I think most of you know I've been having a "love at first listen" affair with my vintage Altec Corona 832A loudspeakers that I purchased from LA Jazz Audio. It is a little hard to tell in the accompanying photographs, but the Altec Corona 832A's are fairly large loudspeakers, being about as wide as my... Read More »

After discussing this topic in a couple comments with capacitor guru Daryl Stahler, I wanted to follow up with a proper post to give this exciting news more visibility in case you didn't read it in the comments. To reiterate what I said in my comment: I want to let you know some more interesting... Read More »

It is always a pleasure to bring you posts from Yazaki-san for his article “My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7”. Thank you, Yazaki-san, for taking time to write this article and share your substantial audio wisdom with us, it is very much appreciated by me, as well as all of us here at Jeff’s... Read More »

It has been my great pleasure to bring you posts from Yazaki-san for his article “My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7”. Thank you, Yazaki-san, for taking time to write this article and share your substantial audio wisdom with us, it is very much appreciated by me, as well as all of us here at... Read More »

It's always fun to get together with good friends, and I was delighted to have pals Leo, Pete, Ron, and Santos visit me for a frivolous Sunday afternoon of laughter, music, and hi-fi tomfoolery at Jeff's Place! Besides a nice selection of food & wine to nip & sip on, the menu included: 1) Finalizing the crossover... Read More »

Last week was a rough week, so it was especially sweet to relax on Saturday, and work through some listening tests with the A5 Voice of the Theatre Project, Western Electric WE16GA wire, Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects, Duelund DCA16GA wire, Jupiter Condenser Red Astron capacitors, and the Woody SPU tonearm. The Pete Riggle Audio Engineering Woody SPU Tonearm: I'll start with a... Read More »

I have really been having a lot of fun listening to various capacitors in my vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier. At the moment the vintage Sprague Bumblebees are at the top of my list for capacitors in the C93 & C95 and C94 & C96 positions for my MX110Z for their sheer musical prowess. The half a century old Bumblebees have... Read More »

I had a nice day of music listening yesterday afternoon with Leo, Pete, and Ron, as we did some listening comparisons with the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers and their Hiraga-san inspired crossovers. The Jean Hiraga designed crossovers are about as perfect a match to the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers as one could hope for,... Read More »

I've been thinking a lot about tone lately, and in particular, vintage tone. If you look up 'tone' in the dictionary you'll see half a dozen definitions for it, but what I'm referring to when I say 'tone' is more in line with what musician's mean when they say 'tone', and what I think music lovers & audio hobbyists mostly... Read More »

While doing the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier adventure we experimented with several brands of new & NOS metal film resistors in the circuit in various places, but basically I always ended up preferring the vintage 2-watt NOS Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors that Andy Moore had suggested I try. The vintage 2-watt NOS Allen Bradley resistors had better tone,... Read More »

Ron-san and I got together today to celebrate the joys of audio & music and to listen to the latest iteration of our Real Sound Adventure with the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifiers. To complement our listening adventures, we had a couple of superb bottles of regional wines to sample, a 2013 Walla Walla Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 2013 Anelare... Read More »

A good alternate title for this post would have been "The Real Sound Education of Jeff Day" because that is the result of Yazaki-san's and Ron-san's influence on me during our mutual adventures with the vintage McIntosh vacuum tube gear. Due to Ron's influence, I have now made the transition of being a modification observer... Read More »

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a major revelation? In my case my major revelation came at 2:53 a.m. last night, according to the screen on my iPhone. It was three thoughts coming together that triggered my overall revelation, but I want to tell you the story in the sequence that it occurred... Read More »

I sure have been busy lately, it seems, and I haven't been able to keep up with the blog posts I've been wanting to write for you, or to respond to your comments as speedily as I'd like to. If I forgot to answer a comment you directed at me, ping me again, because it... Read More »

It has been bitterly cold here in my part of the Pacific Northwest until this last week, when temperatures soared into the high 40's and low 50's (Fahrenheit). The skiers & snow boarders have been happy with all the snow in the mountains, but us bicycle riders in the flatlands a little less so. The previous... Read More »

Yazaki-san, Ron-san, and I, buoyed by our dramatic success with our Real Sound adventure with my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers (below), embarked on another Real Sound adventure with my vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier, as I have reported on earlier in several posts. Well how do I say this? Things haven't gone so well with our... Read More »

Ron, Leo, and I got together last weekend to listen to a trio of vintage McIntosh MX110s variously modified by Ron-san with Real Sound modifications as suggested by Yazaki-san, which are similar to the modifications Yazaki-san has performed on his personal vintage Marantz 7 preamplifier. Prior to being modified by Ron-san, two of the MX110s were restored -... Read More »

Happy 2016 my friends, and thank you all so much for all the well wishes in closing out 2015, I truly appreciate it! I want to start the New Year of 2016 with a post about the last thing I mentioned in my last post of 2015 - the Altec A5 VOTT Project. The Altec-Lansing Voice... Read More »

The waning hours of 2015 are upon us, and I thought I'd make my last post for 2015 a look back on the year. This past year has had so many highlights it boggles my mind as I think back on it, and I’m so thankful that I was able to share all my audio &... Read More »

As you know if you've been reading along, I've been flabbergasted with how incredibly musical the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier is, and if you haven't yet read my The Vintage McIntosh Experience article I wrote for Positive Feedback in Issue 77 discussing it, I encourage you to go and give it a read. Quite a number of posts... Read More »

Over the last couple of days my audio buddies Stephaen, Harry, Kara, Pete, George, and I were talking about J. Gordon Holt's article (Stereophile) Too Good to Be True, published back in January of 1963, where Gordon asked the relevant (and somewhat disturbing question), "Does today's high-fidelity equipment, for all its vastly improved performance, actually sound that... Read More »

The 12th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015 are out and can be viewed here. My individual contribution is below. Enjoy! Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015 By Jeff Day It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards roll around, as it provides a time to... Read More »

My Maestro's VOTTs & SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier room has become my go-to coffee nook in the morning. I've developed a week-day ritual of rolling out about 4:30 a.m. and firing up the SPEC RSA-M3 EX, the Mhdt Paradisea+ USB DAC, and my old MacBook that I'm using as a source. Then I wander into the kitchen to... Read More »