John Johnson founded the SECRETS website back in the early 1990’s, at what seems like the dawn of the Internet. It all began as the Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity “primer”, published in hard copy, and until recently, still available at Barnes & Noble! In 1994, the website was launched with the services of a local (San Francisco Bay area) development house and a server operated in some guy’s basement. The original website was coded in HTML and just for fun…..this was the Home Page in 1994.
Between 1994 and 2008, there were several iterations of the website design, but the content was preserved and continued to grow. Even today, many of the original product reviews are available in The Vault, a feature of the current website. In 2008 the website was converted to a CMS and has been upgraded over the years to provide readers the best experience possible.
Over the years SECRETS has hosted several forums, Q&A, Blogs and contests, to name but a few. Today, commentary and forum activity are available following all reviews as well as social media. Press Releases are posted for Sponsors. The A/V Resources Directory hosts hundreds of companies. The SECRETS Primer has been transformed into an Encyclopedia of Words, Terms and Concepts.
Recently added features include Recommended Gear and the A/V Showcase. Recommended Gear is a compendium of A/V products recommended by our SECRETS Team. The Gear is updated each year. The A/V Showcase offers manufacturers the opportunity to present an extended profile of their products, way beyond banner ads.
As always, we invite feedback from our Readers, Sponsors and Supporters about new ideas and areas of interest and improvement.
Contact [email protected] to provide feedback.
The SECRETS readers are serious audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts, consumers, and manufacturers, who are seeking technical, yet understandable, information about products and technologies.
Readership averages 300,000 unique readers each month and reflects a broad international following. January used to be the highest readership month, primarily driven by interest in the Consumer Electronics Show coverage. But now, with many shows featuring different products, at different times of the year, readership tends to be constant.
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.
As an avid movie lover, Chris was unable to turn away the 50-inch Samsung DLP TV that arrived at his door one day, thus launching him irrevocably into an obsession with home theater. Dissatisfied with the image quality of his new acquisition, Chris trained with the Imaging Science Foundation in 2006 and became a professional display calibrator. His ultimate theater desires were realized when he completed construction of a dedicated cinema/listening room in his home. Chris is extremely fortunate that his need for quality audio and video is shared and supported by his wife of over 25 years.
In his spare time he enjoys riding his recumbent trike at least 100 miles per week, trying out new restaurants, going to theme parks and spending as much time as possible watching movies and listening to music. Chris enjoys bringing his observations and discoveries about every kind of home theater product to as many curious and well-informed readers as possible. He is proud to be a part of the Team and hopes to help everyone enjoy their AV experiences to the fullest.
Craig Chase intends to become the rebel of our team. (We welcome one more rebel to the SECRETS Team!) He got his start in audio while still in high school in small town Pennsylvania, and took his love of audio to Penn State, where he was a campus rep for Electrovoice, Advent, Altec-Lansing, Pioneer and Technics. This mini career with audio set him on the path to making audio a lifetime passion. After graduating Penn State at the low point of the 1982 recession, a terrible time to start a career, he took a job selling cars at a Ford-Datsun-AMC-Jeep dealership in Erie, Pa. What started off as a job until something better came along turned into a tremendous career, and now Craig has a thriving financial services company and owns a Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Dodge dealership in the university town of Edinboro, Pa.
These companies have allowed Craig to build two things he loves: a 20-year-long stint writing reviews for audio equipment on several forums and helping people and animals in need. Few things are more rewarding to Craig and his family than rescuing a dog, cat or even a horse. The Chase family currently has 11 rescue animals and has helped place hundreds of others. Craig also works with several shelters in northwest Pennsylvania that provide direct aid to people in crisis. It is this love of helping others that has also made his tenure in audio so enjoyable. From the time he installed his first system in a friend's dorm room as a college rep to more recent experiences in the forum world helping someone assemble a system, Craig knows the sense of accomplishment of letting someone in on our SECRET: a music system can make life more enjoyable.
Gene Hopstetter has been collecting records since 1981, when he walked into a record store and spent all of his allowance money on every AC/DC album he could find. In the mid-1980s he worked as a stock-boy in a neighborhood hi-fi emporium, which is when his obsession with sound quality began. He has always had a record player and vinyl in his life. Gene was born and raised in New Orleans, where music and food were invented. In the 1980s and 1990s he was active with two university radio stations, KLSU in Baton Rouge, and WTUL in New Orleans, where he got involved with local music promotion and album production. He earned degrees in Creative Writing and Journalism from LSU, which he somehow manages to use in his current career as an IT professional. When he is not listening to music, reviewing components, or updating his collection on Discogs, Gene enjoys restoring vintage Garrard turntables and cleaning LPs with his ultrasonic cleaner. His most prized vintage hi-fi components are a pair of McIntosh MC30 tube amps, a Garrard 301 cream grease bearing turntable with two tonearms, and a Thorens TD124 turntable. Gene is also interested in contemporary developments in hi-fi, such as Raspberry Pi DACs and streamers, amplifiers with Gallium Nitride transistors, and phono preamplifiers with digital output.
Mel spent most of his life working in television journalism in Ohio, Florida, the BBC in London, and in Seattle, WA. He won a few EMMY awards along the way which most people mistake for bowling trophies.
Being around all those expensive monitors frustrated him when he got home to his threadbare TV and stereo, so he began to improve things, brand by brand, upgrade by upgrade. He’s got a lovely OLED TV now, flanked by Magnepan 3.6r speakers, and a Home theater with an Epson Projector and Focal speakers. Also scatted about the house are HiFiMan headphones, and 6 Sonos Connect devices that are spraying his rather large music collection from room to room. Other equipment is from Oppo, Sony, Aurender, PS Audio and Emotiva.
Musical tastes range from Classical to Jazz to New Age to classic Rock and Roll. Mel has written a biography of film producer Samuel Bronston (El Cid, King of Kings) and is working now on a second film related book. He resides in Arizona where, when he’s not adjusting his home theater, he dabbles in landscape and astronomical photography.
As the son of an audiophile and classic rock enthusiast, Peter’s exposure to high fidelity audio equipment began at an early age, when his father, Carlo, outfitted their basement to be a home theater and constantly listened to music in his studio while Peter sat and drew. His taste in music would initially stem from his father’s: comprised of Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, and other household names of classic rock. Peter fondly remembers making a mixed tape with his father that included these pillars of musical history, using an old Sony Walkman. As he grew older, Peter began to branch out to heavier forms of music, such as Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Dio, Black Sabbath ... then on to doom and psych metal such as Sleep, Elder, Kyuss, The Sword, and the Melvins. The music only got heavier from there. Peter’s development into a denim-sporting headbanger was accompanied by newfound respect for the higher echelons of audio equipment that he previously regarded as gaudy and unnecessary.
He enjoys going to concerts to sweat, thrash, and yell, but also enjoys sitting down with an LP and listening to it front to back, something that seems to have gone missing from the current generation. Peter is also notable for his offbeat sense of humor, a factor that is sure to be present in all he writes.
Tyler’s interest in music started at a young age. He began instruction in classical guitar at the age of 7 and gradually progressed towards rock in his early teens. He expanded his musical horizons in college, earning extra cash as a DJ spinning house and trance music and learning the basics of sound reinforcement. Starting with a humble 27” Sony Trinitron CRT television, a Pioneer DVD player, and just two channels of sound, his home theater system has continued to evolve over the years in an effort to recreate the sense of energy and emotional excitement that comes from attending a live performance. Tyler holds a B.S. in Business Information Systems from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts. After spending almost 20 years working in healthcare IT, he made the switch to the “for profit” world and now delivers IT business solutions in the pharmaceutical sector.
I have been fascinated with audio and music in general since my early education years and built my first set of speakers in my sophomore year of High School. I grew up listening to rock and roll, and some occasional jazz. I took piano lessons early in middle school and developed an appreciation of classical music early in life. After college, I had a deeper appreciation of jazz, and classical music, which remains to this day.
When I graduated from college, I bought a B&K amp/preamp, Vandersteen 2C, and AR ES-1 turntable with Linn basic arm, and cartridge.
I have worked as a trainer and educator in the Laser Industry for the last 22 years, and have been a Beta Tester for an exotic capacitor company that makes private label, and OEM capacitors. This has been an ongoing passion for the last 15 years. I currently reside in the Bay Area and listen to primarily analog, some music DVDs, and digital files. Musical interests vary from Chopin to Clapton to Coltrane, and I love atending live jazz, and Classical concerts. Further, I enjoy the merits of both solid state and tubes and feel they are both so good now, the magic is in matching components, like food, wine, and cheese matching. When it is "right" you know the magical match has been found.
My hobbies include hiking, nature photography, music parties, sharing Jazz, Blues, Classical, Baroque, Romantic, and great red wine. I have a special appreciation for the wines of Napa Valley but I also have a soft spot for great French and Italian wine too.
I hope my hearing lasts a few more years so I am able to make some contribution to helping others find their magical combinations of equipment, transporting them closer to a live event. I strive to help the next generation keep the flame of analog and audio alive so the generation and the next after them keep the magic alive.
I was born to love audio. My grandfather was awarded a patent for a "METHOD OF PRODUCING TALKING-MACHINE RECORDS" in 1912. He also sang opera. He passed his passion for music and the early days of recording on to my mother, who then passed it on to my sisters and me.
My father, a professor of electrical engineering, was also an amateur jazz guitarist. He loved Heathkit's home-built electronics, and as a little girl I was his "assistant builder". He always talked to me about what he was building, and we always had the biggest T.V. and the most advanced HiFi gear. Music was always on in our house, and my folks really listened to and discussed what was playing on the turntable, and later the reel-to-reel deck. I grew up with jazz, the classics, and my father's goofy and extensive collection of comedy albums and sound effects records.
He always made sure I had the latest transistor radios, which were my prized possessions; I could be found late at night, trying to listen in on the faraway stations that magically appeared through the static between my local stations.
In the early 70s, I discovered the remarkable world of Japanese audio on my layovers in Japan as a flight attendant. I remember lugging home a huge, very heavy wood-clad Kenwood receiver back from Japan, thanks to a kind captain that made space for my treasure in the cockpit. That receiver powered my two Bose 901s that I had hung from the ceiling in the living room. I also fell in love with the early Sennheiser open-back headphones that had come on the scene in 1968 and which sparked my passion for headphones that continues to this day.
After traveling the world as a flight attendant my work led me to the restaurant world of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I spent several years working in a "farm to table" restaurant. I developed a passion for photography while co- writing a cookbook with the chef. My skills as a food and garden photographer grew and I added working as a photojournalist with assignments that usually included the food scene in the Bay Area.
A year ago, I joined the San Francisco Audiophile Foundation (https://audiophilefoundation.org), where I discovered my tribe. It was humbling to find out that compared to almost everyone I met, I actually have a long way to go to call myself an audiophile! I was also shocked to find out that out of over 300 members, there were only three women (including me). It was a source of pride, however, to know that the president and a founding member is a woman. Yay, team!
You can find me outdoors hiking and photographing landscapes and wildlife and trying my hand at nighttime landscape photography.
Michael hails originally from Europe and blames his love of music on his musically inclined parents. Raised in New York City and San Francisco he grew up listening to classical, 70s-80s rock, and Broadway musicals, later expanding his appreciation to include New Orleans Jazz and symphonic metal during his time at university.
Music has always been a huge part of his identity. He had gone through 7 different high-fidelity audio systems by the time he was 20, and spent more time in high-end audio shops, talking to other audiophiles and comparing equipment than he feels comfortable admitting. In 2015 he rediscovered the magic of vinyl and never looked back.
He attended the University of California Berkeley for his undergraduate in mechanical engineering, before shifting gears toward English/Prelaw hoping to approach innovation and new technology from a legal standpoint. He has always loved technology and innovation, having worked for several small startups and larger tech companies, he falls squarely in line as an "outside the box" thinker. Michael holds multiple patents within the field of robotics focusing on robotic drive systems and human-to-machine interfaces. He looks at technology as a way of applying the human mind and soul across the span of space.
Michael looks at audio systems and equipment from a primarily musical standpoint, though he does admit that the technical details are important, if the equipment does not bring out something engaging or immersive to the audience, then it has failed at its goal. As Michael states regarding music listening: "Listening to music is not only engaging with technology, but also the engagement of a medium that expresses the human mind, heart, and soul through sound."
He currently lives in California, taking time between work and his audio hobby to go skiing or hiking in the mountains with friends and family.
I've worked as a molecular biologist in my entire professional career. As one of the inventors of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), I worked in human molecular genetics & developing molecular diagnostic and DNA forensic tests. In addition to my role as a scientist, I also worked as a Design for Six Sigma Master Black Belt, leading scientific and engineering teams in biotech product development.
I'm also been an accredited motorsports photojournalist and track photographer for Sonoma Raceway. My photographic interests also include commercial, landscape, and street photography. In addition to writing for other audio publications, I've been an author on several scientific papers, as well as articles for motorsports publications.
I originally got into high-end audio in the late 70s, though my involvement waxed and waned over the years, as I also studied classical ballet for 10 years, and retired from that to take up motorcycle road racing. I got back into audio seriously in 2008 and put together a tube-based system with dynamic driver loudspeakers. My current listening is centered around jazz, classical, vocal artists, and some rock/popular musical content.
My sensibilities are more on the slightly warm and musical side of neutral, rather than the super-transparent, analytical, and highly resolving side. Some of the qualities I listen for in such a system are its ability to re-create the human voice and instrumental timbres and tone colors with verisimilitude, its ability to scale quickly and smoothly when reproducing instrumental and orchestral transitions and transients, dynamic range that has naturalness as well as power, and finely articulated harmonics. I'm much more interested in the actual musical or vocal performance of the artists I am listening to than analyzing or thinking about the next upgrade to my hardware.
What's most important is ultimately, a beguiling and engaging musical experience.
I learned to play the guitar in high school, hoping to persuade Berma Sanchez to date me, but alas, no such luck! In the late 1970s, a neighbor who was the station engineer for the local PBS network took me under his wing and taught me the electronics of audio reproduction. Throughout college, I used that knowledge to modify Dynaco vacuum tube equipment for friends.
After graduation from LSU, I took a job in the chemical manufacturing industry, learning about industrial hygiene and the mechanics of hearing.
In the 1990s I learned to write, initially as the newsletter editor for my local Safety Engineering chapter. In the early 2000s, I had my first book published (I’m now working on my third).
A few years ago, the Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity website issued a call for authors. I responded and was excited to be selected. Over the years, I’ve published a number of equipment reviews and am honored, in 2019, to be given the title of “Senior Editor.”
But none of the above offers the “why” of my interest in home audio. My musical tastes are highly diverse, and my love of music (acquired probably in the church choir of Grace Baptist Church) has been passed on to my daughter, who got her B.S. degree in music and her M.S. in violin performance and music education before being switching gears and then going on to graduate from Harvard Law.
Although the majority of my extended group of friends and family prefer hobbies such as hunting, fishing, football games, etc., I’ve found that I still greatly enjoy time with my audio system and discovering new music. At some time in the fairly near future, my hearing will decline and I’ll no longer be able to listen analytically. But so long as my audiograms show acute hearing, I’ll keep doing what I enjoy best - listening to wonderful music and sharing my thoughts and impressions with like-minded friends.
Norman Varney is the owner of AV RoomService, an acoustic design company that also manufactures innovative acoustical products. Having been in the noise control and sound quality industries for decades he has earned awards for acoustical products and room designs while working for A/V RoomService, Kinetics Noise Control, Owens Corning Science & Technology Center and MIT. Mr. Varney has presented white papers to the noise and vibration industries and written articles on acoustics for numerous publications for decades, as well as participated in seminars and panel discussions. He is an active member of ASTM (Committee E-33 on Building and Environmental Acoustics), Acoustic Society of America, Institute of Noise Control Engineering, AES, NAMM, CEDIA, etc.
John E. Johnson, Jr. , Ph.D.
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.