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When I told my son, Michael, that I was going to write about the role he’s played in my audio hobby, he said: “So you’re going to write about child labor?” Now, before you start imagining things, I want to clarify that I didn’t make Michael work on my audio stuff when he was a…
Hints: It isn’t your speakers. And it isn’t your source. As a child, you probably played the game “Telephone” or “Chinese Whispers”. It’s a simple game where each kid in a line or circle whispers a message into the next kid’s ear with the goal that the message remain intact all the way to the…
How did music become science? Or an ugly and personal battle royale over what speaker measurements mean? Or a mud-slinging political brawl over whether some gear writers are on the take? These are questions that I’ve pondered many times over during my years as a music editor in the sometimes blood sport universe of high-end…
A recent article by PMA Magazine editor Robert Schryer got me wondering about when I began to think of music and audio — and, specifically, of myself as an audio hobbyist. The answer to “when” can’t be clearly defined by a single moment; it’s scattered across a handful of events that took place over a…
I have a friend who listened only to classical music. One day I had him listen to the music of John Coltrane, a jazz giant. And in honor of the saxophonist’s Giant status, the track I had my friend listen to was “Giant Steps”. As he was listening, I was trying to decide what I…
I am not an audiophile, or an expert on music. I don’t like being labelled. But I do love most musical genres. I fell in love with music when I was nine. “That’s a young age to fall in love for the first time!” I hear some of you saying. It is. But by nine…
I’ve always loved listening to music on a sound system, even going as far back as when all I had access to was my parents’ outdated, low-fi stereo system. It was in my college’s music library, where I worked, that I was introduced to quality sound, although at the time I had no idea what…
Of course, music isn’t the kind of language we’ll use, say, to order food at the drive-thru or book a car appointment at the garage (even for a car tune up, hehe). Music transcends words. It operates on an emotional frequency to make us feel. Even in songs with lyrics, it’s the song’s harmonic and…
I’ve heard the comments from audio enthusiasts trying to put a positive spin on being Corona-confined: “Stuck inside? Hey, it’s like I’ve been preparing for this all along!” I know about music’s health benefits. I’ve read those credibly-sourced studies that prove how listening to music can help reduce depression, anxiety, physical pain, and enhance Alzheimer-,…
When the CD came out, many vinyl record enthusiasts decried the format. “It sounds mechanical!” They’d protest. “It sounds cold!” Digital sucks became their mantra. A format war ensued. And while most of them today will concede that CD playback sounds leagues better than it used to, many still can’t fully warm up to it.…