Jonathan Scull

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Fine Tunes #7
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Jan 03, 1999  |  0 comments
Let's talk cable dressing. Make mine vinaigrette! (And you thought I'd go for French . . . ) Cable dressing is actually a rather delicate issue that requires a certain leap of faith. The concept is so simple that even I can explain the science to you. But the leap occurs when you realize how the positioning of cables and interconnect can make a real difference in the sound of your system. In spite of this, I've seen power cords and interconnects tangled up in a hopeless mess at the back of some pretty serious components.
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Fine Tunes #8
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Feb 23, 1999  |  0 comments
Bill Gates would have you believe we live in a plug'n'play world. Apple has proselytized same since day one. But I'm here to tell you it just isn't so for high-end audio. The orientation of a component's AC plug—even the quality of the wall receptacle itself—affects the sound! Oh no, Mr. Bill, not something else to futz with! Will it never end?
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Fine Tunes #9
Fine Tunes
Jonathan Scull  |  Mar 30, 1999  |  0 comments
Okay, let's return to the power grid. In the February installment of "Fine Tunes", we learned that typical domestic 110V AC supplies are derived from that 220V transformer out on the pole. The center-tap 110V supply is unbalanced, but if you take 220V service, you're getting balanced power. One thing you can do is take 220V down to 110V with a step-down transformer. George Cardas swears by it. He's also experimenting with a Statpower Technologies Prosine 1000 Full Square Wave Converter hooked to a big mutha battery to power his front-end components.
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Fun with Moose and Squirrel
My Back Pages
Jonathan Scull  |  May 26, 2021  |  11 comments
'Cause it's hard to say what's real / When you know the way you feel—Flaming Lips, "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21," from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

In a recent Zoom meeting, some friends got into a dust-up about how "real"-sounding high-performance audio systems can be. The consensus was that there was no chance at all of real, live sound. A label owner waved it off as impossible: "Fuhgeddaboudit," he said. He's from New York, like me.

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Gordon Rankin, Wavelength's Single-Ended Man
Interviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Apr 04, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 01, 1996  |  0 comments
Jonathan Scull: Gordon, please tell us what you see as the basic difference between single-ended and push-pull.
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Graaf GM 200 OTL power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jun 05, 2005  |  First Published: Sep 05, 1997  |  0 comments
I'm always eager to fulfill my prime Stereophile directive: "To go where no audiophile has gone before," as JA often quips. As it happens, I've long suffered an itch to audition OTL (output-transformer–less) amplifiers, wondering how eliminating the output transformer might affect the sound. Enter the Graaf GM 200, with nothing but wire between its power tubes and the crossover.
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HeadRoom BlockHead headphone amplifier
Solid State Preamp ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jul 07, 2002  |  0 comments
With whom are you most intimate? Your wife? Husband? Your modern-times Significant Other? Your pet? Or, like a lot of audiophiles, is it your audio system? Do you nitpick and tweak it as if it were your pet?
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High-End Tunes to Go
FeaturesMiscellaneous
Jonathan Scull  |  Aug 23, 2012  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2001  |  9 comments
Photo Credit: Tim Austin Photography

A true story: I got tagged for doing a howling 90mph on the way back to New York on the Jersey Turnpike late one night and got off with a warning.

I was pulled over by a beefy young Trooper, lights blinking furiously. Oops. [heh heh]. He saw Kathleen and I weren't nuts, checked the papers and my license, then checked out the Lexus very carefully with his flashlight. There was much oohing and ahhing.

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Hiroyasu Kondo: Audio Notes
Interviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Jul 08, 2007  |  First Published: Mar 08, 1997  |  0 comments
Our interview with Hiroyasu Kondo—founder of Audio Note Japan, and a legendary figure in his own time—took place during HI-FI '96 last June at the Waldorf=Astoria. It seemed very natural; the crowd at the Show was very internationalist. Herb Reichert of Audio Note New York found us a quiet corner after lunch, and we sat down to talk.
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Jack Renner of Telarc: Direct from Cleveland!
Interviews
Jonathan Scull  |  Sep 21, 2004  |  First Published: Oct 01, 1998  |  0 comments
Kathleen (K-10) and I first met Jack Renner—Telarc's Chairman, CEO, and Chief Recording Engineer—at Iridium, a tony jazz club here in New York. He was recording Benny Golson and the Jazz Messengers doing a rousing a tribute to Art Blakey. Now what would you think a guy who's won 31 Grammys over 21 years would be doing, exactly? Maybe feet up, a cigar languidly tracing curlicues in the air while directing his minions?
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