The 12th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015 are out and can be viewed here.

My individual contribution is below. Enjoy!

Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015

By Jeff Day

It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards roll around, as it provides a time to reflect back on the past year and think about its highlights.

This past year has had so many highlights it boggles my mind as I think back on it, and I’m so thankful that I was able to share all my audio & musical discoveries with you here in the pages of Positive Feedback.

First there was The Vintage McIntosh Experience article about the vintage McIntosh valve quartet of the MX110 tuner-preamplifier, the MC240 stereo amplifier, the MC225 stereo amplifier, and the MC30 monaural amplifiers, from the vintage McIntosh specialists Tom Manley & Terry DeWick at McIntosh Home Audio & DeWick Repairs, and Yves Beauvais at Vintage Vacuum Audio, that I wrote about in Issue 77 to kick off the start of the New Year.

Then in Issue 78 I told you about the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier from the remarkable Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, that can go toe-to-toe musically & sonically with the best direct heated single triode amplifiers, but has much more power, and the simplicity and reliability of a solid state integrated amplifier. I also told you about the and SPEC RSP-901 EX Real Sound Processor that worked so well with my Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers, taking them to another level.

In Issue 79 I covered my latest turntable project for you, the international collaboration that produced the stunning nuevo-vintage Garrard Project 2015, with its very hot-rodded Classic Turntable Company version of a Garrard 301 idler-wheel turntable from the UK, a stunning statement plinth by the USA’s Artisan Fidelity, and the impeccable ‘made in Germany’ 12-inch Thomas Schick tonearms, mounted with Danish mono & stereo Ortofon SPU phono cartridges.

Then in Issue 81, in the Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, I told you how to get Real and release the musicality hidden inside your hi-fi system with do-it-yourself (DIY) projects using vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire as speaker cables, nuevo-vintage Belden 8402 microphone cable as interconnects, nuevo-vintage Arizona Capacitors (nee West-Cap), SPEC ruby mica capacitors, and other audio Golden Age treasures.

The challenging part of the Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards is narrowing down all those stellar audio & musical moments from a full year of audio adventures into the 1 to 3 awards per audio writer that Ye Olde Editors Dave & David request. It’s agonizing, because every single thing I wrote about for you in 2015 deserves an award of its own!

For 2015, those three that stand upon the top steps of the winners’ podium are the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier, the Garrard Project 2015, and Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki.

SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier

The SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier ($9500 USD)

The beautifully built, artisanal work of passion, SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier was a real eye opener for me this year. In the review I said, “I think that what we are witnessing here with the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier may very well be the birth of something as musically significant as what happened with the advent of the DH-SET amplifier renaissance in 1960s Japan, but this time it is with a class-D amplification device from the 'enlightened ear' of Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki.”

The superb tone color and rich timbral textures that are normally the purview of fine vacuum tube designs are now present is this class-D amplifier from Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki. If you're interested in an amplifier with the beauty, tone color, timbral naturalness, and rich stereoscopic musicality of the best vacuum tube designs in a non-fussy and classy solid-state design, I suggest that you listen to the SPEC RSA-M3 EX amplifier.

You may very well decide for yourself that it is one of the best amplifiers out there regardless of price. At least that's my take on the SPEC, and I suspect it'll be yours too if you get a chance to give it a listen.

The North American Importer for SPEC products is Jonathan Halpern at Tone Imports.

SPEC Corporation website: http://spec-corp.co.jp/e/index.html

The Garrard Project 2015

The Garrard Project 2015 ($12,285 USD):

As many of you know, I’ve had ‘a thing’ for Garrard 301 based turntables going back a long time. Starting in 2004, I wrote a series of articles for Six Moons (1, 2, 3) about my first Garrard Project player system. In that first Garrard Project my plan was to keep it simple and as low cost as I could, to match my budget at the time.

Fast forward to 2015: My goal was a little more ambitious for my latest Garrard project, the Garrard Project 2015 (Issue 79).

This time I wanted to build a hot-rod Garrard 301 based player system that could pretty much go toe-to-toe with Garrard 301 ‘super-tables’ like the Shindo Garrard 301 player system, or the Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement player system, perhaps the two most notable examples of the vintage-based Garrard ‘super-table’ genre.

But here’s the kicker: I wanted to knock on the door of those vintage-based Garrard super-table’s performance, but I wanted to do it for about half their price.

To accomplish that goal I recruited Garrard specialist Ray Clark of Classic Turntable Company, bespoke analog maven Christopher Thornton of Artisan Fidelity, and tonearm craftsman Thomas Schick.

To make short work of a long article, I succeeded. Spectacularly! The resulting hot-rod Garrard Project 2015 player system had stunning tangible presence, timbral realism, vivid tonal colors, and such strong emotional impact that it was truly awe inspiring, and riveting to listen to.

Price-wise I accomplished my goal, coming in at $12,285 USD, which breaks out to $4345 USD for Classic 301 turntable with optional brass platter, $5340 for the Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement Plinth with optional Stillpoints Ultra SS footers, and $1300 USD times two for the superb Thomas Schick tonearms.

The resulting Garrard Project 2015 turned out better than I could have ever imagined, and I am absolutely thrilled by both its beauty and performance.

So my Writers’ Choice Award for the Garrard Project 2015 goes to the world-class team of Ray Clark, Christopher Thornton, and Thomas Schick for making my Garrard dreams come true!

Ray Clark's email, and Classic Turntable Company website.

Thomas Schick's email, and website.

Christopher Thornton's email, and Artisan Fidelity website.

Yazaki-san (center) with friends in Tokyo.

Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki (priceless!)

This is the first time I’ve ever given a Writer’s Choice Award to a person instead of an audio product.

Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki of SPEC Corporation has completely astounded me with his knowledge, experience, and passion for all things audio.

Yazaki-san’s deep insights into those elements that make audio come alive with what he calls Real Sound has been demonstrated before my eyes & ears and I am awestruck.

Yazaki-san has the audio ‘Midas touch’ and is able to turn anything he focuses his attention on into audio & musical gold, and to top it off, he freely & openly shares his knowledge and way of doing things with those who ask.

My Adventures in Real Sound with Yazaki-san have refreshed & resurrected my passion for audio, my eyes have been opened to what is possible with careful voicing using select components.

Like an artist painting with an intensity of color, texture, and images, to create a stunning work of art, Yazaki-san paints with a stimulating emotional intensity of color, texture, and tone through the medium of Belden 8402 microphone cable, vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire, Arizona Capacitors (nee West-Cap), SPEC Ruby Mica capacitors, historic Brown Devil resistors & Mallory capacitors, Tepro RA resistors, Vishay Sprague wet tantalum capacitors, and an artful selection of vacuum tubes that possess the 'lofty British fineness of tone'.

Whether it is his SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier, or the custom directly heated triode amplifiers he has made for his friends, or his many gracious recommendations to all of us to help us achieve Real Sound in our own systems, you Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki are an audio cultural treasure we are blessed to have among us!

Consider my Writers’ Choice Award to Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki to be the audio equivalent of a Nobel Prize in the audio arts. Well done, Sir!

Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki’s email and website.

Thank you for joining me for my contributions to the 12th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015.