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I’m curious to get a sense of where our readers stand on the subject of high res audio. Every year at CES, there is a definite push being made by manufacturers to have high res audio be the next big thing for our ears. There are a number of ways to get better than CD spec audio these days. Where at one-time storage was the issue and lossy, compressed audio became the way for portable and digital streaming use, now memory is cheap and plentiful and we can have, supposedly, master quality audio both at home and on the go. Different delivery systems, file formats, and resolutions can make the choices a bit confusing. This is before we even get into the subject of the music itself and how it was recorded and mastered and let alone whether we can hear a difference between 16/44 and higher resolutions of the same audio tracks. Of course you also have your analog vinyl die-hards who still poo-poo digital music playback in general into this mix. I personally don’t regard vinyl as high res at all, but some folks however make an argument that it is and it’s better. The introduction of MQA into market as almost a THX style quality and provenance certification for audio has also raised some additional questions on the subject. What in high res audio is real and what is hype? Opinions, of course, are varied and passionate so let’s keep it civil please. I’ve always been of the mind that whatever way you find that gets you a consistent emotional connection to your music of choice is good. Whether it be CD, vinyl, DSD, PCM, 8-Track, Victrola or two tin cans with a piece of twine. If it works for you, good. If there is a market for it, even better. But in our constant search to find better quality sources when it comes to our hobby, where do you stand?


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A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.

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