PSB Alpha IQ

Like most music lovers these days, I use some kind of computing device for the bulk of my listening. When I’m listening through the KEF LS60 Wireless active speaker system in my living room, I cue up music, control playback, and adjust system settings using a ninth-generation iPad. Upstairs in my home office, I use my MacBook Pro (late 2023, M3) to control playback through the PSB Alpha iQ active speaker system on the top shelf of my secretary desk.

Read more: Shape-Shifters—Using Music Apps on Foldable Smartphones

Ever since I got into file-based playback in the late 2000s, I’ve used some kind of app to play music. At first it was iTunes, the music app bundled with Mac computers. When I started purchasing high-rez albums from download stores like HDtracks, I added BitPerfect, an inexpensive utility that runs on top of iTunes and enables bit-perfect playback of files with different sampling rates and bit depths.

Read more: Direct Connections—Do You Really Need a Music App?

As this is my first feature article for SoundStage! Simplifi, and my first contribution as senior site editor, I’m going to kick things off with a synopsis of my hi-fi journey to date. This will hopefully break the ice and provide some context about my philosophy when it comes to our audio hobby.

Read more: The Long Way Round: My Journey to Simplifi

It’s been said so often, it’s almost an audiophile cliché: the most important component in any sound system is the room in which it’s used. Like all clichés, this one contains a large measure of truth.

Read more: Reading the Room: An Interview with Nilo Casimiro Ericsson of Dirac Research

Back in 2012, when Canada’s Lenbrook Industries was getting set to launch its Bluesound line of multiroom streaming products, they made a critical hire. Who was that person? A software engineer who could oversee development of the operating system and apps that would underpin the new components? A hardware engineer who could design those components? A marketing director who could create a campaign to drive awareness of the new brand?

Read more: Help! I Need Somebody!

Am I kidding myself in thinking that I’ve put together an endgame music system? Make that two systems—one in my main-floor living room and another in my second-floor office. Recently, I’ve made some changes to both setups, and I’m delighted with the results. I fully expect both systems to keep thrilling me until I shuffle off this mortal coil or get carted off to a home.

Read more: Game Over!

When Canada’s Lenbrook Industries purchased select assets of MQA Limited in September 2023, audiophiles had lots of questions. One question was, Why? What interest could the owner of three major audio brands—Bluesound, NAD, and PSB—have in an audio format that had been embroiled in controversy for the whole of its existence? Critics of MQA (of which there were many) had even more pointed questions, such as, How is this thing not dead yet?

Read more: MQA’s Second Chapter

I consider it fortuitous that my semi-retirement coincided with the emergence of streaming as the dominant mode of music distribution. As I wrote in my kick-off feature for Simplifi, my missus and I downsized in early 2018 in preparation for our retirements. Our previous home had a dedicated listening room in a third-floor loft. In our new home, the hi-fi has to live in the living room. That multipurpose space can’t accommodate a conventional component system—hence my use of active speakers, where the amplifiers and other electronics are built into the speaker enclosures.

Read more: Mixed Media

Spotify began service in 2009, which means we’re 15 years into the streaming era. I’m generally a late adopter of new technology, so it took me a while to join the party. I got into file-based playback in a big way starting around 2011, but only began streaming in 2015. Now I’m all in. I’d guess that streaming (mainly from Qobuz) accounts for 90% of my listening.

Read more: Getting Physical

There are many things I like about my gig on the SoundStage! Network, but what I enjoy most are my colleagues. They all share my passion for music and audio, and they’re all very knowledgeable. And they have strong opinions that often diverge in interesting ways.

Read more: Getting Spaced: What’s the Future for Atmos-Encoded Music?

“Push that button,” Doug Schneider suggested after Jason fired up Roon and began streaming some music. Jason Thorpe, senior editor of SoundStage! Ultra, had recently built a Roon server using spare computer parts. He connected the server to an ancient Squeezebox Touch streamer, and that, in turn, to the USB port on the Hegel Music Systems H120 integrated amplifier–DAC of his main-floor music system.

Read more: Little Colored Lights: Drilling Down in Roon

  1. The French Connection—Is Audirvana a Worthy Alternative to Roon?
  2. Apple’s War on Windows
  3. Fire Sales
  4. Direct versus Retail
  5. Harman International Has Bought Roon Labs—What Comes Next?
  6. Getting Physical—Do LPs and CDs Have a Place in Simplifi’d Hi-Fi?
  7. Active Voices: Livio Cucuzza of Sonus Faber
  8. Is Roon Worth It?
  9. Out and About—Using Roon Away from Home
  10. Lakeside Streaming—Network Entertainment at a Vacation Home
  11. Streaming Update—Spring 2023
  12. Active Voices: An Interview with Paul Barton and Rob Nicholls of PSB Speakers
  13. The State of Streaming—2023
  14. Gordon's System, Re-Simplifi'd
  15. Mix Master: PMC's Heff Moraes on Making Music in Atmos
  16. Toronto Audiofest 2022, Simplifi’d
  17. The Great Debate: Is Component Hi-Fi Dead?
  18. Evolving Hi-Fi: My Journey with a Fleet of Devialet Silver Phantoms
  19. Simplifi'd Hi-Fi at Munich High End–and Elsewhere
  20. How We Listen
  21. Wayback Playback
  22. Listen While You Work
  23. The State of Streaming—2022
  24. Why "Simplifi"—Five Years Later
  25. The Evolution of BluOS: An Interview with Lenbrook's Andrew Haines
  26. Dolby Atmos Music in Your Home
  27. The Big Switch
  28. I'm Only in It for the Money
  29. Encore! Encore! An Interview with Patricia Barber, Jim Anderson, and Ulrike Schwarz
  30. The New Apple Music
  31. Moving Forward with Formation: An Interview with Andy Kerr of Bowers & Wilkins
  32. Glory Days
  33. Spotify Goes Lossless
  34. In Defense of Streaming
  35. Tinkering Simplifi'd
  36. Simplifi Defined
  37. Going Deep with Artison
  38. A Simplifi Yearbook
  39. A Perfect Pair
  40. The Critical Component
  41. Has the Time Come for Surround Music?
  42. My Top Ten Products of the Last Two Years
  43. Turning Pro
  44. All About That Bass
  45. Gently Down the Stream
  46. Big Events
  47. Rules of the Game
  48. The Name Game
  49. January 1, 2020: The State of Streaming
  50. Warsaw’s Audio Video Show 2019, Simplifi’d
  51. Toronto Audiofest 2019, Simplifi'd
  52. Hi-Rez à-Go-Go
  53. Streaming the Classics
  54. Play Nice Together -- An Interview with Rob Darling of Roon Labs
  55. Active Voices, Part Three: KEF's Jack Oclee-Brown
  56. High End 2019, Simplifi'd
  57. Active Voices, Part Two: Axiom Audio's Andrew Welker
  58. Montréal Audio Fest Simplifi'd
  59. Active Voices, Part One: Elac's Andrew Jones
  60. Let's Keep it Simple
  61. A Roon of One's Own
  62. How I Simplifi'd My Wi-Fi
  63. Are Downloads Dead?
  64. Hi-Rez Streaming: Tidal vs. Qobuz
  65. Toronto Audiofest 2018 Simplifi'd
  66. How I Simplifi'd My Hi-Fi
  67. Time to Celebrate: Five Years of Google Chromecast
  68. How Good Can Voice Recognition Get?
  69. Are Smart Speakers Any Good for Audiophiles?
  70. High End 2018, Simplifi'd
  71. Is the Smart Speaker a Dumb Idea?
  72. What's Up with Apple AirPlay 2?
  73. The Spotify Dilemma
  74. CES 2018, Simplifi’d
  75. Farewell, CES
  76. Room Tunes
  77. Social Streaming
  78. CEDIA 2017, Simplifi’d
  79. Classical Prime Time
  80. The Röst Reconsidered
  81. High End 2017, Simplifi'd
  82. Vinyl: There's an App for That
  83. Metadata: Life with Roon
  84. The Internet and Audio: The Good, the Bad, and the Impossible
  85. The State of Streaming
  86. CES 2017, Simplifi'd
  87. Why "Simplifi"

Page 1 of 9