Music and Audio Minimalism

Five or six years ago I wrote a breezy, introductory-type piece on mid-fi “knob-surfing,” winding up with a reprise on the old line that the number of the knobs, lights,… More

Transparency in Audio/Video Design

A few years ago I got a commission to design a Media Room with a difference. The client wanted the room’s purpose—an all-out assault on the state-of-the-art in A/V hardware and… More

Halcyon Days

The word can be traced to the Greek goddess of the sea, Alcyone. In time “halcyon” became synonymous with the kingfisher, fabled to have the power to calm the winds and… More

Virtual Acoustic Reality

On a wintry day in 1870, QueenVictoria paid a visit to a colossal auditorium then nearing completion in the South Kensington area of London. Nearly ten times the size of the… More

In-Wall Speaker Test, Part 3

Subjecting 20 putatively “high-end” in-wall speakers to the same performance standards used to judge conventional in-room speakers proved to be something of a novel idea back in the February and March ’96 issues. The… More