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 »

If you've read my review of the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier in Positive Feedback Online in Issue 78, you know how interesting I found the high-fidelity adventures of Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki to be: "I learned the audio lesson that while parts choice does make an important difference in performance, it is the 'enlightened ear' of the talented... Read More »

Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki of SPEC Corporation (photo below, second from left) has told me how highly he regards the performance of vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire used as speaker cable. Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki uses the Western Electric WE16GA wire as speaker cables as his personal reference both for the research & development work he does for... Read More »

The Garrard Project 2015 article is now live at Positive Feedback Online here. This has been a terrific project to do, and Ray Clark at Classic Turntable Company, Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity, and Thomas Schick have all been an absolute delight to work with, and the quality of their work speaks for itself -... Read More »

As you know, I've been extremely impressed with the New Valve Order SPA-II phono equalizer I reviewed in and Issue 57 of Positive Feedback Online (and use as my reference for a stand-alone phono equalizer), and the SPA One phono preamplifier that I reviewed in Issue 69 of Positive Feedback Online. Andreas Hadjiminas, working out of... Read More »

If you read my SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier review in Issue 78 of Positive Feedback Online, you know how impressed I am with the audio designs of Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki in Tokyo, Japan. (second from the left in the photograph below) It is my opinion that Yazaki-san is one of those rare gifted listeners/designers with an... Read More »

I like to have my Mom & Dad over on weekends for dinner so we can reminisce, enjoy some good food, listen to music, and just have some fun times together. Mom & Dad are in their 90s, and I'm not all that young anymore either, but we like to enjoy the time we have left.... Read More »

In the Issue 78 Positive Feedback Online review of the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier and the SPEC RSP-901EX Real Sound Processors, I only reviewed the Real Sound Processors on my Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers. If you read the review, you know I was very impressed with what the Real Sound Processors did for my Harbeth Super HL5s:... Read More »

The SPEC 'Real Sound Amplifier' and 'Real Sound Processors' review is now live at Positive Feedback Online, and you can read it here. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it's a long 'feature-style' article with thirty pages of text and 65 photographs. I hope you enjoy the review. The SPEC 'Real Sound Amplifier' and 'Real... Read More »

I'm working hard writing the SPEC Review. I've got all my listening impressions written up for my Leben CS-600 & Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeaker based system (above), and I'm sure a lot of you are wondering how the SPEC Real Sound Amplifier compares to the Leben CS-600. I'm now working on writing up my impressions for... Read More »

Happy 90th Birthday, Mom! We (Dad, Mom, and me) had a terrific 90th birthday celebration for Mom yesterday here at Jeff's Place. For dinner I played chef and cooked mesquite grilled filet mignon, Beurre Monté lobster tails, baked potatoes with trimmings, carrots, and champagne to drink. Birthday cake and Portland's Stumptown fresh roasted coffee for dessert.... Read More »

  The SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier from Japan By Jeff Day   Most regular readers of Positive Feedback Online know of my long-time passion for vacuum tube electronics. I’ve enjoyed the musical prowess and sonic chops of contemporary artisan-designed single-ended amplifiers with various output tubes, like the EL84, 45, 2A3, 300B, F2a, and... Read More »

It's always a pleasure to hear from Siedy in the Netherlands. If you've been following along the conversations here at Jeff's Place you'll recognize Siedy as the gentleman responsible for me becoming aware of the powerful and musical ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier that was developed by Mr.Friedrich Schaefer in Germany. Siedy used the... Read More »

Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity has just finished fitting all the components to the plinth he created for the Garrard Project 2015, and sent me some photos of it to drool over - it's a beauty! (you can click on each of the photos for a larger view) That's Christopher's Macassar Ebony plinth with Stillpoints Ultra... Read More »