Paul cofounded PS Audio, and he’s spent fifty years doing the two jobs that never stay separate: designing the gear, and standing in someone else’s living room when it doesn’t sing. Phono preamplifiers. Power regenerators. Digital-to-analog converters. A company that had to be built more than once, the second time with Terri. He never worked at Infinity. He worked with Infinity’s founder, Arnie Nudell, and together they formed Genesis Technologies.
The equipment’s rarely the thing that’s wrong.
What wouldn’t leave him is simpler than the circuits. Setup, the system as a whole, and the room are easily 75 percent of what a listener hears. He’s watched million-dollar systems at audio shows fail that test. He’s watched ordinary rooms come alive in an afternoon, once someone knew where the speakers go and what the room is doing. These ten books are that knowledge, written down so it isn’t trapped in one person’s head.
He’s the CEO of PS Audio, a father of four, and in the Audio Hall of Fame. The YouTube channel, where he talks about listening every day, has more than a quarter million subscribers. When he isn’t in the lab or on the factory floor in Boulder, he’s hiking in Colorado, or with his family there and in Paris.
The guides are the practical half of the life. The other half is the story of how the company got built by someone who started out not knowing what he was doing.
“The results of setting up a system as Mr. McGowan outlines can be fantastic.”
Jim Bray, Technofile
“Jim Smith’s ‘Get Better Sound’ and Paul’s ‘Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo’ are both excellent references.”
allan.thunes, PS Audio Forum