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 »

Christopher Thornton just sent me some beautiful photos of the completed bespoke Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD124 Statement Long-Base turntable (with a Cocobolo plinth), that I commissioned. Woo hoo! I told Christopher that for my Artisan Fidelity Thorens TD124 Statement turntable my main criteria was that I wanted to use a 12-inch tonearm. Thorens TD124 owners who want to use... Read More »

This morning I built a 1-meter shielded Duelund DCA26GA tinned-copper interconnect (shield connected at source end) to connect the 2-Ohm version of the Arai Lab MT-1 SUT that I am currently reviewing for Positive Feedback to my vintage MX110Z preamplifier's phono stage. I now have shielded versions of the DCA16GA, DCA20GA, and DCA26GA tinned-copper interconnects... Read More »

Man, the last couple of weeks have been rough. A kidney stone that seems to think that playing hide and seek with me is a fun thing to do has been keeping me under the weather a bit, and as a result I haven't got nearly as much written as I like to. No worries... Read More »

Last weekend was a rough one. I was felled by a kidney stone on Sunday, which earned me a ride in an ambulance to the emergency room. The little bugger hasn't passed through yet, and still has some fight left in it, which it has been keen to remind me of from time to time. Ugh. I've... Read More »

As I mentioned in a post about 3 weeks ago, I built up a set of 1.5 meter Duelund DCA26GA interconnects terminated with Switchcraft RCA's. I've been listening to the Duelund DCA26GA IC's with the Switchcraft RCA's on my OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player, and I've been impressed with how good they sounded in that application. I had presumed that... Read More »

I wrote all day yesterday and finished up the review of the Sophia Electric EL34-ST and Aqua 274B vacuum tubes. The Sophia Electric EL34-ST power tubes (above) and Aqua 274B rectifiers (below) outperformed everything that's ever graced my Leben CS-600 integrated amplifier, and vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers, respectively, and by a large margin. I don't... Read More »

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I laid down my guitars a few years ago and haven't played them since then, as the focus of my time was helping my Mom and Dad through some difficult times healthwise. I decided I needed to pick the guitars back up as I was really missing that... Read More »

I'm hard at work listening and writing this weekend for my article about the Sophia Electric EL34-ST and Aqua 274B vacuum tubes for Positive Feedback. I hope to be finished up with the article either this or next weekend, but I thought in the meantime you might enjoy a sneak peek, so here you go! ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪... Read More »

I’m really excited about a very special Thorens TD124 restoration and ‘hot-rod’ project I commissioned with Christopher Thornton of Artisan Fidelity. The completed Artisan Fidelity TD124 Statement turntable will look similar to the photo below, but will have a "long-base" plinth that is about three inches wider to accommodate my preferred 12-inch tonearm. Christopher just sent me some... Read More »

Everyone loves Western Electric it seems, and for good reason, as their vacuum tubes and audio designs are the stuff of legend! I just ran across a fun film (below) from Western Electric about their vacuum tubes that was in the AT&T Archives, and I thought I'd share it with you. Enjoy! A Modern Aladdin's... Read More »

I have access to buying almost anything as an audio writer, and there's some really nice audio gear out there, but for a preamplifier I chose the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, which was sold by McIntosh from 1962-1969 for the lofty price of $399. The reason is that the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier is an... Read More »

I've been looking forward to giving the Audio MusiKraft hot-rodded and tunable Denon DL-103 a listen, and comparing it to my stock Denon DL-103, a trusted friend of many years. I think the idea of a tunable phono cartridge is brilliant, and I applaud Guy Pelletier, the owner / propriétaire of Audio MusiKraft, for bringing to... Read More »

I've been looking forward to the arrival of the Audiosilente cartridge clips so I can build a couple of sets of Duelund DCA26GA headshell leads with them. One I get the new headshell leads built - I'm hoping to find time over the weekend - then I'll be able to give the stock Denon DL-103... Read More »

I've been thinking a lot about the guitar and guitarists lately, and after an almost four year hiatus of playing the guitar, I've picked back up my guitars, dusted off my mental cobwebs, and tried to make some progress in my playing again. The highlight of my week back before I laid down my guitars... Read More »

Using the Hagerman Audio Labs FryBaby2 in voltage-only mode has revealed itself to be a powerful voicing tool for the Duelund DCA line of tinned-copper cables. Every single time I've used the FryBaby2 on the Duelund cables it has been a smashing success. In its voltage-only conditioning mode the FB2 has worked wonders on my... Read More »