It's important to maintain the needle, or stylus, on your turntable for the best possible performance and enjoyment of your records. It can be tricky to know exactly when to switch it out. We highlight some signs of stylus wear and some maintenance tips.
If you’re creating a true home theater experience, understanding how an SPL graph works can help. SPL, or sound pressure levels, are powerful indicators capable of logging your home theater’s dynamic range. You can download an SPL graph on your smartphone, so you’re never left without recording options. Even if you’re not sending notifications based upon your graph’s readouts, you can take full...
A home entertainment setup is all about the sound source. Arguably, speakers are the most important component of any home theater. Many audiophiles spend years—and a lot of money—fortifying top-notch home entertainment systems capable of redefining the listener’s experience.When picking your speakers, you might find yourself stuck between two choices: active and passive speakers. Not all expert...
Taking care of your vinyl is critical to the long term enjoyment of your record collection. Check out our few tips to help keep your records scratch-free, clean, and vibrant for years to come.
Setting up a home theater system requires proper wiring and wire management. Depending on the system you set up in your home, the size of the wires and the proper type of wiring you need may vary. Recognizing the different types of wires and ways your situation may impact your choices will allow you to obtain the right wire gauge and type for your home theater.
What is Wire Gauge?
A wire gaug...
Even if you’re not a sound engineer, you can appreciate a warm, rich sound. Wooden speaker cabinets are popular, and for good reason. Their materials maximize speaker performance, capture a wide range of sounds and resist regular sound-dampening obstacles. If you’re creating a home theater, make sure you’re considering every angle. Speakers can be constructed from a variety of materials, but wo...
People love high quality audio experiences - to the point where many are willing to pay a premium to install a terrific new surround sound system in their home or a high quality stereo in their car. But understanding the anatomy of a speaker and learning what things like tweeters, midranges and woofers actually do (and more importantly, how they work together) is the key to making sure you're s...
When it comes to turntable designs, owners can get hung up on the “belt drive or direct drive” topic. It’s important to know the differences, and you can assure quality playback if you’ve invested correctly.We’re diving into the turntable’s anatomy, running through the pros and cons of each.This is however a topic where some users have a strong preference for a particular type.The Belt Drive Tu...
Shopping for a surround sound home theater system can be a tricky proposition, as oftentimes you're confronted with reams of paper that make up technical specifications sheet that read like, well, stereo instructions.But terms like "5.1" and "7.1" aren't meaningless marketing gibberish - they're actually very important to know so that you understand exactly what you're getting. Making an effort...
When you purchase a turntable and start playing music, you may notice that you need to set the tracking force. Depending on the type of audio system you obtain, the amount of adjustment and customization available may vary.
On most systems, you can set the tracking force to the optimal range based on the cartridge weight. Recognizing what your tracking force actually does for your records an...
