The HiFi Hobbyist Podcast

The transmission line loudspeaker represents one of audio engineering’s most fascinating attempts to solve a fundamental acoustic problem. Engineers must produce deep, uncoloured low-frequency sound from an enclosure without letting the driver's rear wave interfere with the front wave. This topic holds personal interest for me because I recently purchased a pair of PMC Prophecy 5 loudspeakers. The transmission line serves as a trademark design for PMC across both domestic hi-fi and professional audio. In this first episode, we will look at the problem that the transmission line loudspeaker overcomes and examine how it compares to other solutions. In the next episode, we will explore how these speakers have developed over time. Afterwards, I will reflect on how the PMC Prophecy 5 speakers sound in my own system before opening a debate on the merits of transmission line designs. This episode features traditional English folk songs arranged by the Hi-Fi Hobbyist with the help of Mureka AI software. The songs featured are: The Goose and Common; The Dalesman's Litany; The Oaks Pit Disaster; The Lancashire Lads and Spence Broughton. We hope that you enjoy these episodes!  

Welcome to The final episode in our mini-series about the production of vinyl records and other physical media music formats. It has been inspired by attending a talk by Miles Showell, a renowned audio engineer who reminded me that my Hi-Fi only sounds as good as the material as I play on it. In this mini-series in the first episode, we considered how vinyl records are produced from the recording session to the production of the final record that we can play on our turntables. The following episode focused on specific aspects of production notably mastering of the recording in preparation for final production. The third episode focused on the work of two of the great audio engineers associated with the mastering process, Steven Wilson and Miles Showell. In this final episode, in order to conclude the series, we will generate a discussion comparing the work of these two artisans. In recognition of Miles’ work on Finlandia, the music accompanying this episode is a recording of this suite that he didn’t work on, downloaded from the Internet Archive by the London Proms Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras originally released on London Records – STS 15159, together with Two Melodies, Op. 63, No. 2 from the same recording. We hope that you enjoy the discussion, and if this is your first visit to the Hi-Fi Hobbyist podcast, that you will explore previous episodes. To ensure that you don't miss any episodes in the future, please follow our podcast wherever you listen to them.

Welcome to the third episode in this mini-series about the production of vinyl records and other physical media music formats. It has been inspired by attending a talk by Miles Showell, a renowned audio engineer which reminded me that my Hi-Fi only sounds as good as the material as I play on it. In this episode, we will compare Miles’s work to that of another great audio engineer, Steve Wilson. If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, I do recommend that you go back and listen to that first, as we will revisit some of the topics discussed last week, this time with practical examples. In next week’s episode, we will generate a discussion comparing the work of these two artisans. The music accompanying this episode features extracts from the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. Our audio extracts are provided by Musopen.org and played by the USAF Band and the Skidmore College Orchestra. These recordings are in the public domain.

Welcome to the second episode in this mini-series about the production of vinyl records and other physical media music formats. It has been inspired by attending a talk by Miles Showell, a renowned audio engineer which reminded me that my Hi-Fi only Sounds as good as the material as I play on it. In this episode, we will focus on specific aspects of production notably mastering of the recording in preparation for final production. If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, I do recommend that you go back and listen, but you can listen to this one first, if you like! In next week’s episode, we will focus on the work of two of the great audio engineers associated with the mastering process, Steve Wilson and Miles Showell. After this, to conclude the series, we will generate a discussion comparing the work of these two artisans. The music accompanying this episode has been generated by the Hi-Fi Hobbyist with the help of Mureka AI software. We revisit some of the brass band music, which has proved most popular on our partner Pixabay site, under the tag mediahobbyist We hope that you enjoy this mini-series and if this is your first visit to the Hi-Fi Hobbyist podcast that you will explore previous episodes. To ensure that you don't miss any episodes in the future please follow our podcast wherever you listen to them.

Welcome to this mini-series about the production of vinyl records and other physical media music formats. It has been inspired by attending a talk by Miles Showell, a renowned audio engineer who reminded me that my Hi-Fi only sounds as good as the material as I play on it. In this mini-series in the first episode, we will consider how vinyl records are produced from the recording session to the production of the final record that we can play on our turntables. The following episode will then focus on specific aspects of production notably mastering of the recording in preparation for final production. The third episode we will focus on the work of two of the great audio engineers associated with the mastering process, Steve Wilson and Miles Showell. To conclude the series, we will generate a discussion comparing the work of these two artisans. The music accompanying this first episode has been generated by the Hi-Fi Hobbyist with the help of Mureka AI software. It features a couple of musical sweets in a baroque style played by a trio of violin, flute, and harpsichord. We hope that you enjoy these episodes and if this is your first visit to the Hi-Fi Hobbyist podcast that you will explore previous episodes. To ensure that you don't miss any episodes in the future please follow our podcast wherever you listen to them. In the first part of this episode, we will consider the role of the master tape in the recording process.