Category Archives: Audio

Everything online all the time

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The Gadget Guy reports that 200,000 pre-WWII recordings have been donated by Universal Music to the US Library of Congress, which will convert them to a digital format and make them available for free online. I reckon this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, Music | Leave a comment

Bit perfect digital audio

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

In a comment to an earlier post, Fredrick mentioned that he had ‘read an interesting article by Chris Connaker at computeraudiophile.com. While testing Asus sound cards, he believes he has achieved bit perfect playback that still sounds awful’. A little … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Computer, How Things Work | 5 Comments

Silly audiophile claims … 2

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Once I went into a hifi shop, which shall remain nameless. The owner was one of those who believed analogue to be clearly superior to digital. The same shop, at another time, insisted that a high quality composite video cable … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, Mysticism, Rant | 3 Comments

Silly audiophile claims … 1

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been into HiFi since I was a callow youth, well before digital audio was even being recorded by the major studios, let alone made available as a consumer format. I was thrilled with the introduction of the compact disc. … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, Mysticism | 7 Comments

If Audiophile USB cables are valid, then …

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

… surely we need audiophile network cables — CatAudiophile, perhaps? — to make sure the packets of precious audio digits are streamed without degradation from server to client. But, OMG, what about wireless! If you’re streaming over an IEEE 802.11n … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, Mysticism, Rant | 2 Comments

Speaking of 2.0

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

As Anthony points out in comments, Two Hands only scores 2.0 audio. Which is probably due to the movie producers keeping the budget down. The title presumably wasn’t big enough for Icon to spend a lot of money redoing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs | 2 Comments

Edith Piaf lives!

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Well, kinda. When I went to see Inception at the cinema a month or two ago, I recall thinking at one point: is that Edith Piaf singing? I was ambivalent, because while it sounded like her, it also sounded too … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Cinema, Giveaway | 3 Comments

Undisclosed Bass

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m reviewing a shiny new Denon home theatre receiver that, amongst other things, features the ability to play Internet radio. Making sure I cover everything, I explore its menus and confirm that it also plays podcasts. To test, I usually … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Giveaway | 3 Comments

DVD Audio lives on!

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Because I bought a King Crimson CD from Amazon once, today I got an email from them advising that In the Wake of Poseidon, KC’s second album, is due to be released in mid October. Of course, it was actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, DVD, Music | 4 Comments

Perhaps I’m just fooling myself

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m reviewing a bunch of home theatre receivers for Sound and Image and as I go I fill in a ‘feature table’. This is a continually evolving thing in which new features make it onto the table and old ones … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Testing | Leave a comment