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 »

You know, I've never paid that much attention to whether the vinyl in my collection was mono or stereo, as it really didn't matter much to me, because in the past I was only listening with a stereo phono cartridge, like my EMT TSD-15 or Denon DL 103. But these days, every time I pull out a... Read More »

I've gotten behind on calling out some of the good vinyl I've come across lately, so here's a couple recommendations for your consideration. The first one I'd like to bring to your attention is the mono version of Gil Evans Great Jazz Standards from Pure Pleasure Records. It includes the songs, Davenport Blues, Straight No Chaser, Ballad of the Sad... Read More »

It's always a great evening of fun & games when Stephaen Harrell (6Moons) and Pete Riggle (Pete Riggle Audio Engineering) host the Annual ANVIL Awards celebration, and the fun continued in 2015! In case you’ve never heard of the the ANVIL Award, it’s the ultimate annual audio award for the Audiophile Not Very Intelligent Lately, and... 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 »

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 »

If you read the post where David King checked in to tell us about the beautiful leather bound volume (below) of ‘The World of Music’ by Kjell Bloch Sandved, you know I was intrigued, and I ordered a copy of a later edition from a used book seller on Amazon (because I couldn't find the same one... Read More »

David King sent me a really interesting heads up about a music book that I know all of you will be really interested in: 'The World of Music' by Kjell Bloch Sandved. (All the photos below are of David's copy, and it looks like a beauty of a book!) As soon as I read David's message I... 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 »

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 »

I am sorry to report that I was just informed by Bob Reite that trumpeter extraordinaire, Ed Sheftel, passed away on Tuesday. Many of you will recognize Ed's name from the 6Moons articles I wrote back when Ed introduced the work of Tom Evans to US music enthusiasts. Ed had just recently told me how... 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 »

I'm currently working hard on writing the review of the Mhdt Labs Stockholm V2 vacuum tube USB DAC (below). For a digital front end I am using my iMac with the new Mavericks OS and iTunes, which I've loaded around 900 to 1000 CDs at full resolution onto. I really wanted to make sure I... 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 »

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 »

The Acoustic Sounds website says this recording of Antonio Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni with Giuliano Carmignola on violin is one of the 10 best recordings of the last century, and after listening to it tonight I don't doubt it. Here's a formula for success: pick one of the 10 greatest recordings of the past century,... Read More »