Since I bought my 50 year old vintage McIntosh MC240 amplifier I've been thinking about how best to connect speaker cables to it. Given that the Macs back then used terminal strips instead of binding posts, it's a bit of a challenge to attach modern speaker cables like the bi-wire Panatela for Tannoy Westminster Royal... Read More »

While I was shopping for a vintage McIntosh MC240 amplifier, I asked Jim McShane for some 6L6GC tube recommendations, and Jim told me that his all-time favorite 6L6GC vacuum tube is "the JAN Philips 7581A - a remarkable tube!" Jim also went on to tell me there are a lot of really good current production... Read More »

Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles This weekend I am hard at work writing Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles. As many of you know, I really love the Acoustic Revive audio accessories that are designed and manufactured by Mr. Ken Ishiguro in Japan. If you’ve looked closely at the photos in my... Read More »

Those of you who are familiar with Rick Steves' Europe Through The Back Door probably picked up on my little play on words. Rick's place is located just a little North of Seattle in Edmonds, and I've really enjoyed my trips with Rick Steves' tours.  Over the 4th of July weekend I spent three days... Read More »

I just got home from a terrific bicycle tour of the Seattle area led by my friend Chad (below). We covered over a hundred miles and saw lots of amazing sites, drank some awesome microbrew beers, and ate some incredible food. (A travel post shall follow shortly) Waiting for me when I got home was... Read More »

My survey article of the Sablon Audio Corona family of power cables, designed by Mark Coles, is now live in the new issue of Positive Feedback Online, Issue 68, here. Here's a few snippets from the article: "I think its pretty cool that Mark practices the philosophy of continuous improvement for his cable products. You... Read More »

The Duelund-WRSE Project has been truly exciting, both in working through developing the external Duelund crossovers, and also hearing from those of you who are working on your own projects. Frank just finished up his Duelund-WRSE Project, took some great photos, and wrote it all up  to share with all of us. Thank you Frank!... Read More »

I just got home from a 26 mile bicycle ride and walked down to my mailbox, and there waiting for me was the July 2013 issue of Stereophile. As I thumbed through the issue I was delighted to see that Michael Fremer wrote about the New Valve Order SPA-II phono equalizer that is being imported to... Read More »

Here’s what’s in my current review queue and what you can expect to see reviewed at Positive Feedback Online in the future. The last reviews to be finished up were of the wonderful ASR Basis Exclusive phono equalizer and ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier (above). I'm still in withdrawal after their departure - wonderful... Read More »

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, I got back from Idaho yesterday afternoon where I had joined with my family to celebrate my Dad's 90th birthday! It was awesome! After getting home I unboxed the Panatela WRSE internal wiring set that Mark Coles had sent for the Duelund-WRSE Project. This project has... Read More »

I got in late afternoon from travel yesterday, where I'd been off visiting my Dad in Idaho for his 90th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! Cheers! My awesome sister-in-law, JoAnne, and my equally awesome nephews, Matt and Chris, made the journey to Idaho from around the US to help wish Dad (Grandpa Jack) a Happy 90th... Read More »

I was excited to the see the package arrive from Mark Coles containing the custom internal Westminster Royal SE Sablon Audio Panatela wiring harness that Mark made for the Duelund-WRSE Project. These are the exact same custom Panatela Special Edition Component Speaker Cables that Mark optimized for the WRSEs with Paul Mills' input that I reviewed in... Read More »

As I mentioned in my last progress report about the Duelund - Westminster Royal SE Project, my buddy Dave and I made some real progress putting the isolation bases together that the Duelund crossovers are mounted on. Dave brought in the finished frames to the office yesterday, I gave their newly lacquered finish time to... Read More »

The last time Ron stopped by it was a real treat to listen to his vintage Harmon-Kardon Citation II and Citation V amplifiers, as well as his beautiful deHavilland 50A mono amps (new at the time). Man what a day we had listening to those fine amps! It was a Hi-Fi celebration! Harmon-Kardon Citation II... Read More »

Mark Coles of Sablon Audio fame has developed a new power cord in his Corona product line: the Quantum Gran Corona. Here's what Mark told me about the Quantum Gran Corona: With the quantum power cord, I have thrown every tweak I know at the existing Gran Corona design to create an ultimate statement cord.... Read More »

Over the last couple of weekends I have made quite a bit of progress on the Duelund-WRSE Project. Last weekend my buddy Dave and I worked on the final chassis design for the outboard Duelund crossovers, and we went into Dave's woodworking shop to get the chassis started and made a lot of progress. As I... Read More »

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on my 1oth anniversary as an audio writer! I appreciate Mike's encouragement to write a little more about recordings too, because that's something I always intend to do, but the software scene seems to get away from me when I'm trying to keep up with the hardware scene!... Read More »

It's no secret that I really like the New Valve Order SPA-II phono equalizer and have been using it as my reference, and as I posted earlier, I have the new entry level SPA One in for review (below), and from what I'm hearing it promises to be something special as well. Panicos told me... Read More »

Today I added a Review Archives page to Jeff's Place in the top navigation bar as a resource for finding different articles I had written over the years. As I was putting together a list of links for the article archive I realized that it’s my 10 Year Anniversary writing about Hi-Fi! I started writing about Hi-Fi... Read More »

I just wanted to let you know about something handy I've run across: Peavey color coded microphone ID tape. The Peavey color coded microphone ID tape includes eight rolls of tape in different colors: yellow, blue, red, orange, brown, green, white, and silver. While the intention of the Peavey tape is to identify various stage... Read More »

I've been listening to the breadboarded versions of the Duelund crossovers on the Westminster Royal SE's this week, in the evenings after I got home from the office, and man, what a revelation! I decided to take today off and get some more work done on Duelund-WRSE Project.  Before getting started on what I need to... Read More »

If you've been following along you know that Siedy (photo below) has been a true inspiration for yours truly. If it wasn't for Siedy I would never have had the opportunity to try the superb ASR electronics that are hand-crafted by Friedrich Schaefer in Herborn, Germany. It was a wonderful experience writing about the ASR electronics... Read More »

I just finished up installing the other Duelund crossover on the right Westminster Royal SE, so now I have a stereo pair up and running. Not bad progress for a weekends worth of work! I was able to improve the layout of the right channel pair of Duelund crossovers and make it quite a bit more... Read More »