Ramblings.

Welcome to Issue 96, which features nothing in particular, just the usual equipment and music reviews, along with a little of this and a little of that. Although there is nothing particularly special about this issue, I do hope that most readers will find a few things that they really enjoy. That would be special enough.

Ministry of Misinformation: In a newsletter of audiophile pretensions, the following gem: Bottom-firing subwoofers will sound better if turned on their sides, because otherwise they are 90 degrees out of phase with the other speakers. This is, of course, nonsense. At subwoofer frequencies and wavelengths, you would have to do a lot more than turn a subwoofer on its side to put its output 90 degrees out of phase with any other speakers. And turning it on its side does virtually nothing to change its phase relative to having it face the floor. What will change, of course, although only very slightly, is the way the output is affected by room loading, so there could be a slight change in frequency response, all other things being equal. Is it necessarily an improvement? Probably not.

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