50 years from now, will we receive our music through brain chips? Will our walls produce perfect sound? Will everyone be an audiophile in the future? In this episode, hosts Darren and Duncan ponder the possibilities of what may lie in store for the audiophile hobby. Listener questions about tubes and turntables are answered, and this week's album pick comes from a dulcet-voiced, trilingual circus performer.

Industry veteran Chris Brunhaver joins The Hifi Podcast once again to chat about speakers. This time around, the guys pick his brain about speaker cone types and construction and the pros and cons of ported speakers versus sealed. A listener question about online hifi shopping is also debated, and the album recommendation of the week is one of Darren's favorites.

In the audio business, a "big company" is still quite small compared to other industries. But the differences between small hifi companies and larger ones can be quite massive from the consumer perspective. The guys believe there's no right answer, and discuss the pros and cons of both.

In this episode of The Hifi Podcast, Darren and Duncan talk about some of the things audiophiles miss when it comes to recording. Duncan's years of experience recording, mixing and mastering bands helps the guys flesh out a topic that is less known to most audiophiles. The guys also tackle a couple of listener questions, and reveal a severely funky album of the week.

NOTE: With great apologies to our listeners, we realize the audio file on this episode suffers from some kind of digital artifact that begins after a few minutes. We caught the problem too late, but we're searching for the cause, and plan to not let it happen again. This episode of The Hifi Podcast focuses on an immensely important task for any serious audiophile: How to integrate a subwoofer or subwoofers into your speaker system via placement, level, crossover adjustment and more.

Audio shows are a bustling center of interaction for the hifi hobby, and without them we've been stunted and deprived of information and socialization. Darren and Duncan reminisce on some show experiences, explain the process and trade horror stories in this episode of The Hifi Podcast. Stay tuned also for listener questions and recommendations and yet another recommended album the guys are unsure of how to pronounce.

Have you noticed that your system shines on some genres of music and not others? Have you noticed that the albums that sound best on your setup don’t jump out as clearly on your friend’s system? Because of so many variables and system synergies going on, the idea of one setup being perfect for all kinds of music is questionable, if not nearly impossible. In this episode, the guys tackle the notion of genre-specific stereo setups.

Sometimes in hifi audio, you feel like you want to pull your hair out, tear it all down, switch to a Sonos system and get into a different hobby. We’ve all been there. From the maddening nature of system setup to the ridiculous mystery of component burn-in, the effort to get to the magic place in audio can be fraught with frustration. In this episode, Darren and Duncan offer sympathy and recommend patience as they key to finding and reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.

In this week's episode, Darren and Duncan discuss a new trend in hifi audio: videos of hifi systems playing music on YouTube. Now, if that sounds preposterous to you, you might not be alone. The guys explain why it's an interesting development in this hobby, and imagine where it could go in the future.

This week on the Hifi Podcast, Darren and Duncan answer a number of listener questions, covering topics such as room size versus speaker choice, the effect of windows on a soundstage, adding tubes to a wireless speaker system, transimpedance phono stages and the correct volume for an audiophile experience. Plus, a listener shares a tip and the guy catch up on their latest DIY audio projects.