I just picked up a copy of Lucinda Williams' new album Good Souls Better Angels from Amazon. My first Lucinda Williams album was World Without Tears, where the intensity and darkness of her lyrics mesmerized me.  Lucinda's songwriting skills are formidable, and she no doubt picked up a few tips about writing while traveling the world with her... Read More »

POST COVID-19 RECOVERY I’m doing a little better all the time in my Covid-19 recovery phase. My post Covid-19 symptoms are reducing in intensity and frequency, so things are going in a good direction. I'm hoping to be fully recovered in the next three to four weeks, so I can resume more of my normal activities,... Read More »

Have you ever done a head-slap and said, "Why did I do that?" That's what I did after I wrote up my blog post about my tube-rolling adventure in my Fender '65 Princeton Reverb reissue guitar amplifier a little over a week ago (HERE). When I ordered the NOS Sylvania tubes from Roy & Dale... Read More »

Life has been a little chaotic of late with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring, and then being infected with it and getting sick myself.  The good news is that over the last two days my temperature has dropped down into the normal range, and this morning as well. According to the health care professionals treating me,... Read More »

Even though I've been sick with the COVID-19 virus that's going around, I've been trying to play my guitar when I feel good enough. The stock power tubes in my Fender '65 Princeton Reverb reissue guitar amplifier were starting to sound ratty, so I thought I'd order some NOS vacuum tubes for it from Roy... Read More »

Due to the rapidly increasing threat of the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping over Washington State where I live, I started home-isolation on March 13th in an attempt to stay safe from the virus. Today is April 10th, and I'm in my 28th day of home-isolation due to COVID-19.  Even being extremely careful, and... Read More »

The Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier feature review is now live at Positive Feedback! You can read the review HERE. Enjoy! As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!

Everything is a bit topsy-turvy at the moment, with much of Planet Earth being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as I write this. I live in Washington State, which was the epicenter in the USA for the COVID-19 outbreak that has now spread around the country. As you might imagine the situation is rather dire... Read More »

When I was visiting Audio Note (UK) last fall, Daniel Qvortrup showed me drivers and cabinets of some prototype field-coil loudspeakers they were in the process of developing, as we did a walk-about of the facility. Daniel just sent me some photos of the completed prototype Audio Note (UK) field-coil loudspeakers that were installed into... Read More »

It's been a busy time for me, both personally and on the audio & music side of things, but I thought I'd take a moment and tell you about what's going on here at Jeff's Place. First of all, there's the whole COVID-19 outbreak thing going on here in Washington State, which is the epicenter... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player ($3874.00 USD).  I have thousands of Red Book CDs that I haven't listened to in years. My Red Book CD collection is full of great music, a lot of which is not available on LPs, and I have really... Read More »

In this Jeff's Place post you'll find Part 2 of my "sneak peek" of the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier feature review that will be coming to Positive Feedback in the very near future. If you haven't yet read the Part 1 "sneak peek" yet you can read it HERE.  The... Read More »

I'm getting very close to having my Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE integrated amplifier feature review for Positive Feedback completed and ready for publication. As is my tradition, I like to offer a "sneak peek" of my feature reviews to readers here at Jeff's Place. I do that for two reasons, the first being I think... Read More »

In my last Today's Fresh Catch post (HERE) I mentioned the variety of NOS 12AT7 signal tubes and NOS rectifiers that I had purchased from Radio Electric Supply to try in my Leben RS-30EQ: 6X5GT, 4 pieces (NU, GE, RCA, JAN Raytheon), at $10 each for a total of $40. 6X5GT 2 pieces, Sylvania, at $10 each for... Read More »

The tag line on Jeff's Place is "Music, Hi-Fi, and Other Stuff". This is an "Other Stuff" post. My friend Andy Moore invited me to join the "Seven Books in Seven Days Challenge" on Facebook.  As a prolific reader, I thought Andy's invite was an opportunity to reflect back on some of my favorite books... Read More »

As long-time readers know well, I really love my Leben CS600 integrated amplifier and the matching Leben RS-30EQ phono preamplifier (as well as the new Leben CS600X that I think is even more gorgeous sounding than my original CS600). There's only one caveat to consider with some of the Leben components, like the Leben CS600... Read More »

What I wrote in this post I had intended to tell you about after the publication of my upcoming feature article for Positive Feedback titled "The Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier – An Affordable Masterpiece!", which includes snippets of my adventures with Peter Qvortrup while visiting him at Audio Note (UK) headquarters,... Read More »

Besides their superb musical & sonic qualities, one of the great sources of joy for owners of vacuum tube amplifiers like the Leben CS600 / CS600X integrated amplifiers are adventures in trying different vacuum tubes to voice their amplifiers to best match their overall system characteristics, room, and their personal preferences.  I've been a huge... Read More »

I think most of you know that my usual way of getting an adequate amount of run-in time on a component  is to put it in either my vintage Altec 832A loudspeakers based bedroom system or in my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre based audio-visual system and let it accumulate hours until I... Read More »

Way back in 2017 when I wrote about the 0.01uF 600V Duelund tinned-copper foil wax/oil bypass caps (HERE) they were selling for an MSRP of $96 USD each, and the 0.01uF 600V Duelund pure silver foil wax/oil bypass caps were selling for an MSRP of $132 USD each. You could pick up the 0.01uF Duelund... Read More »

I've been on a semi-pilgrimage to build a "near replica" of the 1964 Telecaster of the late Canadian jazz guitarist, Ed Bickert, who is definitely one of my favorite jazz guitarists. Many thanks to Roman Pokorny for sharing his photos with me of his visit with Ed and of Ed's Telecaster. You might notice I... Read More »

It's always exciting to hear from our friend Yazaki-san, and this time Yazaki-san really outdid himself! You all know how much I love my humble vintage Altec loudspeaker collection of the A5 Voice of the Theatre, Corona 832A, and the "Stokowski" Altec's. Well, our friend Yazaki-san sent me a special issue of Stereo Sound from 2006 that... Read More »

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 »