Unexpected magic
by Paul McGowan![Unexpected magic](http://www.psaudio.com/cdn/shop/articles/angel-1298818_1280.png?v=1674831814&width=1100)
In order to keep up with our engineering load of 8 major ongoing projects our Director, Barry Solway—an accomplished software engineer, project manager, and gifted author—has hired a few interns for the summer. Among them, his son Carl who just graduated engineering school.
Carl's job is that of a software tester and, as such, his task is to dispassionately go through every feature and function a product might have to make sure it operates as expected. His first project was our new amplifier, Strata.
When it came time to test Strata's high-resolution streaming functionality with services like Tidal and Qobuz young Carl got stuck. He removed his headphones, signaled for his father to come to his side, and, in an apparent state of disbelief, said, "Whatever this Stellar device is, it's crazy! I am hearing things in my favorite music that I have never heard before. How is that possible?"
Carl's job was not to listen or evaluate the quality of music through Strata. Yet despite his mandate to remain detached from the device under test, he couldn't.
This once again goes back to my long-held theory that when we're presented with something dramatically better than what we consider normal, we often wonder if perhaps magic might have just happened.
What better joys are there than uncovering unexpected magic?
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