The site's motto is "Computer Audio For Everyone" and will focus on the world of computer audio hardware, software and music resources. Topics will include hardware reviews from the mass-market right up to the bleeding-edge of what’s possible as well as in-depth analysis of music management software and an exploration of our newest music resources including HD download sites, streaming media and cloud services.

Editor's Note: This article was nearly complete when I read of Steve Jobs's death last night. I think the conclusions herein are telling of his passion for making "insanely great" products ... right down to the last detail.

A couple of weeks ago, Steve Guttenberg wrote an article on his Audiophiliac blog entitled, "The Worst-Sounding Audio Product." In it he "aimed [his] sights on the worst sounding product regularly used by millions of people:" the stock Apple iPod ear-bud headphones. There may be some truth in that, but he also said, "Apple is an amazingly innovative company, but it's incapable of selling a decent set of headphones under its own name."

With this, I'm going to have to disagree ...

Top Gear is one of the BBC’s biggest shows. They evaluate expensive cars in entertaining ways then turn them over to their anonymous racing driver, known only as The Stig, to find out how fast they’ll lap their track. Some say NwAvGuy is Stig’s geeky cousin. Instead of testing cars, as an Electrical Engineer, I design and test audio gear. I want to thank Tyll for requesting my thoughts on measuring electronics. I'm all for improving measurements

WHY MEASUREMENTS? Here are some key reasons:

If you’ve been around the forums reading about portable audio players, it’s likely that you’ve come across the term “Rockbox”. You probably wondered what it was. Maybe you even looked into the matter further but stopped pursuing it when it got complicated. In this article I intend to arm you with enough info to help you understand what Rockbox is, what it does, and ultimately if it is something worth trying.

Interested in hot-rodding your portable audio player? Read on.