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 »

We're all in this great hobby together because we love listening to and learning about music, and tinkering with our hifi gear. As hifi hobbyists it's easy to get so preoccupied with the hifi gear that we forget what attracted us to it to begin with, which is the pure pleasure of listening to music... Read More »

I love jazz. I love guitars. I love to hear jazz cats playing jazz on their guitars! It makes me smile. 🙂 Blues Going Up is a nice jazz swing album featuring George Barnes (guitar), Duncan James (guitar), Benny Barth (drums), and Dean Reilly (bass), that was recorded live at Bimbo's "supper club" on April 17,... Read More »

Today's post was inspired by Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,  one of my favorite pointillist impressionism paintings, showing Parisians relaxing in a park on the banks of the Seine (below). In a silly oddio variation on a theme, you get my music, film, literature, and audio impressions while I'm relaxing... Read More »

It's crazy, I thought I'd have 9 or 10 hours more every day to get things done after retiring from my day job at the end of December, but that hasn't happened. If anything I've been busier than ever and the days whiz by, and before I know it the day is over! How can... 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 »

I got a message from Jack Roberts about a holiday music column he was planning to do on people’s favorite Christmas or Holiday LPs on his website, The Audio Beatnik, and asking if I’d like to make some recommendations. Sure, I thought, “That’d be fun!” You can see my contributions to Jack's column here. Then... Read More »

Yazaki-san has been out on another adventure to the Sentimental Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, and has shared some photos of his visit! Since Yazaki-san's visit to the Sentimental Cafe last October, they have become a Spec Corporation dealer, and today, September 22nd, they hosted an open house so visitors could experience Yazaki-san's beautiful Spec audio electronics... Read More »

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I laid down my guitars a few years ago and haven't played them since then, as the focus of my time was helping my Mom and Dad through some difficult times healthwise. I decided I needed to pick the guitars back up as I was really missing that... Read More »

I've been thinking a lot about the guitar and guitarists lately, and after an almost four year hiatus of playing the guitar, I've picked back up my guitars, dusted off my mental cobwebs, and tried to make some progress in my playing again. The highlight of my week back before I laid down my guitars... 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 »

Today's essay on the Art of Tone is intended to be both a practical and a thought adventure about what it means to optimize musicality in a high-fidelity music system, as opposed to the usual audiophile emphasis of optimizing the non-musical artifacts of the recording process, like imaging and sound-staging information, for example. I've realized I made... 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 »

It was a long week of getting caught up at home and on the day job, and getting over jet lag! I love traveling but playing catchup is rough! But now it's weekend-eve, and it's time for a little music listening! Woo-hoo! First up was the new mono Buddy Holly reissue from Analogue Productions, remastered... Read More »

The Murasakino Musique Analogue ‘Sumile’ MC phonograph cartridge makes me smile while I'm listening to music! The Sumile reminds me of the exotic Lefson Ultra resistors from France, and like the Ultra's, the Sumile is astonishingly transparent & resolving, while being rich, natural, and exceedingly musical at the same time - a very nice magic trick! With the wirewound resistors... Read More »

My Dad went through a sudden decline in his health after a serious fall about three years ago, and was not able to go home again afterwards. Our family is spread out about as far as it is possible to be while still living in the USA, and with no family local to where Mom... Read More »

Christmas has come and gone, and I'm relaxing this morning drinking a little coffee and listening to some  'new' music that I thought you'd like to know about. Mom gave me a copy of A Night At Birdland with the Art Blakey Quintet for a Christmas gift (thanks, Mom!), featuring Art Blakey (drums), Clifford Brown (trumpet), Lou Donaldson... Read More »

I've had the good fortune to spend almost every Christmas Holiday with my Mom (Jaine) and Dad (Jack). Last year after a brief illness, at age 92, we lost Dad just before Christmas, so neither Mom or I were much in a Christmas mood in 2015. This year Mom and I celebrated Christmas together, and we... Read More »

2016 is rapidly coming to a close, and if two words could sum things up for 2016 here at Jeff's Place, it would be 'tinned-copper', with 'Real Sound' and 'Vintage Tone' coming in as a close tie for second place. It has been a remarkable year of musical revelation for me as I've been meditating on all... Read More »

For many years I've been fascinated with what makes some home music systems so musically satisfying, and others not so much. It seems almost humorously non-controversial now, but back a decade ago or so when I started writing about my belief that a home music system's ability to realistically portray the fundamental aspects of live music, like timbre,... Read More »

It's been a great couple of days visiting with my nephew, Chris, and his daughter, Chloe, who travelled all the way from Arlington, Virginia, to visit Grandma Jaine & Uncle Jeff here in Washington State! Grandma Jaine is 91 now, soon to be 92, and loves jazz and Robert Redford movies! Grandma Jaine is Chris' Grandmother... Read More »

I've picked up some new albums from Acoustic Sounds that I think you jazz cats will enjoy. First up is the 45 RPM Bill Evans Paris Concert Edition 1 from the Original Recordings Group (ORG), which was recorded live at L'espace Cardin in Paris, France, November 1979, about 10 months before Bill's death in September 1980. The album... Read More »

This has been a busy weekend for me, and I'm finally getting a chance to just sit down this evening and listen to music and relax, just for the fun of it. At this moment I have no reviews I'm thinking about, no listening impressions to record, no other duties of any kind, I'm just listening... Read More »