I ordered four albums from Acoustic Sounds to get my vinyl fix for the week: First up was the 45 RPM ORG reissue of Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um that my buddy Leo brought over for me to listen to. After hearing it, I knew it was a must have for my jazz collection. The combination of... Read More »

I like to bring my Mom & Dad over to visit on the weekend, fix them a nice dinner, and spend some time catching up. They've been through a hard time the last few years, starting with when my Dad took a bad fall at home, ended up in the hospital, then a skilled nursing facility,... Read More »

If you've been following the blog posts here at Jeff's Place, you know that I asked Mr. Yazaki-san if he would tell us some of his thoughts about "Real Sound", and I'm very pleased to be able to share with you what he has written. Here's what Mr. Yazaki-san has written for us about "Real Sound": Dedicated to my... Read More »

There's nothing quite as satisfying as an impromptu listening session on a Friday afternoon with good friends like Ron and Leo. Ron always brings over a nice French wine, and Leo a very tasty vino from Napa (Ron's French Bordeaux was a 2009, and Leo's Napa Cabernet Sauvignon a 2005!). It's great to have friends with... Read More »

My friend Leo sent me a message yesterday saying, "I found some Johnny Smith albums, I thought I'd drop them by if you're around." What a great guy! My friend Leo knows how much I love those old Johnny Smith albums on the Roost Records label, and when he's out and about he picks them up for me when... Read More »

If you read my Kindred Spirit post, you'll remember that as Mr. Yazaki-san was discussing the 'capacitor adventure' we are doing with my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers, he said: "Well, I think my inspirations also come from confidence in the thought that, Jeff-san’s hearing sense would be very close to mine. I understand Jeff-san... Read More »

That's what the message inside of my fortune cookie said, "You will soon meet a life long kindred spirit." It's fun to have a good meal at a Chinese restaurant in America, where there's a tradition of handing out fortune cookies at the end of a meal, so everyone around the dinner table can read the positive... Read More »

It's been a fun & interesting time here at Jeff's Place, with an overwhelmingly positive response from all of you to the posts about the DIY projects of Western Electric WE16GA wire for use as speaker cables, and the Belden 8402 microphone cable for use as interconnects, that Mr. Yazaki-san of SPEC told us about. Thank you... Read More »

For those of you who have been following along, Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki (below, second from left) of SPEC Corporation fame (The Real Sound Amplifier, et al) encouraged me to try a 'Capacitor Adventure' with one of my vintage McIntosh amplifiers (MC30 monaural amplifiers, MC225 stereo amplifier, and MC240 stereo amplifier). My MC30 monaural amplifiers and... Read More »

The first step in our capacitor adventure was to dismantle my McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers and take a look inside at the very nice handiwork of Mr. Yves Beauvais. I purchased my MC30 monaural amplifiers at Yves' retail asking price through his Vintage Vacuum Audio business. Be sure to check out the accompanying links about Yves, you should know that... Read More »

If you've read my review of the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier in Positive Feedback Online in Issue 78, you know how interesting I found the high-fidelity adventures of Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki to be: "I learned the audio lesson that while parts choice does make an important difference in performance, it is the 'enlightened ear' of the talented... Read More »

'The Vintage McIntosh Experience' is now live at Positive Feedback Online! You can read it here. In the text below I added a couple of additional comments that didn't appear in the original article at Positive Feedback Online. I tried to make the additions clearly visible so you don't have to look too hard for them. The Vintage... 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 just bought a copy of Ken Kessler's McIntosh history book direct from McIntosh for $150 USD. It is a big, beautifully done, coffee table style book written by Ken Kessler in 2006. There's lots of good content for Mac fans including chapters about McIntosh's roots, vacuum tube designs, the use of McIntosh in live &... Read More »

You just can't beat unamplified live chamber music in a cozy intimate acoustic like the Camerata Musica series of concerts to remind you of what enjoying music is all about. After Cindy told me about the Camerata Musica concerts (thank you Cindy!), I immediately became a sponsoring patron, and we have been going to every concert this year, and... Read More »

McKinnon Furniture in Seattle is one of my favorite stores for buying hand-made furniture & equipment stands and cabinets in the entire world. All of the furniture is made the old fashioned way, from scratch, beautifully conceived, and they'll do custom designs and let you pick the wood. I've needed a new equipment rack for quite... Read More »

The comment from Hans' this morning asking about news on the vintage McIntosh article I've been wanting to write for Positive Feedback Online couldn't have been more timely. You see, I've been looking for a McIntosh MC225 stereo amplifier for a year or so, with no luck (that's the cover of an owners manual below).... Read More »

I've had a couple of ideas for reviews that I've been wanting to write up for Positive Feedback Online for a while now, but time just hasn't allowed for it, as life has been incredibly busy both on the day job and on the personal front. Now there appears to be a little window of... Read More »

Hi Everyone! Like usual, I've had way too many things going on at once so it has been hard for me to get some new posts up for you. One of the things I've been wanting to tell you about is some custom McIntosh audio cabinets that I have run across that I think look really... Read More »

It has been a busy couple of months here at Jeff's Place, with lots going on across multiple fronts. On the hi-fi front it has been non-stop excitement with the Duelund CAST components from Frederik Carøe in Denmark as Part 2 of the Duelund-Westminster Royal SE External Crossover Project kicks into high gear! Duelund-WRSE external crossovers... Read More »

Hello everybody! I've been missing in action for a while now, with it being a month to the day since my last post. Thanks to those of you who dropped me a note to check up on me to make sure I was ok - appreciated! It has been a rough go for a while... Read More »

In my last post I talked about my growing awe for the Duelund Silver CAST 6.8uF capacitors, and my first reaction after a quick listen to the NOS RCA 6LCGC Black Plates (below right) that my buddy Leo brought over and the GE 6L6GC Grey Plates (below left) that came in my McIntosh MC30 mono amplifiers that I bought... Read More »

On Sunday afternoon Ron (center) and Leo (left) joined me for a fine day of hi-fi fun and games, and as usual we had a ball! (Sorry for the blurry photo. Note to self: remember to use the correct camera setting next time!) After a lunch of a combo pizza and a few glasses of... Read More »