G’s Hifi Lab -Testing one, two, three
Writing reviews, and writing in general, is something that suits me. To the core. The combination of listening to music and writing about it is probably the ideal and when Jaap Veenstra asked me to write for Alpha-Audio I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I’ve been part of this great team for over three years […]
G’s reference – fresh blood 4
Due to a concurrence of circumstances, a lot of new elements have crept into my reference system over the past few months and therefore your author wrote this new episode of ‘Fresh Blood’. Just to bring you back up to speed with all the big and small changes. Enjoy!
Update – Renovating the Alpha Audio listening room
Regular readers will have noticed that we are working hard at ‘pimping’ the office. The entire listening room is being rebuild with the primary goal of getting the acoustics (even) better and also getting the noise floor down. Now we regularly hear some traffic. And that is inconvenient in our line of work. In this […]
The search for a new reference speaker – part 1
As previously reported in a short update video we posted earlier, we are looking for a new reference speaker. A reader pointed out to us that it might be fun to do a series on this search. Great idea. That’s what we’re going to do, because it’s also important for you to know why a […]
Veddan Origin – Dutch Achterhoek audio is absolutely different
If you have to name a typical audio country, you will quickly come to the United Kingdom or perhaps Denmark. Logical: they have an enormous history when it comes to brands that have proven themselves. But do you have any idea how much the Netherlands contribute to the world of hi-fi? There are some real […]
Why a good switch does matter for streaming audio
Keeping an open mind is important. Both in our lives and in our profession. If we as a human race don’t keep an open mind, we are basically at a standstill, as we would be dismissing everything we don’t know. However, at Alpha Audio we also think it is important to understand things. We like […]
Inventing is the norm
The Netherlands is the country where the cassette tape, the compact disc, bluetooth and wifi were invented. With the passing away of Lou Ottens, for many years the ‘head of inventions’ of Philips Audio and Video, we started to dive a little into the history of the country’s inventors. And that makes us quite proud!
Alpha’s Top Tips for Better Sound
Listening to some nice music is only part of our Hi-Fi Hobby. Although that should be the main thing of course. It is also the fine-tuning of our lovely systems. Putting those ‘oh-so-important’ dots on the i. A little sharper focus, a little tighter and more beautiful bass. More balance… Does that cost a lot […]
Audible differences Codecs – MP3 – AAC – Ogg – FLAC
After the story about audio codecs, we felt strongly about putting them to the test. What do they sound like? What are the differences? And how can we easily demonstrate that? And of course: let you hear it. We grab our reference track and get to work with Foobar and Adobe Audition!
From AAC, DSF and Flac to Mp3, Ogg Vorbis and WAV – Codecs
We stream a lot. Especially among you – the readers – streaming has become very common. We hardly ever think about what format we are streaming. AAC? ALAC? WAV? FLAC? We list these formats for you. Because one codec really isn’t the other!