In a previous post (HERE) I mentioned that I was excited about  the news that Great Plains Audio - the technical descendent of Altec that still builds Altec drivers and services them under the Great Plains Audio banner - would be sending their latest drivers to me in the not too distant future to listen... Read More »

After my last listening impressions report of the DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA tinned-copper power cable after 3 days on the Cable Cooker (HERE), I decided to give it another 3 days of conditioning (for a total of 6 days). My reference power cable is the $12K USD Acoustic Revive Absolute Power Cable, which by any metric is... Read More »

In February 2019 we've received more snow where I live than in any February in the last 100 years. I've only been venturing out occasionally, but the upside of all that snow is it motivates me to do things inside, like this DIY 600V Duelund DCA12GA power cable project! Before I get started telling you... Read More »

It's been a nice weekend of just kicking back, relaxing, and celebrating. To celebrate my Mom's majority Irish ancestry that we didn't know she had until after some recent DNA testing (oral tradition isn't always accurate), we celebrated St. Patrick's Day on Saturday with me cooking a traditional St. Patrick's Day feast of corned beef,... Read More »

I've been using the sweet little Almarro A205A EL84 integrated amplifier to power my vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers that I'm using in my bedroom system, and it's a really nice match for them. The volume pot has been kind of noisy in the A205A so I thought I'd pop the bottom off and squirt... Read More »

Remember my Big Round Tone post from a couple of weeks back, where I discussed the relationship of tone to gauge size for headshell leads, interconnects, speaker cables, and speaker/equipment internal wiring? In relative terms, you get bigger, richer, and rounder tone as gauge size decreases (fatter wire). You can think of it in guitar terms too.... Read More »

In the last six decades I haven't broken a single phonograph cartridge, but in the last two weeks I've broken two, and the crazy thing about it is I don't even know how I did it in either case. The first cartridge fatality was the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge Guy Pelletier sent me. I... Read More »

I really appreciate the emails I get from you. Take for example the recent email from Robert Atkinson, expanding upon using the Hagerman FryBaby2 compact burn-in generator for interconnects, speaker cables, capacitors, and resistors. Jim's manual for the FryBaby2 is very brief and doesn't really give the reader a comprehensive overview of the specifics of... Read More »

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! The snow is really coming down right now, so it's a classic White Christmas here in Washington State. I'm bringing my Mom over to share Christmas with, have a nice Christmas dinner together, sip a hot toddy, and listen to some jazz! For me it's not only... Read More »

Man, the last couple of weeks have been rough. A kidney stone that seems to think that playing hide and seek with me is a fun thing to do has been keeping me under the weather a bit, and as a result I haven't got nearly as much written as I like to. No worries... Read More »

Last weekend was a rough one. I was felled by a kidney stone on Sunday, which earned me a ride in an ambulance to the emergency room. The little bugger hasn't passed through yet, and still has some fight left in it, which it has been keen to remind me of from time to time. Ugh. I've... Read More »

Using the Hagerman Audio Labs FryBaby2 in voltage-only mode has revealed itself to be a powerful voicing tool for the Duelund DCA line of tinned-copper cables. Every single time I've used the FryBaby2 on the Duelund cables it has been a smashing success. In its voltage-only conditioning mode the FB2 has worked wonders on my... Read More »

It sure is nice to get home from work on a Friday evening, fix a dirty martini with some Tito's handmade vodka, and put on some music and play some audio games. I just pulled my Duelund DCA20GA interconnects off the FryBaby2 after about 12 hours of voltage-only conditioning, and installed them in the system... Read More »

I was particularly intrigued by Bill's comment on the post Jim Smith Checking In: “Unexpected results from the Duelund DCA20GA Interconnects”: Jeff, Not really sure where to post this. I think I discovered something with the Duelund Tin wire. If its running thin and sometimes cooking them can do this. But I noticed on two different... Read More »

It sure was nice getting together with Andy, Pete, and Ron, last weekend to listen to music, talk about hifi, and just have a fun ol' time! I could use a little more musical & audio fellowship in my life! Alas, it's been particularly busy of late, both on the day job, and in my... 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 »

In Pursuit of the Art of Tone, Part 1, I discussed learning how to pursue a style of musicality for your hifi that lights up your heart & mind to transport you into a state of musical bliss during listening. I mentioned that I believe that there is no absolute sound that is best for every... Read More »

This post is not about the vintage-style 22-gauge Gavitt tinned-copper pushback wire from The Art of Tone electric guitar store that I used to build some very musical sounding headshell leads and a USB interconnect from. Rather, it is about the pursuit of a style of musicality for your hifi that lights up your heart & mind... 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 »

Back when Yazaki-san sent me a set of headshell leads made of vintage Western Electric WE24GA wire to try, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that headshell leads made such a substantial contribution to overall musical & sonic performance. The difference in sound & musicality between the stock & WE24GA headshell... Read More »

After the disappointing experience with the Oyaide silver & silk headshell leads, and inspired by the massive musicality of the Western Electric WE24GA headshell leads Yazaki-san sent me, I decided I wanted to give a DIY set of tinned-copper headshell leads a try. First I contacted Chris at Parts Connexion, and asked Chris for a... Read More »

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

I reported originally on Robbie's Leben CS-600 lid mod a few weeks back, here. I immediately ordered the “120Pcs M3 Male Female Hex Brass Spacer Standoffs PCB Board Screws Nut Assortment” from eBay seller huanshop2015 ($4.99 USD), and it arrived today, so I thought I'd give Robbie's Leben lid mod a try. The stock Leben lid... Read More »