The Frugal Audiophile

One of the reasons I truly love and admire PS Audio is that they are so customer driven. No, I've never purchased their renowned BK Amplifiers but as per my earlier post, truly admire the brilliance in conceiving the Sprout, which is revolutionary in PS Audio's commitment to bring "Audiophile" or High Fidelity or HD Sound--whatever you prefer--within reach of a person who isn't in the 1% or 0.5% economic profile. And so they don't discriminate among customers and treat all of us like family, even the poorer relations, which is remarkable in this day and age; amazingly, Scott and Chris took the time to write to me after I saw this video ( this is the link to the site post ), which discusses and shows the Sprout loudspeaker prototype. Chris is designing the drivers; I don't know much about him but he'll be doing videos on his work that will post very shortly. First, Paul McGowan himself emailed me: Chris is starting his own series on YouTube t...

The CD was mastered in PCM, Gigli in Concert, available from both Amazon and The Bel Canto Society is a wonderful performance with great audio quality of one of the truly great tenors of the twentieth century. From the review by Stefan Zucker and if your only exposure to great tenors is Luciano Pavarotti you're in for a treat (Gigli was Pavarotti's father's favorite tenor): Other tenors have had longer breath spans or greater extensions on top or bottom. But as this concert reveals, no tenor on records had as many colors on his palette as Gigli. His interpretations were more imaginative than any other Italian tenor’s, maybe with the exception of Fernando De Lucia’s. Other tenors do what they can with their voices. Gigli more or less did what he wanted. In the 1920s and early 30s Gigli always was in voice. In the 1950s he was erratic vocally, possibly because of many health problems. As in all his late performances, during this concert you hear him clear his throat...

Not only do I have fond memories of my Dynaco A25, which my later father bought for me over forty years ago, but I still use them. For their time, they were revolutionary in bringing high quality sound to a wide audience and this model sold around one million units. I found out about the Dynaco A25 in a Consumer Reports issue that reviewed speakers (and actually had a negative review of the Bose 901 that led to a Supreme Court case ) that was in my high school library. While not top rated, they were check rated and a best buy. I actually was looking at other speakers when they were demonstrated for me against a brighter sounding ADC (known for its phono cartridges) at a now defunct Lafayette Electronics store. The salesman said they were excellent on voice and I thought they were the best sounding speakers there; this was in the early 1970s. J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile wrote a balanced and fair review here , I'll quote an excerpt. Before subwoofers, the A25s provided decent o...

As someone who appreciates quality and brilliant design at an affordable price, I really appreciate PS Audio's Sprout100, which features Complete HiFi DAC Amp, High Resolution High Fidelity Audio for Digital, Analog, Vinyl, and Bluetooth (Real Walnut). You can purchase it through PS Audio's website , an authorized PS Audio dealer, and even through Amazon.com ! PS Audio is known for its quality products but for Frugal Audiophiles (the median income in the U.S. is around $30,000.00) much of what it sells is beyond reach for those on a budget. All you need to do is have sources, including LPs and a turntable, and voila! You'll enjoy amazing sound at a more than reasonable price in 2020 dollars. I wish when I started out with my first stereo, having purchased a Sony integrated amplifier with far less power and quality, that the Sprout existed at that time. I think that many electronics, even affordable ones, are far superior now than anything available last--dare I say it?--c...

I really enjoy the videos of PS Audio's founder Paul McGowan . Even if you are frugal like me (and after all, the PS Audio Sprout is an amazing unit ) you will discover a great deal of insight and information for audiophiles. I especially enjoy his blog posts and his thoughtful replies to questions. Here's the link to his "Ask Paul" videos  and here's a link to his posts . I found this post, Evidence of Absence very thought provoking and it resulted in respectful and interesting replies. Here's an excerpt: There’s a famous aphorism that really resonates with me. “ Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” Just because traditional audio measurements don’t tell us much of anything about how a product sounds doesn’t mean all same measuring products sound alike. Yes, it’s the old measurements vs. listening debate again, but with a new angle that might prove interesting to some. But, probably not. We’re each so entrenched in our views. Pa...

I'll be writing about what I like but given all the rave reviews of the Elac, including this one from Audio Placebo  and this review from Hi-Fi Choice , not to mention CNET's piece here. I'll include some excerpts: We were mightily impressed by the original  Elac Debut B6  when we reviewed it in October 2015, and it has been our go-to budget bookshelf speaker ever since. We know its sound well, and a lot has changed with the new Debut 6.2: the cabinet, bass port, crossover, woofer and tweeter for starters!  And yes, the sound is different, too. The original B6's sound feels comfortable and easy to listen to, and right away we noted the B6.2 has a livelier, clearer sound. Obviously designer Andrew Jones wasn't content to rest on his laurels. To get started with this review, we set up the B6 and B6.2 on tall metal floor stands in the CNET listening room, hooked them up to a  Sony STR-DN1080  ( $598 at Amazon )  AV receiver and an...