Kara Chaffee (deHavilland Electric Amplifier Company) was over visiting Pete Riggle (Pete Riggle Audio Engineering) for an impromptu audio fest, and brought along her prototype Super 40 monaural power amplifiers for a little listening. I didn't have a camera along with me so I didn't get any photos of the Super 40 prototypes (sorry about... Read More »

I got a message from Jack Roberts about a holiday music column he was planning to do on people’s favorite Christmas or Holiday LPs on his website, The Audio Beatnik, and asking if I’d like to make some recommendations. Sure, I thought, “That’d be fun!” You can see my contributions to Jack's column here. Then... Read More »

The 14th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2017 are now live here. Actually the Writers' Choice Awards went live a few days ago but this is my first chance to tell you about it. Here's a preview of my little contribution for 2017. You can read the fully story at the link. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪... Read More »

When I left you in the "Third Tune" post, I had settled in on the maple "tonewood" inserts as having the tonality that was the most complementary to my main music listening system (below). The maple set of tuning inserts was the first of the four sets of tonewood tuning inserts that I thought portrayed... Read More »

I just got a note from Frederik Carøe that the first batch of 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've tried them in two applications so far and have been very impressed with the results. My first trial of... Read More »

It's been a lot of fun exploring the tunable Audio MusiKraft Denon D-103 phonograph cartridge of Guy Pelletier. Guy sent me the entry level aluminum cartridge shell version ($579 USD) of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 to try, which has the look & feel of a beautifully crafted precision instrument. In my first listen to... Read More »

Inspired by the praise and enthusiastic response from Duelund Coherent Audio customers around the world to the Duelund DCA line of tinned-copper cables, Frederik Carøe did something amazing, he applied the same creativity he used in developing the Duelund DCA cables to new lines of Duelund tinned-copper foil paper-In-oil capacitors. I compared the prototype Duelund... Read More »

I've been enjoying listening to and experimenting with the voicing of Guy Pelletier's "tunable" Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge on my restored and "hot-rodded" vintage Thorens TD-124. As is my custom, I like to blog about my "getting acquainted" stage with new audio products, offering first impressions about the quality, ease of use, sonic... Read More »

Sometimes the best laid plans just don't pan out the way you think they will. Last weekend I had fully intended to do a little experimenting with the micro-tuning screws of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge. Between the need to tear down turntables, get them put back together and adjusted, as well as... Read More »

In my blog post about the Audio MusiKraft tunable Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge last weekend, I described its performance in comparison to my stock Denon DL-103 on my vintage Thorens TD-124, that was restored and hot-rodded by Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity. I listened to the two Denon's with identical Audio-Technica AT-HS1 headshells and identical sets... Read More »

In my original "Garrard Project" back in 2004, I started with a nice old original 301 in a simple plinth, and built it up into a music-making machine - the results were superb! Those vintage Garrard 301's (and 401's) are really wonderful classics of turntable design, and they have endeared themselves to generations of music... Read More »

The other day I was thinking about what Mark Coles (Sablon Audio) had told me about how a quality AC power cord noticeably improved the sound of a turntable. Improving a system's sound by using a high-performance AC power cord on the turntable wasn't an intuitive hot-rod mod for me, and I sort of wondered if... Read More »

I've really been looking forward to listening to and experimenting with the voicing of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 tunable phonograph cartridge from Guy Pelletier. The idea behind the Audio MusiKraft tunable Denon DL-103 is that it offers a Denon DL-103 enthusiast, like myself, the potential of an almost unlimited amount of voicing options through... Read More »

It sure was nice to have my nephew Chris and his daughter Chloe come to visit us this weekend! Chris and Chloe came all the way from Washington, D.C. to visit Washington State, and had some fun adventures in Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., and visiting Grandma Jaine and Uncle Jeff here at Jeff's Place. We took... Read More »

The Editors of Positive Feedback, Mr. Dave Clark and Dr. David Robinson, just sent out a message calling for the writers to turn in their three Writers Choice Awards for 2017. Every year Dave and David's message results in my going back and reflecting on my year in audio, the products I've written about for Positive Feedback, and... Read More »

The Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD124 Statement long-base turntable that I commissioned is here! The packing containers from Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity were extremely well done, with the TD-124 and plinth arriving in the large wooden crate you see on the above left, and the two platters, extra armboard, and other miscellaneous supplies packed in... Read More »

It's been quite a while since I've given my Denon DL-103 MC phonograph cartridge a good listen, so I thought I'd get the Denon out, mount it up, and play some music. The arrival of the hot-rodded Denon DL-103 from Audio MusiKraft, which I've been listening to for a while now, got me to thinking... Read More »

It's always fun to hear about Yazaki-san's adventures, and this time Yazaki-san has shared his adventure of visiting Kritapas-san in Bangkok, Thailand! ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Dear Jeff-san, I would like to introduce you Kritapas-san. You can see Kritapas-san's graceful and warm heart from his shining smile at one glance. He is a banker, traditional Thailand bank's responsible member... Read More »

The review of the Arai Lab MT-1 step-up transformer for moving coil phonograph cartridges is now live at Positive Feedback here. Enjoy! As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!

I've been doing a lot of writing to get the review of the Arai Lab MT-1 SUT finished up for Positive Feedback, and I'm now done! Ta-da! Here's a little sneak peek into the review before it is published at Positive Feedback in the coming week. Enjoy! ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ The Arai Lab MT-1 Step-Up Transformer for... Read More »

I got up early this morning, and after drinking a cup of coffee to clear the mental cobwebs, I decided it would be a good time to try the tinned-copper Duelund bypass capacitors that Frederik sent me in my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers' crossovers. You can see them in the center of... Read More »

I got a nice surprise package from Frederik Carøe at Duelund Coherent Audio this week, some beautiful little Duelund 0.01 uF tinned-copper bypass capacitors! As you can see from the photos, the Duelund bypass capacitors are made in that same ultra-quality fashion as the other Duelund capacitors. So you could get an idea of their relative... Read More »

Yazaki-san has been out on another adventure to the Sentimental Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, and has shared some photos of his visit! Since Yazaki-san's visit to the Sentimental Cafe last October, they have become a Spec Corporation dealer, and today, September 22nd, they hosted an open house so visitors could experience Yazaki-san's beautiful Spec audio electronics... Read More »