I spent the last week in Chicago for a work review at Fermilab and Argonne, and since man cannot live on neutrinos alone, one of our gracious hosts - William - put on an awesome Chicago pizza extravaganza for us one night that was a blast! Many thanks to William! It also meant that upon... Read More »

I like to bring my Mom & Dad over to visit on the weekend, fix them a nice dinner, and spend some time catching up. They've been through a hard time the last few years, starting with when my Dad took a bad fall at home, ended up in the hospital, then a skilled nursing facility,... Read More »

If you've been following the blog posts here at Jeff's Place, you know that I asked Mr. Yazaki-san if he would tell us some of his thoughts about "Real Sound", and I'm very pleased to be able to share with you what he has written. Here's what Mr. Yazaki-san has written for us about "Real Sound": Dedicated to my... Read More »

There's nothing quite as satisfying as an impromptu listening session on a Friday afternoon with good friends like Ron and Leo. Ron always brings over a nice French wine, and Leo a very tasty vino from Napa (Ron's French Bordeaux was a 2009, and Leo's Napa Cabernet Sauvignon a 2005!). It's great to have friends with... Read More »

The guys over at Better Records offer records they call Hot Stampers, which are records that they have selected by ear that they say are much better sounding than the average pressing from any given run, or of the many available versions of a given album. The Better Records guys fan the flames of debate by dissing... Read More »

It seems an eternity ago when I wrote about the Sony PlayStation 1 SCPH-1001 back in 2007 at 6Moons as part of a 'Music Lovers' system. Keith Aschenbrenner of  Auditorium 23 fame told me about SCPH-1001, and how it sounded ridiculously good compared to even very expensive DACs and CD players of the time.  I said about it... Read More »

I added a "My Gear" page so that you could see all of the hi-fi gear that I use as references during the review process. I thought it would be a good idea to put together a master list of reference equipment and accessories that I enjoy and use on an ongoing basis, as the pages that show... Read More »

One of the resources I've found handy to figure out if a recording is in glorious mono is Discogs, where you can look up every version of an album, and more often than not, figure out if an album is in mono or stereo. Take the Chet is Back! album from ORG Music that I was... Read More »

My friend Leo sent me a message yesterday saying, "I found some Johnny Smith albums, I thought I'd drop them by if you're around." What a great guy! My friend Leo knows how much I love those old Johnny Smith albums on the Roost Records label, and when he's out and about he picks them up for me when... Read More »

If you read my Kindred Spirit post, you'll remember that as Mr. Yazaki-san was discussing the 'capacitor adventure' we are doing with my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers, he said: "Well, I think my inspirations also come from confidence in the thought that, Jeff-san’s hearing sense would be very close to mine. I understand Jeff-san... Read More »

You know, I've never paid that much attention to whether the vinyl in my collection was mono or stereo, as it really didn't matter much to me, because in the past I was only listening with a stereo phono cartridge, like my EMT TSD-15 or Denon DL 103. But these days, every time I pull out a... Read More »

I've gotten behind on calling out some of the good vinyl I've come across lately, so here's a couple recommendations for your consideration. The first one I'd like to bring to your attention is the mono version of Gil Evans Great Jazz Standards from Pure Pleasure Records. It includes the songs, Davenport Blues, Straight No Chaser, Ballad of the Sad... Read More »

I have now installed vintage Western Electric WE16GA in the Duelund low-frequency crossovers of my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers to replace the Neotech copper wire I used originally as part of the Duelund-WRSE crossover project. As you know, last week I replaced the Neotech silver wire I was using in the high-frequency section of... Read More »

That's what the message inside of my fortune cookie said, "You will soon meet a life long kindred spirit." It's fun to have a good meal at a Chinese restaurant in America, where there's a tradition of handing out fortune cookies at the end of a meal, so everyone around the dinner table can read the positive... Read More »

It's always a great evening of fun & games when Stephaen Harrell (6Moons) and Pete Riggle (Pete Riggle Audio Engineering) host the Annual ANVIL Awards celebration, and the fun continued in 2015! In case you’ve never heard of the the ANVIL Award, it’s the ultimate annual audio award for the Audiophile Not Very Intelligent Lately, and... Read More »

I got up this morning and fixed a nice double espresso to get the day started, fired up the stereo, and started listening to Gil Evan's New Bottle Old Wine. In a sudden inspiration, I decided I wanted to try a short length of Western Electric WE16GA in the high-frequency section of the Duelund CAST crossovers... Read More »

It's been a fun & interesting time here at Jeff's Place, with an overwhelmingly positive response from all of you to the posts about the DIY projects of Western Electric WE16GA wire for use as speaker cables, and the Belden 8402 microphone cable for use as interconnects, that Mr. Yazaki-san of SPEC told us about. Thank you... Read More »

As I wrote a little while back in a blog post: "Masterpieces is a mono recording from 1950, so I used the Ortofon SPU mono CG 25 Di MkII cartridge (check out Art Dudley’s just published review of it here), which produced a fantastic musical experience together. As a point of reference, Pete stopped by and listened... Read More »

June 4, 1923, was when my Dad, Jack, entered into the world, and now 92 years later we're celebrating the day, or should I say, the Day, Jack Day. Happy 92nd Birthday, Dad! We love you! 🙂 We had a nice evening of socializing, having dinner, and drinking a bit of Champagne. After dinner, a slice of... Read More »

For those of you who have been following along, Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki (below, second from left) of SPEC Corporation fame (The Real Sound Amplifier, et al) encouraged me to try a 'Capacitor Adventure' with one of my vintage McIntosh amplifiers (MC30 monaural amplifiers, MC225 stereo amplifier, and MC240 stereo amplifier). My MC30 monaural amplifiers and... Read More »

Ok, the title of the post is a bit of play on words: HiFi Heroin is a website of fine audio constructeurs, one of which is Dave Slagle of Intact Audio. Dave offers bespoke step-up transformers (SUTs) out of copper or silver with delicious nickel cores that are tailored specifically to bring out the best... Read More »

The first step in our capacitor adventure was to dismantle my McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers and take a look inside at the very nice handiwork of Mr. Yves Beauvais. I purchased my MC30 monaural amplifiers at Yves' retail asking price through his Vintage Vacuum Audio business. Be sure to check out the accompanying links about Yves, you should know that... Read More »

I received the SPEC AP-UD1 Analog Disc Sheet (turntable mat) from Mr. Yazaki-san of SPEC while I was finishing up the Garrard Project 2015 article for Positive Feedback Online (and mentioned it in the article). I've been too busy to write the AP-UD1 up until now, so this is a bit of a belated 'Today's Fresh Catch'... Read More »