I've been falling down on the job with my The Jazz Guitar Chronicles and The 78 Experience - Feeling the Music posts. Sorry about that. The album I want to recommend to you today is Herb Ellis and Joe Pass' Two For The Road. I have at least a dozen different albums I want to tell you about, but... Read More »

Geez, 2020 sure was a bummer. Coronavirus. 2021 started out rough too, and if you haven't heard yet, the Pacific Audio Fest that all of us have been looking forward to with so much enthusiasm is the latest victim of coronavirus.  I know Lou Hinkley has put a tremendous amount of effort over the last... Read More »

In one of our discussions about developing a much needed and more useful audio reviewing vocabulary, Peter Qvortrup (Audio Note (UK)) shared with me his horror about how one of his employees - Alan Willson - who also helps people as a care worker during the coronavirus pandemic, was viscously attacked by a gang of... Read More »

In my The 78 Experience - Feeling the Music posts I've been sharing with you some amazing musical performances from days gone by, recorded during the acoustic (1877–1925) and - mostly - electric (1925–1945) recording eras: The 78 Experience: Feeling the music instead of listening to the sound - a matter of the art & the heart! (HERE)... Read More »

This post is a reminder to all of you - and to me - that you don't have to spend huge amounts of money to get high-performance interconnects.  It's easy to spend many thousands of dollars for pairs of high-performance shielded RCA interconnects, and those spendy interconnects are a dime a dozen, so to speak.... Read More »

I've listened to the Triode Lab 45 EVO single-ended-triode (SET) integrated amplifier in three different audio system contexts now.  First with my Duelund-ized vintage "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers (HERE) in my main music system (above), where the Triode Lab 45 EVO SET integrated amplifier provided those classic goosebumps musical experiences that the combination of highly-sensitive loudspeakers... Read More »

I've decided that Thursday is my lucky day, and it is certainly my highlight for each week. Thursday is the day of the week that my friend David Gitlen stops by to teach me a jazz guitar lesson. After the lesson we spend time listening to a jazz guitar CD that David has brought along for... Read More »

It was a lot of fun to meet and visit with Paul James back in 2019. Paul came all the way from Australia to do a music and cultural road-trip tour of the USA over 5 week period. Paul stopped at number of historic and musically important venues across the US, with live music concerts... Read More »

I always get a little bit excited when there's a knock on the door and its the friendly FedEx delivery person dropping off a new piece of hifi kit to write about for you here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback.  This time FedEx dropped off a hefty little parcel from our friends Yoshi Hontani and Elia Hontani at... Read More »

I'm starting to get back into the hifi swing of things after going through a rough time in the December through January timeframe. It feels good to have life going in a good direction again.  Will life regain a more normal tempo in a semi post-coronavirus stasis by this summer? I sure hope so!  I... Read More »

I just finished up my article about the Pass Labs XP-17 phono equalizer for Positive Feedback (HERE). If you had a chance to read the XP-17 article, you know I had some very favorable things to say about the Audio Note (UK) Io I moving coil phonograph cartridge, which made a cameo appearance there ahead... Read More »

My friend, David Gitlen, who is one heck of a great jazz guitarist, has been teaching me jazz guitar once a week. David is amazingly knowledgable about everything related to music, jazz, and guitars, and I sure have been learning a lot from David since I started taking lessons from him. David has been bringing... Read More »

Andy Moore traveled all the way from Australia to Seattle for a work-related conference, and while in the Emerald City, Andy made a 400 mile plus side trip to stop by Jeff's Place for a visit. It was a pleasure and true honor to meet Andy and get to know him, and I'm so glad Andy was... Read More »

While it might not be intuitive to the music listener enjoying their favorite albums at home, from the very first recording that was ever made circa 1860 until now, every single recording of music has had equalization applied to it to produce a unique document of a recorded musical event. Sometimes the applied equalization was... Read More »

For those of you who have been reading my scribbling about music and audio over the last decade or so, you know from time-to-time I've discussed the various subgroups of audio enthusiasts who each have a particular view on what audio is all about, and who have developed a particular vocabulary emphases based on their interests... Read More »

The last few months have been quite tumultuous, but deep breath ... now life is starting to resume a more normal tempo, and I am once again turning my attention to telling you about what is going on - and coming up - in my music and audio life here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback.  2021... Read More »

I've really enjoyed my time with the Pass Labs XP-17 phono preamplifier, and the Positive Feedback article about it just went live for your reading pleasure. "The Pass Labs XP-17 phono preamplifier possesses exemplary sound quality and musicality, has an excellent build quality, was non-fussy in interfacing with the various audio system equipment combinations I tried,... Read More »

"My audio system sucks, what should I do?"   I think you would be astonished to see the amount of emails asking that question that I receive from my fellow audio and music enthusiasts on an ongoing basis.    There's a lot of music listeners out there that are unhappy with the performance of their... Read More »

I've been listening to the Pass Labs XP-17 phono preamp in various system configurations for a while now to get a feel for its overall performance, and its versatility in combining with other equipment, so I thought I'd provide an update as I work towards the XP-17's feature review for Positive Feedback.  To quote the Pass Labs... Read More »

Many thanks to Richard Wugang of Sophia Electric for taking time to write about the history of the 45 vacuum tube for us here at Jeff's Place in this Part 1 post. There will be more to come from Richard specifically about the design of his Sophia Electric 45 mesh plate tubes in Part 2. As... Read More »

I've got a lot of really interesting hifi things to tell you about, but it may take me a little longer than usual to fill you in on all the details, as the last few weeks have been difficult on the home front, and it is likely to be that way for a while longer. ... Read More »

In my introductory post on the topic of high-fidelity audio, I told you about the discussions that Peter Qvortrup (Audio Note (UK)) and I have been having about the state of contemporary audio – an audio state of the union, so to speak – and it turns out we have a rather significant Venn overlap... Read More »

I've had the good fortune to listen to audio components of late that have become my new performance benchmarks in ways I couldn't have imagined even a few short years ago. For music lovers, the good news is that these components have an extraordinary ability to play the wide swath of recordings that spans our... Read More »