beginner audiophile | hifi | gear rev...
Michael O'Neal and his co-hosts bridge the gap between the clueless big box stores and the snobby stereo shops. Every show is filled with gear reviews, commentary, and interviews aimed to find out what makes a real world difference in your listening experience, how to get the most bang for your buck, and frankly, how to begin experiencing your music in the way it was intended.
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8: Speaker Placement 101
No matter how high end your speakers are, you’ve got to put them in the right place to maximize the sound. The old adage says “a cheaper, well placed pair of speakers will sound better than a more expensive, poorly placed set. In this solo episode,
40 min
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7: Do Speaker Cables REALLY Matter??
On today’s Beginner Audiophile, we “bake off” 4 different speaker cables from Monster, Blue Jeans, Analysis Plus, and Monoprice to see if A: if we can hear any difference, and B: if the difference is palpable enough for us to make a buying decision.
44 min
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6: Resolution Demystified, Oppo Sonica DAC/Stre...
On today’s Beginner Audiophile, we start by explaining the WAF, audio file resolution, and Michael gives an aptX update. Then we jump into the review of the OPPO Sonica DAC and what made a huge difference while we tested it. Finally,
57 min
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5: When Things Go Terribly Wrong…
…or at least, when things don’t go the way you expect them to. Today’s episode is about patience. I received a piece of gear that I couldn’t get to connect to the interwebs, and Paul and I fiddled for hours with the Oppo Sonica DAC until we got
52 min
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4: The Great Subwoofer Bake-Off, and Nicholas B...
On today’s show, Paul and I test out various ways to integrate a subwoofer into your 2-channel and multichannel system, including doing the infamous “subwoofer crawl”. We also check in with Nicholas Brown from SVS live from CES,
63 min
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3: A Deep Dive Interview with Andrew Jones, The...
Today’s show is a real treat. We got to sit down with Andrew Jones (Of TAD / Pioneer Fame) of ELAC. We’d first heard of Andrew a couple years ago when he made these insanely affordable Elac Debut B6 Speakers (See Episode 1 for A Review of these $
58 min
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2: Michael’s System, and The Great Headphone Ba...
Today Michael tells the story of how he fell down the rabbit whole of audiophilia and walks us through his reference system. Then, we do the Great Headphone Bake-Off, volume 1, testing $100 vs $150 vs $1800 headphones.
46 min
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1: Origin of Beginner Audiophile, Paul’s System...
Origin of Beginner Audiophile. Our audiophile stories. What IS an audiophile. Tour of Paul’s system. We test the ELAC B6 and Sprout. Gear Guide: Paradigm Monitor 7 speakers Tidal Chromecast 1MOREUSA E1001 Triple Driver In-Ear Headphones 1MOR
54 min