Due to your critical acclaim, the Jeff's Place Readers' Choice Award unanimously goes to Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki's 'Real Sound' recommendations for the Western Electric WE16GA wire and the Belden 8402 microphone cable. I particularly liked the way that Mark Paul said it in his nomination to me for the Readers' Choice Award, "I think it’s safe... Read More »

I just received my latest vinyl fix from Acoustic Sounds (and in case you are wondering, these aren't freebie samples, I buy them at full retail price just like you do). My order for this paycheck was Mobile Fidelity's 45RPM version of Rickie Lee Jones' first album, Rickie Lee Jones; Mobile Fidelity's 45RPM version of Miles Davis' Kind Of... Read More »

It's always tough for me to narrow down my award choices for Positive Feedback during the annual call for the Writers' Choice Awards, so I'm starting something new: The Jeff Awards. The Jeff Awards will include the best hi-fi equipment from my formal reviews, honorable mentions of gear that hasn't been formally reviewed, and recognition for notable albums... Read More »

The call for Positive Feedback writers to submit their annual Writers' Choice Awards came out yesterday from Editors Dave & David.   It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards roll around, as it provides a time for me to reflect back on the past year and think about its... Read More »

When I read Marvin's comment about making some Western Electric WE16GA power cords I was intrigued, and I remembered I had some Furutech AC connectors that I had gotten for a DIY power cord project that I had never got around to. Well, better late than never I suppose, so I grabbed the Furutech AC... Read More »

As I alluded to in yesterday's post, there have been some exciting developments on the Duelund Coherent Audio front: Frederik Carøe has announced a new copper & silver hybrid Duelund CAST capacitor that gives a big slice of the ultra-expensive pure silver Duelund CAST capacitors' performance (below) at a price very close to that of the... Read More »

There's a lot of exciting audio projects coming up which I think you'll find very interesting. The one that's occupying a lot of my attention right now is the upcoming Altec Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre project. In my introductory post I mentioned that I had chosen the Altec Lansing 515E ceramic magnet low... Read More »

Immediately after posting about Gary Bronner's adventure at Sun Audio in Akihabara, I received a delightful message from Yazaki-san to Gary Zabel & Daryl Stahler at Arizona Capacitors & me about another Akihabara adventure, the "Tube Audio Show" which Yazaki-san just attended. Dear Gary-san, Daryl-san and Jeff-san, "Tube Audio Show" is now held in Akihabara / Tokyo... Read More »

While Gary Bronner and I were discussing the upcoming A5 'Voice of the Theatre' project, he was telling me about his recent visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo. It sounded like such a fun trip I asked Gary if it would be ok to share it with all of you, as I thought you'd all enjoy... Read More »

In 1877 Thomas Edison invented recording with the phonograph, and kicked off the acoustic era of recording that lasted until 1925, when Western Electric initiated the electrical era of recording with the development of microphones, amplifiers, disc cutting machines, loudspeakers, and sound for movies. Western Electric supported the theater movie sound business until 1936, when... Read More »

I just got back from the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2015 in Denver, Colorado. Kudos to Marjorie and everyone else involved, they really did a great job of putting on the show! It's been quite a while since I've ventured out to an audio show. I got burned out on them years ago, but I... Read More »

I finished up my Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki article yesterday, and it is now live at Positive Feedback here. It has been an immense pleasure for me to get to know Yazaki-san and to tell you about him, and his ideas & recommendations for 'Real Sound' have made a wonderful difference in my hi-fi.... Read More »

Listening Adventures With the Wonderful SPEC Amps! By Siedy Abee I am one of those guys who is a regular reader of Jeff's Place. It is always a great pleasure to open up Jeff's website and to read about his newest adventures. This year Jeff reported about a new amp from SPEC (here). I had never heard about the SPEC... Read More »

A couple of posts ago (here) I shared a little of the article Adventures in Real Sound With Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki that I am writing for Positive Feedback. I've been making good progress on the article, and I am hoping to be able to finish it this weekend, so it can get published before next week's... Read More »

I just heard from Yazaki-san, and he sent me some photographs of the DA30 SET monaural amplifiers he made for his friend Ookubo-san, and they're so beautiful I wanted to share them with you! The DA30 SET monaural amplifiers Yazaki-san made for his Ookubo-san are based on using the vintage Western Electric 310A as the driver, a vintage... Read More »

Most of you probably know Chad Kassem as the founder of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., the superb Analogue Productions record label, the Blue Heaven Studios recording studio, and most recently the Quality Record Pressings record pressing facility (there's a nice overview on Wikipedia) Thursday, when I went back to my office after a meeting, the light... Read More »

I always love the weekends, when I get a chance to cook up some fine food, listen to music, play hi-fi games, go for a bicycle ride, and just generally kick back and enjoy life! I invited my Mom & Dad over for dinner and some music listening (Mom's 90, and Dad's 92). I grilled... Read More »

I am hard at work on my article for Positive Feedback, Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, and thought I'd share a snippet of it with you. I'll add more as time goes on. Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki By Jeff Day In Issue 78 I introduced you to the remarkable... Read More »

After reading Bill Dion's comment about how well he liked the interconnects he made using vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire, I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a try too. Many thanks to Bill for such an awesome comment! So out came my vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire, four Switchcraft SWC-3502AAU RCAs, my Hakko soldering station, and... Read More »

It's been a hectic time, and I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd tell you about a number of things at once to make up for lost time, like vintage Western Electric WE24GA wire, some delicious vintage phono cartridges, some music 'scores', and... Read More »

"Nobody is going to believe what we're hearing from your Westminsters with this Western Electric internal wiring," said Ron, "it's hard to put into words how good it sounds." Ron and I just spent Sunday morning and a good part of the afternoon rewiring my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers with vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire from Mr.... Read More »

It was on August 15, 1965, that my Mom took me to see Louis Armstrong in a parking lot concert at the Lloyd Center Mall in Portland, Oregon. Exactly 50 years ago today. It made a huge impression on me, and I've loved jazz ever since. So today, 50 years later, we celebrated the good... Read More »

I ordered four albums from Acoustic Sounds to get my vinyl fix for the week: First up was the 45 RPM ORG reissue of Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um that my buddy Leo brought over for me to listen to. After hearing it, I knew it was a must have for my jazz collection. The combination of... Read More »