Episode 21

You’re moving to a new house, and the dreaded system setup is on the horizon. You bought a new piece of gear that’s supposed to wipe the floor with what you’ve currently got, but right out of the box, the opposite seems to be the case. Moving speakers inch by inch for hours and feeling like you’re getting nowhere is an unfortunate part of the hifi audio hobby, whether we like it or not. The complete sonic change of character of new gear as it settles in can neither be measured or easily explained.

Why do we do this again? In this episode of The Hifi Podcast, Darren and Duncan explore the more frustrating side of being an audiophile, and  share experiences and knowledge gained from going through this time and time again.

Episode 22

If you’ve ever heard an album or a specific group of albums in your library sound amazing on your system, hang on to that memory. Once you make a change to your setup, you may notice an entirely different set of sounds and records coming to the forefront of recording and playback quality in your listening room.

Systems grow, they change, and they settle in. It’s entirely possible that not every piece of music will be played back perfectly at all times, and that’s okay. In this episode of The Hifi Podcast, Darren and Duncan talk about identifying and understanding what genres work best for your system, and discuss the idea of letting that music evolve as your system and tastes evolve.

Episode 23

A hifi audio trade show is a tale of two realities. One side features attendees — end users and consumers — hustling from room to room, auditioning possible or future purchases, and mixing and mingling with audio hobby friends from around the world. The surroundings are posh, the sounds are (hopefully) lush, and the excitement is high.

However, from the manufacturers and dealers’ perspective, the other reality is an effort in pretending everything is fine. Setup at a trade show resembles a reality TV game show, with contestants pulling their hair out as they fight off challenge after challenge in order to maintain an equanimous façade for the judges, AKA the show-goers.

Episode 24

The addition of a subwoofer or subwoofers to a hifi system can be game-changing. Frequencies all over the spectrum can be made more clear and understandable with the support of existing sub frequencies to complete the transient music information. But none of that happens until the sub or subs are integrated properly with the speakers, blended in a way that their waves add to rather than detract from the main speakers.

In this episode of The Hifi Podcast, Darren and Duncan go through the steps of subwoofer integration, from placement to level and crossover adjustment.

Episode 25

Just outside PS Audio headquarters in Boulder, Colorado,  lives one of the better recording studios in the area, called Coupe Studios. Between the audiophile equipment company and the recording studio lies a creek. Which seems like such a perfect analog for the knowledge barrier that exists between audiophiles and the recording world.

Priorities among the two entities when it comes to design and execution are completely different, yet at a point some of the goals are the same. It’s not  surprising or really very problematic for recording engineers to not know about or care about audiophile desires, and vice versa, but it’s always an interesting study to examine how the other side ticks.

In this episode, Darren and Duncan chat about recording and production, and wander about in the land of the pro audio folks to discover what things are important on that side of the divide.