PS Audio founder and CEO, Paul McGowan, writes a daily blog: short, informative, fun, often controversial, but always interesting. Subjects range from personal stories, how to setup your system, news of the day, streaming, vinyl, tubes, transistors, loudspeakers, holographic imaging and more. Kind of like the Car Talk of audio. Not much is sacred, and there’s rarely a mention of our own products.
Easy to subscribe and even easier to unsubscribe if you wish. Join us.
Paul's Posts
Linear performance
One of the items in our list of 9 for the output stage requirements of a DAC or preamplifier is linear performance. So, what's that mean and why is it...
It's fundamental
I'll get back to analog output stages soon enough but I got waylaid on our Community Forums area by an article posted by one of our Community Leaders, Gordon. The...
Why it matters
We've been focusing on the designer's choices when building a DAC or a preamp and one of my readers asked a great question: if even a single pot or stepped...
Output impedance
I was set to move onward in our explanation of the output analog stage of a DAC or preamp but one of my readers asked me to explain output impedance...
Stepping out
Perhaps the most expensive option a designer has to control the gain is called a stepped attenuator. These devices can range from the reasonably simple to the ultra exotic and...
Gilbert's cell
In yesterday's postwe covered how a potentiometer, or pot, worked - the standard volume control found on most preamplifiers and a few DACS with analog inputs and volume control. Yet...