SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast

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 experienced, some of the most idiosyncratic,...

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: Wilson Audio Specialties” by Jeff Frit...

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-restoration show on YouTube.

Sources:

“Moon ...

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 how he and his daughters influence...

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 than Bose, and Geoff’s personal re...

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 to young music listeners and to elec...

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 55:59), they dig deep to get to the bot...

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 Headphone Show, which discusses their move ...

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 which audio distribution is changin...

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), they check out a recent video by Yo...

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 something of a unicorn: an article about...

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 particularly disastrous surround sou...

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 supposedly introducing a new $20 Platinum...

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 couldn’t with this?

Next (14:58 to 30:48...

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 CanJam SoCal 2022. What were the highli...

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 AirPods Pro earphones, specifically th...

In this week’s first segment (3:33 to 14:28), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger start by celebrating the return of Creem magazine and discussing a new article about the resurrection of 8-track tapes thanks to Sacred Bones Records.

Next up (15:26 to 37:09) they dig into the August issue of AudioXpress, which is dedicated to acoustics and acoustical treatments. Unsurprisingly, Brent and Dennis have opinions about how the high...

In this week’s first segment (2:54 to 13:57), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger opine about a new report from Strata-gee.com about consumer trends in difficult economic times, and speculate about what all of this may mean for hi-fi, especially given how luxury-focused our hobby has become. 

Next up (14:27 to 28:28) they springboard off an article about the 60th anniversary of Stereophile to discuss how that publication chan...

In this week’s first segment (3:00 to 15:04), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger get the ball rolling by agreeing that Gordon Brockhouse’s review of the KEF LS60 Wireless active speaker system is probably the most important speaker review of 2022, and you should definitely read it. 

They follow that with a discussion (16:05 to 38:05) about a new blog post from The Absolute Sound’s Tom Martin that effectively presents bad mea...