John E. Johnson, Jr.

Little Things: Keeping your Cool with Hot Amplifiers

John E. Johnson, Jr.December 28, 2015

Heat is the main enemy of consumer electronics. Unfortunately, many amplifiers get hot during use, especially if they have any bias into Class A operation. I have several amplifiers that get quite hot

Blogs & Little Things

Little Things: HDMI Repeaters for Long HDMI Cables

John E. Johnson, Jr.December 2, 2015

If you are like many home theater enthusiasts, you probably have your high definition display, either a flat panel or projector, some distance from your equipment rack. And, like most, you use an inexpensive HDMI cable.

Blogs & Little Things

JJ’s Now-and-Then-Blog: What Speaker Reproduces 20 Hz Cleanly and Costs less than $300?

John E. Johnson, Jr.November 23, 2015

Well, technically, a pair of headphones could be considered speakers, as cones and planar technology occurs in regular speakers and headphone...

Blogs & Little Things

JJ’s Now-and-Then Blog: Using a High End DAC for Reproducing Virtual Instruments

John E. Johnson, Jr.November 16, 2015

For those of you who not only listen to music, but play music as well, and if you play virtual instruments such as electronic drums or piano, you probably use the computer’s own audio chipset...

Blogs & Little Things

Jurassic World – Blu-Ray Movie Review

John E. Johnson, Jr.October 22, 2015

The amusement park that refuses to die is back again, this time with more teeth. That is, the management, Masrani (Khan), has asked the research and development department to gene splice the heck out of a T-Rex…

Movie Reviews

JJ’s Now-and-Then Blog – Lens Resolution and 4K Video Cameras

John E. Johnson, Jr.October 20, 2015

Now that 4K video cameras are appearing on the market at prices the Indie Film Producers can afford, the lens is the emerging factor that has to be of concern. In this article, I show the performance of some lenses that fit 4K video cameras, and which are inexpensive. Do they perform satisfactorily?

Blogs & Little Things

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

John E. Johnson, Jr.October 20, 2015

The Burning Amp DIY Convention was held on Saturday, October 17, 2015 in Redwood City, California. DIY'ers from all over the world attended. Some of the items shown were components where you can buy the parts and make the product...

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Spartacus – Movie Review

John E. Johnson, Jr.October 16, 2015

In the days of the Roman Empire two millenia ago (73 BCE), slaves were commodities. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), a Tracian, was one of them. He was purchased by a Roman, Batiatus (Peter Ustinov) who owned a gladiator school...

Movie Reviews

JJ’s Now-and-Then Blog – DAC Linearity and Perceived Audio Detail

John E. Johnson, Jr.September 17, 2015

DACs have an electronic characteristic called "Linearity" which means how close the output follows the input. DACs with less linearity can sound more detailed, as long as they have good time domain performance.

Blogs & Little Things

Seaton Sound SubMersive HPi+ Subwoofer Review

John E. Johnson, Jr.August 31, 2015

Seaton Sound builds subwoofers primarily for custom installations. As such, they do not have a lot of knobs, switches, and dials on the amplifier panel. What they do have is great sound - punchy and deep - with the capability of having a 6,000 watt Class D amplifier driving the main enclosure and an additional passive enclosure. You can imagine the results.

Subwoofers

Show Report: California Audio Show – August 14-16, 2015

John E. Johnson, Jr.August 15, 2015

The 2015 California Audio Show (CAS) met at the Westin Hotel near the San Francisco Airport on August 14-16, 2015. I finally got to see and hear a Pono in action, and there were a few new items of great interest that I had never seen before. There were less exhibitors than last year, but it was still a good show and worth attending.

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Woo Audio WA7d Fireflies Headphone Amplifier and DAC Review

John E. Johnson, Jr.August 10, 2015

Woo Audio, based in New York, builds a few power amplifiers, but lots of headphone amplifiers. In the current review, we take a look at the WA7d tubed headphone amplifier, with DAC, and solid state power supply.

Headphone Amplifier Reviews

Show Report: Head-Fi Meet, July 18, 2015

John E. Johnson, Jr.July 20, 2015

The Head-Fi Meet took place on July 18, 2015, held at the DoubleTree Hotel, in Burlingame, California. For those not familiar with the Head-Fi group, they are companies and individuals (DIY) who manufacture or build (one person making his own by hand) headphone amplifiers, and companies who also market headphones. They are a very special group of people, with innovation and dedication to extreme high quality.

Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Little Things: Using a Zobel Network to Reduce Harshness with Electrostatic Speakers

John E. Johnson, Jr.July 16, 2015

If you have some electrostatic speakers, and they sound harsh, it is probably due to your power amplifier having trouble with the resonance of the transformer in the speaker. This transformer raises the amplifier voltage to a higher voltage that goes to the stators. This problem can be alleviated by the use of a Zobel network.

Blogs & Little Things

JJ’s Now-and-Then Blog – Many New Audio and Video Codecs are Here. Which will You Choose?

John E. Johnson, Jr.July 2, 2015

New audio and video codecs are arriving by the train-load. Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, Auro-3D, Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), and whatever their competitors create (they are in a hurry to do that right now).

Blogs & Little Things

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.

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John E. Johnson, Jr.