Last night I installed the fresh out of the box Sophia Electric blue-glass KT88-ST long-life vacuum tubes into the new Leben CS600X, that's currently powering my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers in my audio-visual system.  I'm running the Sophia Electric KT88-STs with cathode resistor and plate voltage settings used for 6L6GCs, which... Read More »

In my "Sexy Blue Tubes: The Sophia Electric EL34-ST and Aqua 274B Vacuum Tubes!" feature review article for Positive Feedback (HERE), I provided a brief history of the EL34 and 274B vacuum tube designs, and then described the various technical performance enhancements that Richard and Sue of Sophia Electric implemented in their flagship Sophia Electric EL34-ST... Read More »

In my most recent Today's Fresh Catch post (HERE) I told you about the arrival of  the much anticipated Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier. This Saturday morning I installed the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier ($5800 USD) into my vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers based bedroom system to get some run-in time on it, along with the Pass Labs... Read More »

It was great looking back on 2019 in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this post, and I had no idea that this post would turn into a four part series. So much happened in 2019, and there was so much to talk about that it really took me by pleasant surprise. Now... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier ($5800 USD). I am rather excited about the arrival of the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier, not only because of the positive buzz it has created in the review community since its introduction in 2018, but also because now I get try it with the Pass Labs... Read More »

There's been some big changes in my vintage Altec 832A Corona based bedroom system recently. It started with me loaning my treasured Almarro A205A Mk1 EL84 single-ended-pentode integrated amplifier to my buddy Chad to use for a couple of months in his cabin system up on Lake Chelan as his cabin amp was on the... Read More »

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts, 2019 has been a rather unprecedented year in writing about audio and music, with the year-end number of blog posts published at Jeff's Place coming in at 210, and 5 feature reviews for Positive Feedback.  I feel really fortunate to have had so much... Read More »