Please Educate Me

Glupson, I don’t see any difference between my version and yours. Did I misspell something? I’m a terrible speller. Thank God for copy editors. 

What’s the word for unnecessarily nasty remarks? Flaming? I’m not a regular on this forum but isn’t that considered bad form?

Who said anything about analog?

Physicists became happy treating light as both a particle and a wave long before the word “digital” came into being. (In the computer sense, anyway.) But why on earth are you talking about light?

The question essentially is this: Why is digital audio information treated differently than digital information in any other form. Microsoft Word is a bunch of ones and zeros just like the ones on my new Vampire Weekend CD. But VW sound different when played on a NAD CD player than they do when played on a Parasound CD player. Why? Aren’t both players reading the same ones and zeros? 

We don’t expect Microsoft Word to perform differently on a Dell computer than it does on a H-P. What’s the difference between those ones and zeros and the audio ones? Somebody hinted that it’s the manner in which they the information is converted from digital to analog. That could be the answer although I wish someone would expound on it. And doesn’t Microsoft make a similar conversion when it converts digital information to something akin to analog in the form of letters that we can read?


You know, my PhD is in political science, not electrical engineering. But I know enough to be confident that this is a legitimate question, perhaps even a deep one. Some people seem to be willfully misreading it.


A few months back, I asked whether I would do any damage if I left my amp on all the time. I got several helpful answers. Maybe my question is a bit too esoteric for this crowd. I’ll hew closer to equipment related questions going forward.

Passive-aggressive? Why on earth read that into my question? Although like I said, I’m not a regular here. Maybe I accidentally posted code for something very different. 

I haven’t done enough homework to satisfy you? Well, I guess that I’m going to have to live with that disapproval. We all have our crosses to bear. 

Apparently, I’m not going to learn anything here. If the game wasn’t a blow out I probably wouldn’t have asked. I just got a new pair of speakers and audio is very much on my mind. But clearly I’m on the wrong place. I’ll darken your doorstep no more.

I thank the well-wishers above. But my sense is that the fire I’ve drawn is more the norm than the exception. After all, my post concerned an abstract point of physics. Imagine if I’d said something about cables.

A smarter man wouldn’t bother, but-

I’ve been a professional writer and editor for almost 20 years now, working at one time or another for pretty much every business magazine you’ve ever heard of. Writing on a few other topics as well, mostly food and travel. Over the years I’ve collected the usual ephemera of the successful journalist: Awards, cover stories, etc. I’m pretty confident of my writing abilities.

A point that seems to have eluded many: When I use Word to write, I enter ABCs, not digital content. Likewise, the computer shows me the English language, not digital code. I don’t know if that is the same as digital to analog conversion but conversion of some sort is taking place.

It seems that many people lurk on this site, reading posts in which they have no real interest, in the hope of gaining a small, small, infinitesimally small sense superiority over the ignorant bumblers who naively wander into your world. I’m glad that I was able to provide you with a moment of pleasure but I dearly hope that you lead bigger lives. Still, the speed with which you attacked me—speed that says you had nothing better to do than wait for some schmuck to turn up—makes me worry that you don’t have much on your plates.

“Regarding color in a game that there is a greener green in the same software (game).
That is like audio the data info in the game for a color is a constant number. But then the reproduction device the monitor has different color depth, brightness, calibration and so on.
So it WILL give you different color of green on different monitors.”


Really? I am more familiar with this world than I’d like to be, given that my son is kinda a junior member. And although I don’t expect anyone to believe me, these people operate on a level that make audiophiles look like freshman going up against doctoral students. With a million dollar prize up for grabs somewhere in the world almost every weekend, they have the incentive to be pretty serious. And with a million dollars on the line, they also have the incentive to seek out every advantage, no matter how theoretical or unproven. But I have never—as in not one single time—heard any talk about differences in color production. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that my son has never heard about it, given his knowledge far exceeds mine. Wouldn’t a more intense green help you to see an assassin lurking around a wall? Apparently not. 

Now, if the kid would only start bringing home some of that big prize money, I’d get off his back about trading the real world for the virtual one. Although I guess that during the pandemic, video games are as real as anything else. 

Let me repeat something from my first post: I’ve heard the difference. I’ve heard a PS Audio CD player sound better than my NAD when played through the same system. But search as I do, I can’t find anyone/anything to explain the difference.

People keep talking about differences in printing. I’m a photographer as well, so I’m keenly aware of the fine points of printing. But once the image is fixed in Photoshop or whatever you’re using, printing becomes a mechanical process and isn’t relevant to this discussion. 

What would be relevant is how Photoshop works from one machine to another. I’ve known a lot of photo editors in my day but alas, I’ve never heard anything to indicate the slightest difference. As long as the machine has sufficient horsepower, Photoshop is always the same. 

Since I’m kinda getting into the swing of things here, I add this note just to piss people off. Very obnoxious, very immodest, very unlike me. But just to bolster my printing bona fides, as a photographer, among other exhibitions, I had an image on display at the Louvre in 2015. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t spend your days mocking those you judge to be unworthy of a presence on this forum. 

And just because I can anticipate the hypertechnical response that note will draw, no, the Louvre doesn’t display photography. I was under the pyramid but not in the official museum. Not a distinction I feel necessary to draw in ordinary life. 

And I’m sincerely sorry for that bit of blowhardlery. (Is that a word, Glupson? I tend to think not.) Getting in must have been some kind of fluke and I don’t expect it to be repeated in this lifetime. Again, my apologies. I’ve been taking a beating here and I had to throw a counterpunch.

Also, I did a little calculating. (I might have a problem here.) My quarter wavelength cancellation frequency is 214 hz. Halfway is 107 hz. Is that good? Bad? I can’t do much about it but should I worry?

From my original post:


”Conceptually, logically, I don’t know why it isn’t.”


Doesn’t that invite a response, doesn’t that ask somebody to inform me why it does? Like desktopguy so nicely did. Complaining that, “He never asked a question” seems to be a level of pedantry way above 20 kHz, out in the range where only hummingbirds and . . . other things dwell. 

That bit of self-restraint is actually causing me physical pain. I need a drink. 

Glupson, you got me. A triumph of form over content. As punishment I hereby ban myself from this forum. At least until another inane question pops into my head. 

And to think, all this audio interest/excitement/curiosity was caused by the arrival of my new (used) LS50s. We’re only a week into this relationship but I can tell it will be one of the deepest and most meaningful of my life.


Now HERE’S a question, although it probably belongs in another forum: My tiny NYC apartment forces the speakers into an awful position. (The apartment is small but at least it’s expensive.) I can move them in and out about four inches and about the same horizontally, and I’ve been carefully positioning them inch by inch all week. The problem is that on one side, at the point of first reflection and a lot of other points as well, are two big works of art covered by glass. I’m not willing (at this point, anyway) to trade decorating for sound. And I can’t imagine that there’s any other way to diffract or absorb the sound, short of hanging curtains in front of them, which sorta defeats the principle. Suggestions, anyone?


I expected transparency and accuracy from these speakers. I didn’t expect the warm, rich sound. Maybe it’s the small room, maybe it’s my unfamiliarity with audiophile speakers, but they’re so friendly and inviting. This truly is love. 

It’s because I’m a New Yorker that I appreciate a good brawl. 

If one is to spend 24/7 obsessing about a pair of speakers, one will reach a point where there’s not much to do except worry about “halfway wavelength cancellation frequency.” God only knows what will come next. 

Actually, when the speakers first arrived, I plunked them down on the stands where the old speakers stood. Despite all my micro adjustments and calculations, that’s still where they sound best. 

But a breakthrough lurks around the corner! I can feel it! Despite what KEF and everyone else says, I’ll find the secret and enter a new audio dimension. Then I’ll tell millercarbon what’s what

Another county heard from. 

Paul McGowan of PS Audio in conversation with John Atkinson of Stereophile, February 28, 2018. The conversation, which has been edited for readability, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0NUvziOgWQ

Atkinson: . . . Putting a disc on, it's like going back to the last century. [Leaning forward, sly grin.] But there's still something right about the sound of a mechanical disc playing in a mechanical player.

McGowan: It sounds better. It sounds better, so far, than any server we've tried. We're working on a server. And we're going to fix that problem. We think that we may know why the physical disc sounds better. Because on the surface, it makes no sense whatsoever. The bits are the same.

Atkinson: Right, they're the same bits being presented to the DAC.

McGowan: Yup, yup. But that's true only insofar as it's ones or zeros. What's different is the timing of the bits, the noise levels [more engineering stuff].

I can’t help but notice that when Paul McGowan raises the exact same point that I did in my original post—100 replies ago—no one makes fun of him, no one mocks him, no one feels the need to attack. Maybe Audiogon members should be paying a little more attention to the merits of a question rather than the cred they attribute to the poster.

As before, I’d like to thank the many people who jumped to my defense. I can assure you that I’m not so fragile as to take these anonymous remarks seriously.

Many of those people encouraged me to continue posting, usually saying something like, “It’s a tough crowd at first but you’ll eventually fit in.”

You know something? I don’t want to fit in. I returned to this site because I had a question and I was looking for an answer. Yesterday, I left my CD player on pause all night. That didn’t seem like a good thing to do but I thought I should climb the mountain one more time and seek wisdom from the old men at the top.

This question had been asked many times before and, as I suspected, the consensus was that it wasn’t a good idea. But, almost invariably, the OP was torn limb from limb for having the temerity to waste the valuable time of random Audiogon users.

I assume that there’s a function somewhere on this site that allows a person to see the newest posts and to offer an immediate response. I further assume that a not insignificant number of users have nothing better to do than watch that list of new posts, then race to demean the usually well-meaning poster. (I say “usually” because rumor has it that troublemakers post questions using the subject line“Ecucate me.”)

These people merit concern, perhaps treatment, certainly pity. And, believe it or not, I don’t feel any particular urge to feel comfortable among them. 

And if anyone bothers to watch that clip, he’ll find that McGowan has been working on this problem “that makes no sense whatsoever” for years and sounds like he’s got years to go. He seems like a pretty smart guy. That is company that I don’t mind keeping.