Blog Posts

Ypsilon, Nirvana and The Greek Audiophiles

By Thanos Argyropoulos One of the things I love about audio, is that it gives you the opportunity to connect with other audiophiles around the world. This year I was lucky enough to be invited by Nirvana Sound’s founder George Moraitis to visit the Ypsilon factory in Greece. It was an...

A journey into the divine muse

John Mellencamp was once being interviewed by an enthusiastic young music journalist about his famous hit song ‘Jack and Diane’. At one point she asked him “John, did you intend to symbolise the experiences of typical teenagers growing up in the American conservative heartland, dealing with psychological emerging identity angst,...

Moments of Beauty

One of the defining characteristics of our time is the incredible busyness of our lives. We have established a culture that admires people who can plan, set goals, ‘achieve a lot in a day’, multi-task, meet deadlines and generally get a lot done. As a result, we lead busy...

Conversations with François

Earlier this year at the Munich High End Show, I had the pleasure of spending some time with my friend François Saint-Gérand. François owns and operates ANA Mighty Sound in Paris, a store which is rapidly becoming a ‘must-visit’ experience for many audiophiles and lovers of analog music replay. Part...

Listening vs hearing

Have you ever been accused by someone of having ‘selective hearing’? “You only hear what you want to hear!” My wife constantly complains that I never listen to her… or something like that… Recently I spent some time with a dear family friend. Theo is 84 years old and in days gone...

Tube Rolling With Friends

Have you ever gone tube rolling? Sounds a bit naughty, but it’s actually a lot of fun! Recently we took delivery of a great sounding integrated amplifier from California, an Aesthetix Mimas. After running it in, we enjoyed playing it with various combinations of sources & speakers, gaining a greater appreciation...

X-Ray Audio & Bone Music

This is a true story of how music has an incredible ability to transcend borders and cultures. What lengths will music lovers go to get their ‘fix’? Have you got any “bootlegs” in your music collection? Have friends ever commented “how can you listen to that bootleg? It’s terrible quality audio!” Listening to...

Yuko Mabuchi Trio and Branford Marsalis Quartet great jazz ushered in the New Year in Orange County.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa produces one of the most important jazz series in the country. I drove up from my home near San Diego to attend the Yuko Mabuchi Trio/Branford Marsalis Quartet performances on January 25th in the 1800 seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert...