An independent library on high-end audio

Your room changes the sound more than the spec sheet does.

High-end home audio, home theater and two-channel Hi-Fi, treated as one system. We plan the room, the channel layout and the signal chain, then publish the measurements and the parts that did not work.

Start with a system plan ↗ Browse every topic
10Guides published
7Topic clusters
Nov 6Last updated
In-room response / 20 Hz to 20 kHz

That dip near 60 Hz is usually the room, not the speaker. Most system plans start there.

GLLast edit: Speaker and Amplifier Matching Without the Spec-Sheet MythsGL10 guides in the libraryGLMaya Chen / in-room sweepsGLplain-text mirror on every page
Four ways in

Pick the system you are actually building

The library is organised around systems and rooms, not around product lines.

01 / Whole system Building a System 02 / Film Home Theater 03 / Music Hi-Fi & Stereo 04 / The room Room Acoustics
Topic clusters

Go deep on one part of the system

Clusters covering the room, the hardware, the decisions and the method. Pick the part you are working on.

Open the index
01 2 guides Building a System Room goals, channel layouts, signal chain, power and wiring decisions made in the right order, from an empty floor to a working system. Plan the whole chain 02 2 guides Home Theater Channel layouts, height layers, centre-channel dialogue, bass management and the trade-offs between a living room and a dedicated cinema room. Multichannel and immersion 03 1 guides Hi-Fi & Stereo Source, amplification and loudspeakers as one chain: stereo imaging, seat geometry, analogue sources and what actually changes the presentation. Two-channel listening 04 1 guides Room Acoustics Modes, reflections, placement, treatment and calibration, with measurements taken in ordinary rooms rather than anechoic specifications. The loudest component 05 1 guides Speakers & Components How drivers, crossovers, cabinets, amplifiers and sources behave together, explained by mechanism and measurement instead of model numbers. Hardware fundamentals 06 2 guides Buying & Comparisons Category decisions, budget tiers and spec-sheet traps, with the room and system conditions under which the answer changes. Spend where it matters 07 1 guides Measurements & Method Test protocols, tolerances, frequency-response reading, failed experiments and the editorial standard behind every published number. How we know
From the logbook

What is actually in here

These counts come out of the published files. They are not claims about how careful we are. The method notes sit inside each guide.

01 10

Guides published

A small library on purpose. Every page has a dated short answer and a sources list.

02 4,152

Words on the record

Counted from the Markdown source, including the method notes and the failed tests.

03 7

Topic clusters

System planning, home theater, stereo, room acoustics, components, buying decisions and the measurement method.

04 100%

Pages with a plain-text copy

Every guide ships an .md mirror, so the text can be checked without a browser.

From the notebook

Filed under room acoustics / edited with the raw sweep attached

I moved the left speaker 18 cm to fix a 60 Hz dip. The dip got deeper. That is the result worth writing up.

Maya Chen, room-mode sweeps

Build paths

From a plan to a working system

Systems
01 Entry path Build the First System Decide the room, the channel count and the budget split before buying any box. Ends with a system you can measure and upgrade. 4articles 02 Multichannel path Home Theater, Room by Room From a 5.1.2 living-room layout to height channels, dialogue and bass that holds up across more than one seat. 3articles 03 Stereo path Two-Channel Hi-Fi Source, amplification, loudspeakers and seat geometry treated as a single chain, with the failure case recorded. 1articles 04 Measurement path Room and Bass Tuning Learn to read an in-room sweep, move the seat and the subwoofer, then calibrate in an order that can be repeated. 2articles
Recently edited

The newest pages

All
Keep up

A note when a guide changes

Existing pages get retested and edited. If you want the diff rather than a digest, leave an address.

Subscribe ↗