SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast

This week, host Jorden Guth is joined by legendary speaker designer Laurence Dickie to discuss his history with Bowers & Wilkins, the design of the iconic Nautilus, how his thinking on speaker design has evolved over to years, whether or not he draws inspiration from nature, and why his speakers are an exercise in engineering, not industrial design. Sources: "From the Bowers & Wilkins Naut...

This week, host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and podcast producer Dennis Burger to discuss what Jorden has learned in six months of hosting the podcast, since he’s been able to speak to some of the hi-fi industry’s most influential and respected luminaries. As Doug often tells him, “Talking to these people is like getting a PhD course in hi-fi.” So has doing so helpe...

This week on the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, host Jorden Guth is joined by Monitor Audio global marketing director Michael Johnson and technical director Michael Hedges to discuss how the Concept 50 speaker was developed; how it evolved into the company’s new flagship retail offering, the Hyphn; what makes a Monitor Audio speaker sound like a Monitor Audio speaker; and what’s in store for the...

This week on the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, host Jorden Guth is joined by Anthony Grimani, former director of technology for THX and founder of Performance Media Industries, to discuss his history with Dolby and THX, why the room is such a crucial component of any sound system, home theater vs. hi-fi, room correction, and whether the world needed yet another speaker company. Sources: Grimani...

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and former SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast cohost Brent Butterworth to discuss the what, how, and why of speaker and headphone measurements. What measurements correlate with listening impressions? How do active and wireless products complicate measurements? And what’s the right balance of list...

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by Jack Oclee-Brown, VP of Technology at KEF, to discuss speaker design and engineering, the development of the Tangerine Waveguide, how electromechanical design and industrial design come together, KEF in cars, and more . . .  Sources: The Sweet Sound of KEF's Tangerine Waveguide: https://us.kef.com/blogs/news/the-sweet-sound-of...

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by James Hale, author of SoundStage! Xperience’s popular “Art+Tech” column, to discuss his unique approach to hardware and music reviews, how the column came about, the value of today’s audio gear as compared with that of decades past, and how technology influences the creation and enjoyment of art.  Sources: "How Good Can the Fo...

This week, SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast host Jorden Guth is joined by Dr. Mark Waldrep of AIX Records fame to discuss changes in the audiophile music marketplace over the years, as well as Mark’s controversial and ever-evolving views on high-resolution music recording and playback, as well as why he stopped mastering records altogether. Sources: "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/DA/A Loop Inserted...

In this week’s episode, host Jorden Guth is joined by legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman to discuss what mastering is, what it isn’t, how mastering differs from remastering, and why vinyl sometimes sounds better than digital. Sources: “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section” by Joseph Taylor: https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/features-menu/recording-of-the-month-menu/1175-art-pepper...

In this week’s episode, host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and electronics measurements specialist Diego Estan to discuss the publication’s measurement philosophy and methodology, and also get to the root of what the heck quadrature is and why you should have paid attention in physics class. Along the way, they discuss some of the best-measuring gear they’ve experienc...

This week, host Jorden Guth is joined by Wilson Audio CEO Daryl Wilson to talk about what it was like to grow up alongside the storied brand, which his father, David, and mother, Sheryl, founded; how his path through life led him back to the company; and how Wilson speakers are designed, built, and voiced differently from other loudspeakers. Sources: “The Great North American Loudspeaker Tour: Wil...

Host Jorden Guth is trotting the globe this week and is tight on time, so he and producer Dennis Burger dug into the vaults to pull out an interview from last year with Simaudio’s marketing director Étienne Gautier. In this extended cut of the conversation, Dennis and Étienne discuss how the company’s marketing strategy is evolving and why Moon by Simaudio decided to sponsor the best art-restorati...

In this episode, host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! Xperience senior editor Joseph Taylor to discuss his love for vinyl, the cassette tape revival, creating the next generation of audiophiles, and the ways in which music mastering has changed over the decades.  They also dig into Joe’s ongoing “Curator” series of articles, how he finds his inspiration, why he focuses on certain artists, and...

In this episode, host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! Solo editor Geoff Morrison to discuss headphones as a gateway drug into hi-fi, traveling with over-ears vs. on-ears, and mixing audio for a variety of headphones, speakers, and even YouTube.  They also dig into dedicated music players vs. smartphones, whether or not Bluetooth can deliver good sounds, if anyone can do noise canceling better...

In this first episode of the second season of the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, new host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider to discuss the road forward. Although Jorden has been working for about ten years in high-end hi-fi as part of our video team, to most he is a new face in the hi-fi scene. But he has the experience and he is also keenly award of trends that appeal t...

In their final episode as co-hosts of the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger kick off a super-sized rant by digging into Robert Harley’s editorial from the February 2023 issue of The Absolute Sound to discuss what speaker sensitivity ratings actually mean and whether using volts instead of watts as a reference is deceptive (4:48 to 38:04). From there (38:46 to 55:5...

In this week’s first segment (2:26 to 22:02), Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger talk about the former’s experiences at CES 2023, and reminisce about what the show used to be, both in terms of hi-fi and as an overall barometer of the state of the consumer-electronics market. Next up (22:44 to 45:57), they return to the Harman target curve well yet again to talk about a new video from The Headphon...

This week, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger kick off the discussion by digging into SoundStage!’s year-end coverage (3:17  to 26:06). In addition to discussing their favorite products of the year, they also talk about three people who deserve recognition for significant contributions to audio reproduction. Next up (27:03 to 45:43), they dig into a piece from Stereophile about the ways in...

This week, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger start by taking a look at The Absolute Sound’s coverage of the Taiko Audio Extreme music server and evaluate some claims made by the manufacturer and reviewer alike (4:48 to 20:43). Does a glorified hard drive really need 700,000µF of capacitance? And should your music server really serve double duty as a space heater? Next up (21:43 to 43:40),...

This week, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger visit the Audio Science Review forums to shine a spotlight on an overlooked comment by Dr. Sean Olive. The topic? Who should and shouldn’t be included in listening panels and whether a university janitor’s opinions about good sound are as valid as those of your average AES member (4:28 to 21:25).  Next up (22:25 to 39:08), they opine about somet...

This week, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger are joined by their old friend Steve Guttenberg—aka ”The Audiophiliac”—to discuss his recent interview with Professor Edgar Choueiri, the man behind the BACCH-SP Stereo Purifier (4:00 to 20:15).  Steve was also kind enough to stick around for the second segment (20:54 to 46:15) to discuss Dolby Atmos for music and movies alike, as well as some p...

In this week’s first segment (3:54 to 26:09), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger dig into a review of the Lavardin ITx20 amp and discuss the manufacturer’s claims about “memory distortion” and how its circuitry eliminates that. This leads to a larger discussion about another big bugbear in the audio industry: the time domain. Next (27:03 to 41:30) they unpack the news that Spotify is suppos...

In this week’s first segment (3:28 to13:55), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger discuss a story about a new Qobuz playlist featuring songs mixed for THX Spatial Audio. The mixes are designed to make the sound from your headphones seem like it’s coming from within the room rather than right in your ears. Does it work? Is it worth your time? And did Qobuz accomplish something that Apple could...

In this week’s first segment (7:24 to 22:07), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger discuss a new piece by Andrew Heinzman about why he thinks surround sound, Dolby Atmos, and headphone virtualization don’t work for music. There’s some agreement. There’s some disagreement. There might even be some nuance. Who knows? Next (23:00 to 35:56) they dig deep into SoundStage! Global’s coverage of CanJ...

In this week’s first segment (3:20 to 24:00), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger have a conversation about a proposed new headphone tuning standard from Sonarworks called SoundID SR. What does it do and why does it exist? And does it reveal any flaws in the Harman Curve? Next up (24:34 to 38:36) they react to the reporting on the announcement and release of Apple’s new second-generation Air...