How things work
Bluetooth codecs – getting music from your phone to your audio gear
What are the stereo audio codecs used by Bluetooth? Is it worth looking for any particular one? Should you even care?
Standard Mount or P-Mount: which cartridge mount do I need?
Some turntable cartridges come a Standard or 1/2-inch Mount, others with a T4P or P-Mount. Which one will work with your turntable?
Diving Deeply into Direct Stream Digital
Is DSD better than PCM? Should you prefer either format for your digital music? The answer in this deep dive into DSD might surprise you. Along the way, we'll objectively compare performance.
How does lossless audio compression work?
Do you want to know how lossless audio compression works? It's kind of magic, but with TIDAL, Apple Music and soon Spotify offering it, Lossless is the way we'll be listening more and more.
Do you need a CD Transport? Or will a CD player with digital output do the job?
Can a CD player with digital out do the job of a CD transport? My attempt at doing this led to a mystery: not enough noise. What was the cause of this?
Balanced headphones: what they are and should you want them?
Over the past few years, balanced headphones have become a thing. Lots of higher end digital audio players and headphone amplifiers now provide out...
Headphone tech explainer – the machines behind the sound
So, you’re looking at headphones and somewhere in the specifications or description the type of driver employed is mentioned. It might be a dynamic...
How much power do I need from my amplifier?
50 watts? 500 watts? How much power do you really need from a stereo amplifier? The answer might surprise you.
What is Damping Factor?
Some amplifiers include amongst the specifications something called "Damping Factors". What is it, and what does it mean for performance?
Why some digital audio players just aren’t loud enough
European rules limit the ability of some digital audio players to perform properly. See how and why ... and what to do about it.
What is DLNA all about?
DLNA is the way that many of us pipe music from its source to its "renderer". Come with us to find out what this is all about.
Turntable Tute: what is antiskating, and why do you need it?
Antiskating is an important feature of any turntable worth adding to your system. But what does it do, and what is skating anyway?
What is Dither?
As we'll see in this article, the prudential addition of noise -- dither --Â trades off one form of very objectionable distortion for another than is less bothersome.
Why most headphone outputs deliver inaccurate sound and what to do about it
There's a very good chance that the headphone output on your amplifier is colouring the sound that it is delivering to your headphones. See why and what to do about it.
