After Peter Qvortrup had shared with me some of the remarkable 78 transfers from CDs remastered by his friend, Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky, I became keenly interested in finding more of them. Mr. Likhnitsky built custom remastering and digitizing equipment for his transfers of the music from 78 rpm disks in his 78 collection to digital,... Read More »

It might seem a bit odd to you that lately I've been talking about listening to and enjoying ancient 78rpm record transfers from the earliest recording eras on CD, rather than just playing 78s themselves. I do have some 78 records in my record collection, but I haven't yet set up a system that's optimized... Read More »

Today as I was finishing up my jazz guitar lesson with superb jazz guitarist David Gitlen, while we were listening to a little Joe Pass on CD and LP on the big Altec loudspeakers, there was a knock at the door.  It was a delivery person dropping off an Audio Note (UK) AN-S4 step-up transformer.... Read More »

It has been almost exactly a year and two months ago that Frederik sent me a pair of the then newly released Duelund "Dual" DCA16GA interconnects with Duelund plastic-free RCAs to listen to (HERE).   The time has gone by so fast it is almost frightening! With more than a year of listening to them under... Read More »

First let me recommend a video to you, the Master Class in Audio - Session 5 - Featuring Peter Qvortrup, produced by Karthik Ramanathan. This video offers a glimpse into Peter's extensive experience with all kinds of vintage and modern audio over the decades, and how he came to his current views about which performance characteristics in... Read More »

My The Pass Labs XP-12 Line-Level Preamplifier: A Musical Masterpiece! article is now live on Positive Feedback (HERE).  The Pass Labs XP-12 line-level preamplifier is a sweetheart of a preamp! As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!

I thought it was time for me to check in and tell you what's going on here at Jeff's Place, what is upcoming at Positive Feedback, and about a few other things that are rattling around inside my noggin at the moment. First off, we are now in the fourth quarter of 2020, and 2020 is going fast,... Read More »

The feature review of the Duelund-Altec Project at Positive Feedback was published one year ago, on October 1, 2019, and today is the Duelund-Altec Project's one-year anniversary. Now that I have a year's worth of experience and music listening under my belt with the Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers I installed into the "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers,... Read More »

In Part 1 I started telling you about swapping out the vintage Altec 804A compression drivers (below left) in my vintage "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers for the vintage Altec 802D compression drivers (below right) from my vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers.  Vintage Altec 802D compression drivers are highly regarded by Altec aficionados, but you don't hear... Read More »

Vintage Altec loudspeakers generate a lot of enthusiasm among audio nuts like me because they run circles around many modern loudspeakers in terms of musicality, at least once you get some Hiraga-style crossovers installed in them, and they are so sensitive that you can easily drive them with low-powered single-ended-triode or single-ended-pentode amplifiers to live-like... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is the Pete Riggle Audio Engineering "Woody" headshell ($60 USD). Pete describes the "Woody" headshell thusly (more HERE): "Presently available in French polished Spanish cedar. The basic headshell weighs 6 grams. Included with the 6 gram Spanish cedar headshell is a 5 gram booster weight, which can be used to bring the... Read More »

My local FedEx driver just dropped of an exciting parcel from Pass Labs, the XP-17 phono preamplifier!  Here's what the Pass Labs website says about the XP-17: "XP-17 uses the new-shielded low noise toroid and input filter module, like the XP-12. The power supply has an extra stage of RC filtering.  We have lower radiated... Read More »

My rule of thumb for the Duelund DCA tinned-copper cables when used as speaker cables is that the richer and fuller sounding DCA12GA has been a great match to my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers, while the more direct and vivid sounding DCA16GA has been a great match to my collection of vintage Altec loudspeakers.... Read More »

My perspective on what good hifi is about has changed a lot over the decades. In my pre high-performance hifi years I didn't care what equipment I listened to music on as long as I could listen to music. My music kit as a little kid was a foldable integrated turntable with detachable loudspeakers, and... Read More »

First I listened to the Pass Labs XP-12 line-level preamplifier paired with the First Watt SIT-3 stereo amplifier (review HERE), utilizing the very musical Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player as a source HERE), and then I did some more listening with my CTC Garrard 301 turntable as a source (HERE). ... Read More »

The new First Watt F8 amplifier will be on its way here for a listen in the not too distant future. In my usual fashion I'll be blogging about it as I get familiar with it here at Jeff's Place, and then will be writing a feature article about it for Positive Feedback. Nelson has just released the... Read More »

I'm in the midst of writing up the Pass Labs XP-12 line-level preamplifier feature review for Positive Feedback, so I've been doing a lot of listening with the XP-12 of late, as you would expect. At the moment, I'm listening to the First Watt SIT-3 (review HERE) in combination with the Pass Labs XP-12 line-level... Read More »

Lately I've had to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, as I've had the enormously good fortune to listen to a variety of audio equipment that so very closely matches my personal preferences for high-performance audio in terms of musicality and visuospatial attributes.  A rather amazing thing to me, is that for old-timer... Read More »

If you haven't yet read the Audio Note (UK): Peter Qvortrup & Darko Greguras on making digital sources sound like music. Part 1. post here at Jeff's Place from about nine weeks ago, you can read it HERE. A quick recap: Last Fall I had a very enjoyable and illuminating visit with Peter Qvortrup at... Read More »

My Sexy Blue Tubes, Part 2, The Sophia Electric EL34-ST and KT88-ST Vacuum Tubes! feature article is now live at Positive Feedback (HERE)!  I hope you enjoy the article! As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!

I really have to hand it to Frederick Carøe at Duelund Coherent Audio in Denmark, he has truly revolutionized the production of tinned-copper wire that is specifically designed for high-performance audio applications. Frederik has produced tinned-copper wires for audio applications in three different styles. The first style of Duelund tinned-copper conductors are wrapped in an... Read More »

It is one of those time periods where I am in the midst of shuffling equipment around between systems in  preparation for upcoming reviews. As you are no doubt aware, the performance of a component is greatly dependent upon the associated equipment in a given system, and the room it is installed in. I've found... Read More »

As is my custom, I wanted to share a "sneak peek" into my next feature review for Positive Feedback "Sexy Blue Tubes, Part 2: The Sophia Electric EL34-ST and KT88-ST Vacuum Tubes!" I'm hoping to have the feature article finished up over the next week, so check back for more in about a week. Enjoy... Read More »