I like to have my Mom & Dad over on weekends for dinner so we can reminisce, enjoy some good food, listen to music, and just have some fun times together. Mom & Dad are in their 90s, and I'm not all that young anymore either, but we like to enjoy the time we have left.... Read More »

Weekends are when I catch up on Jeff's Place, do a little hi-fi writing, and get in a little more music listening than I can on weekdays. This Sunday morning it's a jazz fix of Oscar Peterson and Duke Ellington, along with some fresh coffee and Eggs Benedict for breakfast. (By the way, nearly all of... Read More »

It's been a crazy & busy holiday season for me, but now things are starting to settle down a bit. Yours truly came down with the flu this week, so while nursing myself back to health I've had plenty of time to think about all things hi-fi, and wanted to give you a little bit... Read More »

I was just listening to NPR's piece on Bing Crosby on my vintage Mac MX110Z's FM tuner, watching the snow fall outside my window, and thinking that it would be a great time to listen to White Christmas from the copy of the Bing Sings box set that Cindy got for me a couple of years ago.... Read More »

My foray into the mono Analogue Productions limited numbered edition Prestige mono series continues to delight me with the Bags Groove and Mobley's Second Message LPs. Miles Davis' Bags Groove was recorded in 1954 in Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, New Jersey, studio. The title tracks were recorded the day before Christmas, but the present of the album... Read More »

I love jazz. While I really enjoy listening to a lot of different musical styles, jazz was my first musical love, and it remains my first choice to unwind with a little music listening after a long day. So I want to offer kudos to Analogue Productions - my favorite jazz reissue record label - for... Read More »

I always get a little bit excited when I get an email from Acoustic Sounds announcing their latest vinyl arrivals, and I'm way behind on telling you about some of the great albums I've come across lately. With all the attention being paid to new vinyl releases in (re)mastering and cutting, and the advent of full... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is the Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall 2-LP reissue set that was mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound from the original 3-track master tapes, and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. I've been away for four day road trip to Boise, Idaho, getting my parents' house prepped for sale after they moved into assisted living... Read More »

Have you ever thought that you knew about something, then found out that you didn't know as much as you thought, and felt like a real jackass? That's what I felt like after listening to the Ellington At Newport LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. You see, sometime back I had vowed to myself that... Read More »

It was a true pleasure to have my friends Stephæn Harrell (left) and Pete Riggle (right) stop by for a little hi-fi tomfoolery on Saturday. Stephæn brought by some tasty pizza from Greek Islands Cuisine, and we had a grand time sipping a little Pinot Noir from the Sonoma region of sunny California, along with  some Newcastle brown ale... Read More »

It's always a real pleasure to visit the irrepressible Peter Pan of audio, Pete Riggle. It was a real bonus that Ron (below center left), Leo (not pictured), Stephaen (center right), Bill (lower right), and John (left) were there too, they're my audio heroes one and all! Some of you may remember Bill from my 6Moons... Read More »

"Wow!" was my first reaction as the music began to pour out of my loudspeakers from the Music Matters 45-RPM reissue of the Blue Note hardbop jazz album The Jazz Messengers - At The Cafe Bohemia Volume 1 that was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, and mastered for this release by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman.... Read More »

As I mentioned in my last post, I ordered up a selection of promising looking records from Acoustic Sounds, and so I've been spending an enjoyable afternoon listening to those black magic licorice disks! The first record I put on my VPI Classic & EMT TSD 15 combo out of my new batch of records was... Read More »

In this age of convenience as CDs arose to prominence, and then when MP3s emerged from the primordial digital soup for portable listening, a lot of people lost touch with their vinyl record collection ... and they forgot ... they forgot how good listening to vinyl really was. For many people music became a soundtrack... Read More »

Last Sunday George, Leo, Ron, and myself had a blast listening to music, drinking some fine wines, and munching down on pizza. I mentioned how impressed we were with Ron's pristine vintage H.H. Scott stereomaster integrated vacuum tube amplifier on the big Tannoy Westminster Royal SEs ... ...  but something I hadn't mentioned, and wanted to... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch is a vintage Johnny Smith Phase II LP on the Verve label that my buddy Leo picked up for me while cruising the record stores - thank you Leo! Wait until you hear it on the Westminsters, Leo, it'll blow your mind - it is an awesome album! I'm sitting here listening... Read More »

This has been quite an eventful week (and weekend!). Yesterday the the restored vintage mint+ McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier that I purchased from vintage vacuum-tube specialists Tom Manley & Terry DeWick in Knoxville, Tennessee, arrived. The MX110Z was in pristine condition (mint+ actually) and needed hardly any restoration, with only a few internal components needing to be... Read More »

I started my listening this evening with the 45 RPM version of the Shelly Manne & Bill Evans album Empathy from Analogue Productions and I've just been blown away. Certainly a lot of the credit goes to this wonderful album, Empathy, which I've reported on before, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention... 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 »

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 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 »