In this episode of the SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast, hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger riff on an article by Diego Estan, in which he re-evaluated a pair of Stenheim Alumine Two speakers that demand something a little different in terms of setup. That leads to some insights gleaned from an interview Dennis conducted with Zoltan Balla and Blake Alty of Paradigm about how room design is influencing speaker design.

In the second segment, Brent and Dennis revisit the “live music as a reference” debate, which leads to a discussion about an old article by Sean Olive on live-versus-recorded-music tests and why they’re problematic. Lastly, they vicariously visit the Montreal Audiofest 2022 by way of SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider’s show coverage, and discuss the products they wish they could have heard themselves. 

Sources:

"Doing Our Due Diligence: Room Gain Revisited with the Stenheim Alumine Two Loudspeakers" by Doug Schneider and Diego Estan: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1661-doing-our-due-diligence-room-gain-revisited-with-the-stenheim-alumine-two-loudspeakers

"A Fantastic Gateway" by Dennis Burger: https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index.php/feature-articles/1186-a-fantastic-gateway-a-qa-with-paradigms-zoltan-balla-and-blake-alty-on-the-new-monitor-se-8000f-loudspeaker

"On Live Music" by Jim Austin: https://www.stereophile.com/content/live-music

"Why Live-versus-Recorded Listening Tests Don't Work" by Sean Olive: https://seanolive.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-live-versus-recorded-listening.html

"AudioQuest NightHawk Headphones" by Brent Butterworth: https://www.soundstagesolo.com/index.php/equipment/headphones/75-audioquest-nighthawk-headphones

"Montreal Audiofest 2022 - Montreal, Canada" by Doug Schneider: https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/shows-events/montreal-audiofest-2022-montreal-canada