Welcome!

The Online Home
Of
Kermit V. Gray

Welcome to my website.
It’s a work in progress.

Keep checking back. Or front.

Herein are thoughts great and small, of interest to everyone or to no one at all. It’s your call.

Thought Of the Day:
The End is near! Run to the Other End!

Presently, I am focused on creating two distinct loudspeaker lines:

Kansas Audio Works offers passive models for traditional stereo systems, while Altisonus is devoted to custom-built biamplified and triamplified reference systems. Although they serve different purposes, every model must preserve musical expression and remain free of distracting artifacts.

Kansas Audio Works speakers make listening inviting: immediate, articulate, and detailed at ordinary levels, yet composed when the music becomes demanding. Imperfect recordings remain enjoyable without sacrificing the life, texture, and emotional force of better ones.

Altisonus pursues greater resolution and deeper insight into both the recording and the performance. More of the source is exposed, but the loudspeaker itself must always communicate the music naturally and effortlessly.

The crucial distinction is between revealing hardness already present in a recording and adding hardness of the speaker’s own. Resonance, strain, and intrusive tonal balance are not “detail.” They are distractions from the music.

White Papers

EQ IT! TECHNIQUE BEFORE TECHNOLOGY (PDF file) - a quick guide to audio equalization.

COMPRESSION AND DYNAMICS PROCESSING (PDF file) - a quick guide to audio compression and limiting.

Musical Instrument Range Reference Tables (PDF file) - a comprehensive list of music instruments’ frequency range, dynamic range, and other data.

THE ART OF SHOOTING FILM DEMYSTIFIED (PDF file) - a 30-page quick guide to analog photography with a film camera. NOTE: Very big file because of photographs, so it may take some time for the PDF viewer to load.

THE ART OF SHOOTING FILM DEMYSTIFIED (PDF file) - a 30-page quick guide to analog photography with a film camera. NOTE: reduced file size, better for mobile devices.

Basic Speaker Concepts (PDF file) - a quick guide that isn’t the same-old same-old.

Auditory Nonlinearities and Listener Preference (PDF file).