I got a chance to do a little A-B listening evaluation of Yazaki-san's Ultimate Ruby Mica capacitor mod for the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier, with the added bonus of a group of friends weighing in on the results. As you might remember from Part 1, Yazaki-san had sent me a pair of his... Read More »

It is Thanksgiving week here in the States, and its a good time to reflect upon what we are thankful for. I'm looking forward to spending Thanksgiving Day with my 94 year old Mom, and hanging out with my friends Chad, Leo, Ron, and Santos for a little hifi fun & games and some general... Read More »

I heard from Andy Grove at Audio Note UK, and we had a nice email exchange about his design of the Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier. I like Andy, it was a true pleasure to meet him while visiting Audio Note UK earlier this year, and as you will read about in a moment,... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is the pair of Ultimate Ruby Mica capacitor's Yazaki-san sent me to try as a mod for the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier. If you read Yazaki-san's article, “My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7 Part 8" HERE, you know Yazaki-san was so impressed with the Ultimate Ruby Mica Capacitor's performance... Read More »

Being the vintage Altec enthusiast that I am - I have 3 pairs of gigantic vintage Altec loudspeakers in my modest sized home - you can imagine how excited I am by this particular "Today's Fresh Catch", the Great Plains Audio (nee Altec) 802-16G Series II compression drivers and the 416-16B low-frequency drivers. First let... Read More »

As I have done occasionally at times in the past, today I wrote this "other stuff" post for you that isn't on the topic of audio or music, but that I think is particularly relevant this time of year when the Holiday Season is arriving upon us in full force, and the days become short,... Read More »

As I was casually listening to Jazz24 while doing a few things around the house, I was rather struck by how musical the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier was sounding through its "CD" line input, how it always seemed to tug at my attention and pull me into the music regardless... Read More »

Ok, so maybe this isn't exactly my first listen, as I've been casually listening while getting run-in time on the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature Integrated Amplifier in my vintage Altec Corona 832A loudspeakers based system since it arrived here at Jeff's Place on October 4th (you can read the "Today's Fresh Catch" post about... Read More »

I always love a mystery, and when a mysterious box appears from Frederik Carøe (Duelund Coherent Audio) I get intrigued real quick! I go through the same procedure as I did as a kid during Christmas time when checking out presents under the Christmas tree. I picked up my presents, considered their weight and size,... Read More »

As always, it is a pleasure to hear from our dear friend, Yazaki-san, writing to us from Tokyo, Japan, this time with another terrific guest article about his latest audio adventure with his vintage Marantz Model 7 preamplifier. This guest article from Yazaki-san, My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7, Part 8, expands upon... Read More »

My feature article about the Pass Labs XA25 Class A push-pull stereo power amplifier is now live at Positive Feedback, and you can read it HERE.  As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!

I was quite excited when I received notice from Positive Feedback Editor Doc David that there was a Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo amplifier available for me to write about for Positive Feedback (photo below). I had been mightily impressed with the 18 watt per channel (into 8 Ohms) First Watt SIT-3 single-ended amplifier... Read More »

I thought I'd provide you a bit of a status on what's coming up here at Jeff's Place.  At the moment I'm working on finishing up the feature article for Positive Feedback about the Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier, with a target date of approximately November 1st. Also, I hope to write for you a... Read More »

Wow, I am amazed at the amount of people writing to me and asking me about the new Leben CS600X that just arrived here at Jeff's Place, and how it compares to my original CS600 - there's a lot of you Leben fans out there! I had been planning on writing a "listening impressions" update... Read More »

You might have noticed that below my Jeff's Place title that it says that my blog is about "Music, Hi-Fi, and Other Stuff". That's because Jeff's Place is my personal blog about music, hi-fi, and other stuff, with the "other stuff" being miscellaneous things that are on my mind that I want to write about that... Read More »

It's an exciting Saturday afternoon here at Jeff's Place with the arrival of "Today's Fresh Catch", the new Leben HiFi Stereo Company CS600X Integrated Amplifier! Those of you who have been reading my writing about hifi for a while know that I love integrated amplifiers, and the original Leben CS600 impressed me so much in combination... Read More »

It was a really enjoyable Friday this week, with a splendid visit from Paul James, who came all the way from Australia to visit Jeff's Place. Paul is a super nice guy, as well as a really knowledgable audio guy who likes to build valve preamps &  amplifiers, and loudspeakers from scratch, and it was... Read More »

I've been putting a lot of run-in and listening time on the Pass Labs XA25 stereo amplifier since it arrived, to the extent that I've lost track of the number of hours on it. There's probably north of 300 hours of operational time on the Pass Labs XA25 stereo amplifier at this point in time,... Read More »

Normally I don't pass on press releases, as that's something that Positive Feedback issues in their "Industry News" section, but in this case - because of my (and your) interest in DIY audio - I thought I'd let you know about this one to give it some extra emphasis. Nelson Pass is really into DIY, and this... Read More »

THE DUELUND-ALTEC PROJECT! I am so inspired and pleased by the way the Duelund-Altec Project turned out that I practically have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming! Be sure to get out and read the feature article at Positive Feedback at the above link, as I think you'll really enjoy it, and it will... Read More »

One of the things that I observed - and very much appreciated - about Audio Note UK while I was visiting was that it is very much a family oriented business, with Peter Qvortrup, Lesley Fennell (Peter's wife), Emily Qvortrup (Peter's eldest daughter), and Daniel Qvortrup (Peter's son) all being involved in the day-to-day business... Read More »

I wanted to let you know that "The Duelund-Altec Project - Dare to Dream!" article is now live at Positive Feedback.  As you know if you've been reading along, the Duelund-Altec Project was a major project on a number of levels, and from the time of conception of the project until the feature article appearing... Read More »

It's been a long road from the conception of the idea of building custom state-of-art Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers with Frederik Carøe of Duelund Coherent Audio for the historically important vintage - and state-of-art for their time period - "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers that were custom built for conductor Leopold Stokowski back in the early 1960s... Read More »