Technical guides

I spent money on a good soundbar, but it turned out the furniture was the reason for the poor sound quality. I’ll explain what’s physically going on and how to fix it without spending a dime.

The thinnest TVs on the market compromise audio quality. Teufel explains why this happens and what solutions are available to restore the sound you deserve.

If you own an entry-level or mid-range turntable and your amplifier has a standard phono input, the short answer is this: a moving magnet (MM) cartridge with an elliptical stylus. It works with any phono stage, it lets you replace just the stylus when it wears out, and it is the biggest sound upgrade you

The calendar marks March 3 as a must-attend event for our ears. Since 2007, the World Health Organization has designated March 3 as a day to promote hearing health and prevent hearing-related diseases. According to the WHO, about 1.1 billion people between the ages of 12 and 35 are putting their hearing at risk due

The design of Hi-Fi audio cables combines engineering principles with artisanal craftsmanship; although they may appear to be simple conductors on the outside, behind the scenes there are technical decisions regarding materials, geometry, and assembly that aim to preserve the signal from the source to the speaker. Manufacturers examine electrical variables—resistance, capacitance, and inductance—and mechanical

When a sound system doesn't perform as it should and the music sounds "muddy" or congested, many people blame the original recording or harmonic distortion. However, the culprit is often a more technical and unpleasant phenomenon: intermodulation (IM). This problem arises when different audio frequencies, instead of coexisting peacefully, collide within an audio system. This

The audible difference between a €1,000 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and one that costs €20,000 is nowhere near a difference of €19,000. Modern conversion chips—even those found in mid-range equipment—already operate at the theoretical limits of human perception. So where does that astronomical cost come from? It is a convergence of cutting-edge engineering, luxurious materials, and

Some streaming services, such as Spotify, offer a lossless audio option to their subscribers—a feature that promises higher-fidelity sound at the cost of increased bandwidth and greater storage usage. But this service raises a question: Is it worth paying more and using more data for this type of audio, or is it, in most cases,

The sound quality of a vinyl record depends—more than many people realize—on the record player—also known as a turntable—that plays it. A poorly built turntable degrades sound quality and can accelerate vinyl wear. That’s why there are noticeable differences between inexpensive models and units designed with materials and technical solutions that minimize such interference. Lightweight

Unlike semiconductor designs, tube amplifiers cannot drive speakers without an output transformer. Vacuum tubes operate with plate resistances measured in the thousands of ohms; speakers, on the other hand, have impedances in the range of a few ohms. Connecting the two directly would prevent power from being transferred efficiently, and the signal would suffer serious

The growing presence of direct current (DC) in home electrical systems is taking its toll on high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) systems. What was once an almost trivial problem—minor distortions in the power supply—is now occurring more frequently and manifesting as background noise that does not originate from the speakers or the recording format, but rather from the

This is a common question among those setting up a sound system: Does the subwoofer’s location matter when it comes to perceiving where the bass is coming from? The standard explanation points to the THX standards for movie theaters in the early 1980s, which set a crossover frequency around 80 Hz. That figure became established