. To the untrained ear, this might sound good since records with heavy DRC are louder. However, you are not hearing what the artist intended you to hear through their music. It’s akin to going to an art gallery, and then having the curator smearing paint all over the art because they think it’s better that way. Generally speaking, many people have never heard a pristine, clean recording, so they have no frame of reference as to what something with minimal compression sounds like. The video below illustrates the detriment DRC is to modern recordings. It really hit the nail on the head.
Continue Reading »

The popular audiophile-quality speaker manufacturer, Klipsch, whose speakers are used in many movie theaters, is introducing a line of earphones.

It’s common knowledge that better earphones deliver better sound from iPods and other digital media players. MP3 and WMA compress music for more efficient space and data storage. As a result, audio fans find that these pocket players only deliver a facsimile of the original song and recording. Purchasing superior earphones help deliver a leveling of highs and lows that simply can’t be heard from the basic earphones that are included with most players. Continue Reading »

Rumors about a touchscreen Squeezebox have been persistent in the last few months. Logitech recently broke their silence and formally announced the Squeezebox Touch. It looks to be an affordable solution for people who want something a bit more than what the previous models were capable of doing, namely 24/96 playback. This is huge, considering that the only other product in the lineup that plays back 24/96 resolution files is the Transporter, at the tune of $2,000. The touch will have an MSRP of around $300.

There will be some key differences between the Transporter and the Squeezebox Touch. The main one being that the touch does not have balanced outputs. It is only single-ended RCA, which is fine for everyone but the discriminating audiophile.
Continue Reading »

Denon is no stranger to the discriminating audiophile. Sure, they make mass market receivers and disc players that are geared towards the average consumer, but every now and then, they drop a reference piece that is only for those with serious home theater systems. Their latest disc player is one such reference piece. The DVD-A1UDCI is the latest universal player, and by universal, I mean universal! If it’s on a round shiny disc, this sucker will play it. Well, with the exception of HD DVD discs, but those are the breaks. Sorry to the three HD DVD fanboys holding the fort down. It will play Blu-ray, SACD, DVD-A, DVD-V and CD. Continue Reading »

It’s a good time to be a headphone enthusiast. I recently blogged about the Sennheiser HD800, so it would only be right for me to blog about the other upcoming flagship headphone from Grado, the PS1000.

The first thing you notice about the PS1000 is the striking resemblance to the previous flagship model, the GS1000. Don’t think that the PS1000 is simply a metal housing version Continue Reading »