As I was preparing the Jeff Award for Yazaki-san, I was also thinking about another friend who has had a profound influence on me and my enjoyment of the audio & musical arts over the last several years, my good friend and fellow audio adventurer, Ron Barbee.

Ron Barbee giving his ANVIL Award speech. Ron-san!

Ron is a life-long audio enthusiast, music lover, musician (guitarist), and has the highly trained mind of an engineer - he is a true modern day renaissance man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnBKHi5kw-g

Ron-san - like Yazaki-san - was involved in the early Japanese audio scene while living in Japan, has been building & modifying vacuum tube amplifiers for many years, and has a particular penchant for vintage audio electronics.

It was Ron that got me interested in vintage audio by letting me listen to audio gear from his vintage collection, and I was inspired by the beautiful tone & musicality that seems to come so easily from vintage gear.

In fact, Ron has a wonderful vintage system in every room in his house, which has truly inspired me, and my mantra for this year has been "I want to be more like Ron!" and put great music systems in every room of my house.

Sumie-san, Ron-san's wife, told Ron-san he should apologize to me for this particular influence on me. I think Sumie-san said it in jest ... but ... ah ... well ... I'm not sure. In any event, it is okay, Sumie-san, I'm having lots of fun due to Ron's influence! 🙂

Above are photos of Sumie-san, Ron-san, and me enjoying a tea ceremony with some very fine Japanese green teas sent to us by Yazaki-san. Thank you - what fun!

Those wonderful vintage musical experiences with Ron led me to explore vintage McIntosh audio equipment in The Vintage McIntosh Experience.

Ron doing Real Sound modifications to the MC30s in the Capacitor Adventure.

'Real Sound' modified vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers by Ron-san.

Also, if you read Adventures in Real Sound With Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki you might have noticed that the Capacitor Adventures were only possible because of Ron's talents in modifying the vintage McIntosh gear.

The custom vintage Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers made for Leopold Stokowski.

Ron has also been a major influence for me in exploring the world of vintage Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers systems, and was my co-conspirator in driving over to Seattle to pick up the vintage Voice of The Theatre loudspeakers that were custom made for Leopold Stokowski that I had bought.

In thinking about all the fun that Ron and I had together this year, I want to recognize what an important contribution Ron made to the audio & musical arts here at Jeff's Place in 2015.

Please join me in thanking Ron for all the audio adventures he made possible this year at Jeff's Place!

Thank you, Ron!