SoundStage! Audiophile Podcast

This week, host Jorden Guth moderates a conversation between podcast producer Dennis Burger and returning guest L. Paul Hales, founder and chief designer of California-based Pro Audio Technology. Together, they explore the future of hi-fi and the role room correction may play in shaping it. This is the first installment of a two-part discussion.

Sources:

“Are JL Audio’s Primacy Speakers the Future of Stereo?”: https://www.soundstage.life/e/are-jl-audio-s-primacy-speakers-the-future-of-stereo/

“JL Audio’s Primacy Active Loudspeaker Systems: Charting a New Course Under Garmin” by Roger Kanno: https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/blogging-on-audio/232-roger-kanno/1266-jl-audios-primacy-active-loudspeaker-systems-charting-a-new-course-under-garmin

“Are JL Audio’s Primacy Speakers the Future of Stereo?” (S5:E4): https://youtu.be/xdyxqp9kYvE?si=lZwAeCePVYoVOLl6

“Chest-Pounding Bass, Done Smarter 🔊 Theory’s Renegade Approach to LFE”: https://youtu.be/vtOgOT5hsu0?si=0J9qiAfDGGK-8XHR

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:36 Introductions
00:09:59 Can bad rooms benefit from room correction?
00:16:43 Dennis enters the chat
00:23:15 The parable of the piano 
00:30:12 Direct vs. reverberant sound
00:36:14 Grimes theory of economic unfairness, but speakers instead of boots
00:40:59 Outro music: "Techné” by Art Against Agony

This week, host Jorden Guth sits down with SoundStage! Ultra’s Jason Thorpe and SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider to discuss their trip to Vienna for High End 2026—the first time the world's most important hi-fi show has been held outside Munich in more than two decades. Did the move affect the show? Was there a demographic shift among attendees? What were the most impressive products, rooms, and demonstrations? And perhaps most importantly, were the Vienna sandwiches up to par?

Sources:

High End 2026 coverage from Vienna, Austria, on SoundStage! Global: https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/shows-events/high-end-2026-vienna-austria

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:36 Introductions
00:06:46 Taking attendance
00:09:22 Quantity and quality of the rooms
00:14:23 How’d it sound?
00:28:33 The best record Jason ever heard
00:31:30 Bowers & Wilkins 800 D5
00:32:40 A demographic shift?
00:35:02 The offsite controversy
00:36:27 A 21st century player piano
00:43:53 Outro music: "To Be the One” by Israel Wasserman

JL Audio's new Primacy active loudspeaker system has generated plenty of discussion since its debut, but how did the project come together—and what does it say about the future of high-end audio?

In this episode, host Jorden Guth speaks with Doug Henderson, Garmin's Director of Home Audio, about his 50-year journey in the audio industry, from selling hi-fi in Manhattan during the 1970s to leadership roles at Dahlquist, Bowers & Wilkins, and now JL Audio. Henderson explains how the Primacy project evolved, why active DSP-based loudspeakers represent a major shift in home audio, and how technologies developed for automotive and marine audio helped shape JL Audio's flagship home-audio system.

The conversation also explores changing listening habits, the importance of making high-performance audio more accessible, and what the next generation of music lovers may expect from hi-fi systems in the decades ahead.

Sources:

“Are JL Audio’s Primacy Speakers the Future of Stereo?”: https://www.soundstage.life/e/are-jl-audio-s-primacy-speakers-the-future-of-stereo/

 

“JL Audio’s Primacy Active Loudspeaker Systems: Charting a New Course Under Garmin”: by Roger Kanno: https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/blogging-on-audio/232-roger-kanno/1266-jl-audios-primacy-active-loudspeaker-systems-charting-a-new-course-under-garmin

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:36 Introductions
00:05:29 From Harmony Hut to Dalquist
00:09:09 Memories of Saul Marantz
00:10:35 JL Audio’s turf 
00:16:46 DSP and the Art of High-Fidelity
00:19:31 The origins of Primacy?
00:22:52 Why speakers look the way they do
00:26:17 Pricing Primacy
00:30:01 What we got right and wrong
00:35:33 Peering into the crystal ball
00:39:51 Outro music: "The Buddha’s a Beatle” by 5 Sided Cube

This week on the SoundStage! Network Audiophile Podcast, host Jorden Guth is joined by Blake Alty, product manager for Paradigm and Anthem, along with John Bagby, managing director at PML Sound—the parent company behind Paradigm, Anthem, MartinLogan, and GoldenEar. Together, they discuss how brands maintain distinct identities under one corporate roof, how manufacturing scale affects modern hi-fi, the industry’s generational divide, the partnership with WiiM, and whether high-end audio risks losing touch with ordinary music lovers as million-dollar systems increasingly dominate the conversation.

Sources:

“Paradigm Shift—The Bagbys Are Back!”: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1350-paradigm-shift-the-bagbys-are-back

“A Fantastic Gateway: A Q&A with Paradigm's Zoltan Balla and Blake Alty on the New Monitor SE 8000F Loudspeaker”: 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

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:36 Introductions
00:07:21 Maintaining separate brand identities
00:11:30 Economies of scale
00:13:54 Defining value in an uncertain economy 
00:17:11 The future of million-dollar hi-fi
00:20:39 The myth that kids don’t care about good sound
00:24:03 Headphones
00:25:55 The next generation
00:29:16 Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!
00:33:04 Education matters
00:34:52 Ten years down the road?
00:40:43 Outro music: "Crystal Ball” by Adv3n7ur35

This week, host Jorden Guth is joined by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider and SoundStage! Access editor Dennis Burger to discuss the remarkable technology behind JL Audio’s new fully active, DSP-optimized Primacy loudspeakers, including the three-way T6 tower and two-way T3 standmount model. Do these highly integrated speakers point toward the future of high-end audio, or are they a radical detour from traditional hi-fi thinking? Along with debating the concept itself, the group also digs into Doug’s early listening impressions and what makes these speakers so different from most of today’s high-end designs.

Sources:

“JL Audio’s First Hi-Fi Speakers Rethink Stereo—Primacy T6 and S3” by SoundStage Network: https://youtu.be/m2yuMHwr8TQ?si=rpIeewakT7ulK7Ja

Chapters:
00:00:00 Announcement
00:00:36 Introductions
00:03:06 The rumours of JL Audio’s demise…
00:16:47 A radical approach?
00:23:08 We can’t show, but we can tell
00:26:08 Yeah, they cost that much!
00:27:40 The real future of real high-end?
00:32:48 Achille’s heel or nah?
00:33:45 OK, but do they even sound good?
00:42:28 Outro music: "Flying Above the Sun" by Yehezkel Raz feat. Sivan Talmor