In the last six decades I haven't broken a single phonograph cartridge, but in the last two weeks I've broken two, and the crazy thing about it is I don't even know how I did it in either case. The first cartridge fatality was the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge Guy Pelletier sent me. I... Read More »

I really appreciate the emails I get from you. Take for example the recent email from Robert Atkinson, expanding upon using the Hagerman FryBaby2 compact burn-in generator for interconnects, speaker cables, capacitors, and resistors. Jim's manual for the FryBaby2 is very brief and doesn't really give the reader a comprehensive overview of the specifics of... Read More »

I've been looking at guitars again, or more exactly, vintage Gibson ES 150 guitars. YouTube example below. Listen to that incredible tone of "Fred Archtop's" 1938 Gibson ES 150 "Charlie Christian", it's out of this world! So what does that have to do with audio? Well, both guitars and audio intersect at music, that's what! You've heard... Read More »

I love jazz. I love guitars. I love to hear jazz cats playing jazz on their guitars! It makes me smile. 🙂 Blues Going Up is a nice jazz swing album featuring George Barnes (guitar), Duncan James (guitar), Benny Barth (drums), and Dean Reilly (bass), that was recorded live at Bimbo's "supper club" on April 17,... Read More »

To get my mind off the plunging stock market and my plunging retirement savings, I thought I'd do something edifying like give my Thorens TD124 a try on my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers. I've wanted to revisit the Leben CS-600 integrated amplifier and Leben RS-30EQ combination that works so well together... Read More »

I went a bit wild today and decided to rearrange all my bedroom furniture so I could set up the new-to-me vintage Altec Corona loudspeakers as my bedroom system. The speakers look small in the photo above because of the size of the room, but they're really 3.5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, so... Read More »

I'm a huge fan of integrated amplifiers. In fact some of the finest amplification I've ever had the pleasure to listen to music with has come from integrated amplifiers, like the Leben CS-600 and the Spec RSA-M3 EX. I get quite a few messages from integrated amplifier owners asking me what separate components would better the... Read More »

It turns out that with my purchase of a pair of vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers, that there are now four of us local friends that have vintage Altec loudspeakers with 800Hz (811B) horns that were designed for domestic use (Valencia's, and now the Corona's). Altec built a lot of loudspeakers that were designed for... Read More »

The vintage Altec Lansing 832A Corona's arrived from LA Jazz Audio this morning via R+L Carriers, who were very helpful and polite, and brought the pallet with the Corona's right up to my front door for easy unpacking -great service! LA Jazz Audio did a nice packing job, and I was able to quickly remove... Read More »

Today's post was inspired by Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,  one of my favorite pointillist impressionism paintings, showing Parisians relaxing in a park on the banks of the Seine (below). In a silly oddio variation on a theme, you get my music, film, literature, and audio impressions while I'm relaxing... Read More »

It's crazy, I thought I'd have 9 or 10 hours more every day to get things done after retiring from my day job at the end of December, but that hasn't happened. If anything I've been busier than ever and the days whiz by, and before I know it the day is over! How can... Read More »

In the coming months, we're going to be building crossovers using the new Duelund Coherent Audio tinned-copper components for the custom Altec Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers that were built for Mr. Stokowski, nearly six decades ago now. In preparation for the upcoming project I've been doing some background "research" on Mr. Stokowski, and I have been... Read More »

I am sitting here pondering my Altec A5 & A7 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers, and am reminded of the lyrics from Phoebe Snow's song It Must Be Sunday, "I said it must be Sunday 'cause ev'rybody's tellin' the truth ...". Here's some useful Altec truths that don't get talked about enough. Truth #1 - Vintage Altec's... Read More »

The full review of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 is now live at Positive Feedback HERE. I was just telling the editors at Positive Feedback, Dave and David, that I found it particularly satisfying to tell our readers about Audio MusiKraft and their great idea of developing the tunable Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge, and... Read More »

I'm working hard on my review of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 for Positive Feedback, and I thought you would enjoy a preview. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ The “Tunable” Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 Phonograph Cartridge Audio MusiKraft was founded by Guy Pelletier in 2016 in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, and consists of “a small core of experienced craftsmen and devoted music... Read More »

I am absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the Duelund Coherent Audio - Stokowski Altec Project for 2018! This exciting project will showcase the Duelund Coherent Audio tinned-copper components, and will be a world first for a crossover constructed of tinned-copper components. As you know, I have been extremely impressed with the prototype tinned-copper capacitors and... Read More »

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! The snow is really coming down right now, so it's a classic White Christmas here in Washington State. I'm bringing my Mom over to share Christmas with, have a nice Christmas dinner together, sip a hot toddy, and listen to some jazz! For me it's not only... Read More »

In my “sixth tune” report on the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge I reported to you my adventure with the oil treated Jatoba tonewood inserts (above). I've mentioned before what a dramatic difference a complementary set of headshell leads makes to the overall voicing and performance of a cartridge, which can easily be as great... Read More »

Most of you know that what I write about music and hifi here at Jeff's Place (as well as Positive Feedback) produces no real income for me. In fact it's just the opposite, it costs me a lot to write about many of the things I write about because they are personal purchases (Altec A5's... Read More »

In my "fifth tune" report on the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge I reported to you my experiences with the lime tonewood inserts treated with beeswax & lemon oil (above). In this "sixth tune" report I want to tell you about my experiences with Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge using the oiled Jatoba tonewood... Read More »

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got a note from Frederik Carøe that the first batch of the new Duelund Coherent Audio 0.01 uF tinned-copper paper-in-oil bypass capacitors are ready and will be arriving at Parts ConneXion this coming week. I was really impressed with the Duelund 0.01uF tinned-copper bypass capacitors' performance on the 6.8uF Duelund... Read More »

My vintage MX110Z tuner preamplifier has two phono inputs, which is not enough to accomodate the three tonearms I have in play on my Thorens TD-124 and Classic 301. I've got the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 / Schick tonearm / Auditorium 23 SUT going into one phono input, and my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo... Read More »

In my last report on the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge I did a photographic strip-tease of the Denon DL-103 as I dismantled it from its aluminum Audio MusiKraft shell with maple tonewood inserts ... ... and then reassembled it in its Audio MusiKraft aluminum shell with oiled black walnut tonewood inserts installed. In my... Read More »