It was another mighty fine Vintage Sunday at Jeff's Place, with Ron (back), Pete (middle), and Leo (front) stopping by. The reason Leo has such a big smile is because he just bought a pair of beautifully restored vintage McIntosh MC30 mono amplifiers from Yves Beauvais at Vintage Vacuum Audio and they were sounding absolutely stunning on the... Read More »

I just got back home from an exciting and demanding week of reviewing ... not of audio gear, but of supercomputers (the day job!). It was exciting to be part of a team reviewing a project that will produce the next generation of 100+ PFLOP supercomputers, and I was thankful for the opportunity to be... Read More »

The New Valve Order SPA one phono equalizer review is now live at Positive Feedback Online here! A few snippets from the review: "Back in Issue 57 I introduced you to a talented fine audio constructeur, Andreas Hadjiminas, working out of Nicosia, Cyprus. Andreas is one of the brightest new lights in the firmament of vacuum tube... Read More »

As I promised in my last post, I have some vintage LP treasures to tell you about, the first of which is The Guitar World of Johnny Smith on Roost Records (Roost SLP 2254). I think that Johnny Smith was one of the greatest jazz guitarists that ever lived, and you should go out to Wikipedia... Read More »

John La Chapelle was a legendary jazz guitarist here in the Pacific Northwest, and also taught many students the art of playing the guitar over the years. John passed away at the age of 91 in March of this year, and is greatly missed by all of us who knew him. Below is a photo... Read More »

High Performance Audio Starts With The In-Wall AC In Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles I wrote about a high-performance in-wall Acoustic Revive AC interface that consisted of the combination of the CB-1DB receptacle base plate, the CFRP-1F carbon fiber outlet plate, and the Acoustic Revive modified Oyaide R-1 receptacle. I was impressed during... Read More »

A couple of Fresh Catch's ago I told you how my friend Leo left his Wagner Die Walkure box set from the Ring Cycle with me to listen to while he went on vacation. I was so impressed with the Decca / Testament Die Walkure box set I decided to buy the full Ring Cycle box... Read More »

John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' on 45 RPM from Analogue Productions is another classic jazz album that you'll want to add to your music library. It's another of the top 25 Impulse albums that Analogue Productions selected to remaster on 45 RPM, is considered as one of the top jazz albums of all time, and... Read More »

I've been hard at work over the weekend writing up my review of the superb New Valve Order SPA one phono equalizer ($4250 USD). The SPA one is a honey of a phono equalizer that'll make you want to go out and buy more albums - a good thing for sure! I'll tell you what,... Read More »

I've been going nuts buying records lately because my system is in one of those cherished states where it makes the music come alive in an almost supernatural manner. A case in point is the Analogue Productions 45 RPM reissue of The Gil Evans Orchestra's Out Of The Cool (above).  Out Of The Cool is one... Read More »

Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles is now live at Positive Feedback Online here. Chapter 10 features the Acoustic Revive RL-30 Demagnetizer for LPs and it works great! This premium demagnetizer is both beautiful and effective, with the only downside being that it is limited to 300 units worldwide, so if you want one... Read More »

My friend Leo went off on vacation and left his copy of the Testament box set of the Decca, Joseph Keilberth, Wagner Die Walkure from The Ring Cycle, with me to listen to. All I can say is "Wow!". Now, I'm not normally a Wagner sort of guy, but I have to admit this Testament box... Read More »

I have achieved a level of musical nirvana over the last week that I haven't experienced since the departure of the wonderful ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier designed by the talented Friedrich Schaefer in Germany. In fact, my system is performing at a level quite a ways above even what I was experiencing when that... Read More »

I just finished up writing Chapter 10 of The Acoustic Revive Chronicles and submitted it to the ye olde Editors Dave & David of Positive Feedback Online for publication in the very near future. I always have had fun writing about the products from Acoustic Revive, and Chapter 10 was no exception. In fact a... Read More »

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a nice weekend! I was out of commission part of this week as a victim of a stomach bug that's been going around, so you could say this week is ending a lot better than it started. Last weekend was an awesome vintage weekend of listening to Ron’s quad of... Read More »

It was an awesome Sunday of fun and games listening to vintage Hi-Fi gear here at Jeff's Place. On the menu was a fine selection of vintage vacuum tubes for a little tube rolling in the McIntosh MC240, a Crown 800 professional portable reel-to-reel deck, a beautiful Marantz 8 stereo amplifier, and some mighty fine... Read More »

Yesterday I posted in Today's Fresh Catch about the spade terminal adapters for vintage McIntosh amplifiers with terminal strips that I found and purchased on eBay. While the price was right at slightly less than $10 USD, the performance and design of the adapters was not really up to what I wanted for use with... Read More »

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 »