As I mentioned in my earlier listening impressions for selecting the optimal mix of the vintage-inspired Duelund DCA tinned-copper tone cables for the Duelund-Altec Project (HERE), I was particularly fascinated by Bill's intriguing comment on The Duelund-Altec Project: DCA16GA vs DCA20GA for the Altec 804A 16-Ohm compression drivers? post HERE. Bill shared his experiences with the new 600V... Read More »

It's always exciting to hear from our good friend, Yazaki-san, and in this article Yazaki-san brings us more illuminating insights as he discusses the GEC PX25A (DA30) monaural SETs that he built for Alan-san. Yazaki-san has dedicated this Part 4 article to his friends Alan-san and Harald-san, who have enthusiastically pursued and supported the builds of... Read More »

As you know if you've been reading along, I've been experimenting with different combinations of the Duelund DCA tinned-copper tone cables for the Duelund-Altec Project (HERE), both as speaker cables and for connecting the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers to the Altec 804A 16-Ohm compression drivers. I've already settled in on the Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper cable for... Read More »

I've just finished up an article for Positive Feedback that has been in the works for a couple of months. It's about three easy and affordable accessories / modifications for a classic Thorens TD-124 turntable, that elevated the performance of my Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD-124 Statement turntable beyond my wildest expectations, and I suspect these accessories will do... Read More »

I've been immensely enjoying listening to the "Stokowski" Altec's with the breadboard Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers. I haven't really been in any hurry to make changes to anything with the crossovers, which is a good sign that everything is coming together in a synergistic fashion musically and sonically. I've wired the breadboard versions of the... Read More »

I love learning about almost everything, which would help explain my taking time to earn a bachelor's degree in chemistry, a master's degree in chemistry, and a doctorate degree in analytical chemistry.  I have immensely enjoyed studying chemistry, mathematics, physics, law, literature, history, religions, philosophy, art and music, Koine Greek, computers, audio electronics, and many other topics which... Read More »

I bought a fern & roby brass record weight to go with the brass platter on my CTC Garrard 301 turntable, and it came in the mail today. If you flip the fern & roby brass record weight upside down the center piece is the same size as the hole in 45RPM singles records, so... Read More »

I have some exciting Altec news to share with you. The new owners of Great Plains Audio - Troy Audio - envision a bright future for an Altec revival, and as an Altec enthusiast - I have 3 pairs of vintage Altec's - I'm particularly excited about this development!  They're going to be sending me... Read More »

There's been a lot of interest in the topic of the Duelund 600V DCA12GA Sn-Cu cable with its CAST-like dielectric that is primarily intended for use in power cables, versus the Duelund DCA12GA Sn-Cu cable with the baked oil-soaked-cotton dielectric that is intended primarily for use as speaker cables. That interest is largely driven by... Read More »

It's time for another update on the Duelund-Altec Project. In my most recent updates of the Duelund-Altec Project I discussed the overall project context HERE, the selection of speaker cables for the most complementary voicing HERE, and I wrote a just-for-fun post about the musicality magic of vintage Altec's HERE.  I've never been enamored of... Read More »

Those of you who have been reading along here at Jeff's Place know I've been having a blast with my modest collection of vintage Altec loudspeakers. With my Westminster's I lost interest in SET's for a while as they need a little more power than most SET's can muster, but now with my Altec's SET friendly sensitivity... Read More »

I've been wanting to write an article about the "musicality magic" of vintage Altec loudspeakers for a while now, so consider this a mini-installment towards that goal, with - I hope - much more to come. Let's start with a short Altec history lesson. Altec's origins are inextricably linked to the Western Electric movie theater loudspeaker systems... Read More »

I've really been enjoying the Duelund-Altec Project, and I fully admit that I am in awe of the performance I'm hearing from the exotic Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers (Hiraga-style circuit) with my vintage one-off "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers.  The live-like musicality, sonics, and intense emotional impact the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers combined with the "Stokowski" Altec's are... Read More »

I've really been enjoying listening to the "Stokowski" Altec's with their Duelund-Altec Project Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossovers over the last week or so since my last update. For those who are just finding out about the Duelund-Altec Project, I thought I'd include an overview of the project for you, as well as an update for... Read More »

After my last listening impressions report of the DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA tinned-copper power cable after 3 days on the Cable Cooker (HERE), I decided to give it another 3 days of conditioning (for a total of 6 days). My reference power cable is the $12K USD Acoustic Revive Absolute Power Cable, which by any metric is... Read More »

The fifth week of listening to the Duelund-Altec Project's state-of-art Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers with the vintage "Stokowski" Altec's brought momentous changes in what I was hearing, and in a very satisfying way both musically and sonically. In fact, I posted to my Facebook pals, "OMG! The Duelund-Altec Project's exotic Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers are sounding so good... Read More »

After providing the update of Ron's, Leo's and my listening impressions from last Friday, I then put my DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA power cable on my Audiodharma Cable Cooker and let it get 3 days of run-in time. While I was letting the DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA power cable get some run-in time on the Cable... Read More »

The run-in period for my DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA tinned-copper power cable is just getting started, but I thought I'd share some more early impressions with you, with more detailed impressions to come as more run-in hours accumulate. On Friday a couple of audio pals - Ron and Leo - stopped by for a little... Read More »

My buddy Ron Barbee has impeccable taste in vintage gear, and his Pioneer Series 20 M-22 Class A power amplifier is a case in point. Introduced in 1976, the Pioneer Series 20 M-22 Class A power amplifier is a 30 watts per channel amplifier (into 8 Ohms) with an extremely rugged build quality, and according to... Read More »

Vintage audio equipment can be a lot of fun because of its superb musicality, but at some point that vintage kit will need updating and/or repair to replace aging capacitors, resistors, and potentiometers, for example. Take for example my vintage McIntosh MX110Z, that has had an enduring presence in my audio systems due to its... Read More »

In February 2019 we've received more snow where I live than in any February in the last 100 years. I've only been venturing out occasionally, but the upside of all that snow is it motivates me to do things inside, like this DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA power cable project! Before I get started telling you... Read More »

Quite a long time ago now, our friend Yazaki-san had recommended the Marinco hospital plugs to me as a good sounding affordable plug, and I thought I'd pair a set of the Marinco's with the new 600V Duelund DCA12GA tinned-copper cable (link HERE) that is intended for building power cables, and see what kind of... Read More »

In my last post about the Duelund-Altec Project crossovers, I reported on the changes in performance I've heard from the "Stokowski" Altec's Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers as they accumulated two weeks worth of run-in time. Over the first two weeks I've noted that the high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) circuits of the crossovers were running... Read More »