I always get excited when a new hifi component arrives to write about, as it's an adventure in music & sound that I never seem to get weary of. I decided that I should mount the Carmen Mk II on my Classic 301 turntable first, and give it a listen in my Tannoy Westminster Royal... Read More »

There was a knock at the door just a moment ago, and it was the man in the Big Brown Truck dropping off a package from Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith fame. As I mentioned in a previous post, I get quite a few emails asking for a recommendation of a relatively affordable phonograph cartridge that is... Read More »

I am delighted to be able to share with you Part 7 of Yazaki-san's adventure with his vintage Marantz Model 7K preamplifier! I always enjoy reading what Yazaki-san has written, and I always learn a lot from his many insights. I would like to say a very special "Thank you!" to Yazaki-san for taking time... Read More »

After a couple cups of coffee this morning, I sat down and practiced my fingerstyle guitar lesson for about an hour. I'm enjoying working my way through a beginning fingerstyle guitar course book, in hopes that I'll become a better guitar player (it wouldn't take much! 😉 ). One of my goals in retirement has... Read More »

I decided to bite the bullet and order two matched pairs of the increasingly rare & expensive NOS GE 6L6GC's for my vintage MC30 monaural amps, so I could compare the fresh new GE's to the new production Tung-Sol 6L6GC STR's. I have found certain aspects of the Tung-Sol's musical & sonic performance to be... Read More »

My favorite power tube for my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers have been the gray plate GE 6L6GC's. The GE's provided a warm, rich, and naturally musical presentation that even the highly esteemed black plate RCA 6L6GC's had to bow down to. For my hot-rodded MC30's the GE's take musicality to another level, but they... Read More »

This last week was really a nice one of relaxation and getting out in nature with my friend Chad at his cabin on the shore of Lake Chelan in Washington State. We got in a bike ride in the village of Chelan, and did some sightseeing around the lake. There were deer everywhere, and at... Read More »