“We only know what we are told, and even that isn’t true.”
— From the tragicomedy Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead written by Tom Stoppard
When Roger first moved up to the Bay Area from Santa Barbara, CA in 2014 one of his objectives was launching the Berkeley School of HI-Fi which he did that same year. Over the next few years students attended classes and received tutoring from one of high-end audio’s top designers. Also, Roger developed what he hoped would become a curriculum to be supplemented by a companion book that would serve as an introduction to audio. Roger spent many hours transferring his knowledge via dictation which was later transcribed to electronic format. Sadly, the curriculum was never incorporated into the Berkeley School of Hi-Fi and the book never fully realized.
All told there are eight chapters, each at various stages of completion, and each month a new chapter will be published here and archived in our digital library. In addition, we will attempt to build upon Roger’s initial efforts and take things to the next level as we continue to curate Roger’s personal collection of journals, interviews, letters, and other writings in the hope that we can continue to learn from one of the top experts in his field.
A Beginners Guide and Other Thoughts on Audio
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Introduction
Roger was an avid reader of Stereophile and he especially enjoyed reading the Letters to the Editor and equipment review sections…
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Chapter 1 - Cone Speakers
I would like to tell you a few things about cone speakers that are not widely known. The cone speaker that we are talking about …
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Chapter 2 - Electrostatic Speakers
The first thing I would like to say about electrostatic speakers is that they should not be feared as much as they seem to be.
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Chapter 3 - Amplifiers
The most important thing to know about power level when selecting an amplifier is your speaker sensitivity and how loud you listen.
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Chapter 4 - Preamplifiers
In the past, a preamplifier was thought to be comprised of a phono and line section together in a single chassis.
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Chapter 5 - Noise
To begin, we will divide noise into two different types. There is hum, which in very low frequency is generally related to 60 cycle power.
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Chapter 6 - Digital
To understand how digital works, we need to talk a little bit about the process of converting an analogue signal to digital and then…
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Chapter 7 - Tubes vs. Transistors
I have designed both tube and transistor amplifiers and was fortunate enough to be a young man at the time transistors…
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Epilogue
The introduction to Thoughts On Audio featured a letter to the editor Roger wrote to John Atkinson of Stereophile, so we thought it would be fitting…