It was a really enjoyable Friday this week, with a splendid visit from Paul James, who came all the way from Australia to visit Jeff's Place. Paul is a super nice guy, as well as a really knowledgable audio guy who likes to build valve preamps &  amplifiers, and loudspeakers from scratch, and it was... Read More »

Vintage audio equipment can be a lot of fun because of its superb musicality, but at some point that vintage kit will need updating and/or repair to replace aging capacitors, resistors, and potentiometers, for example. Take for example my vintage McIntosh MX110Z, that has had an enduring presence in my audio systems due to its... Read More »

First of all I want to thank you for being patient with me. As some of you know, my Mom, almost 94 years of age now, has been going through some rough times health-wise. Getting her to and from doctors, hospitals, trying to help her out generally, and spending quality time with her has been... Read More »

I have access to buying almost anything as an audio writer, and there's some really nice audio gear out there, but for a preamplifier I chose the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, which was sold by McIntosh from 1962-1969 for the lofty price of $399. The reason is that the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier is an... Read More »

There's so many good audio things happening right now I thought I'd better write a quick survey for you about all the things that are in play, and my 'roadmap' for writing about it all in the near future. ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ As you know, the last year or so has resulted in a significant revelation for me... Read More »

It's bright and early on Saturday morning and I'm up drinking espresso, as my custom is lately, starting my mornings with two café allongés to get the morning rolling. It works! My primary music system has achieved such a nice overall balance musically & sonically of late that I'm just sitting back, settling in, and enjoying the fruits of... Read More »

Those of you have been reading along know that Frederik Carøe of Duelund Coherent Audio really wowed me (and many of you) with the debut of his impressive Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper ‘tone wire’ that is an affordable musical marvel. Then hot on the heels of the DCA16GA, Frederik sent me some 0.22uF/400V Duelund CAST tinned-copper prototype electronics capacitors... Read More »

I got up this morning and drank an adequate amount of coffee to wash down a slice of Thanksgiving's leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast, while listening to Jazz24 on the Stokowski A7 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers. Yazaki-san’s superb SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier is a perfect match to my Stokowski A7's, giving a musical... Read More »

Man, I love my vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, but lately the main volume control has become noisy, as have the little volume pots on the phono & auxiliary inputs. I had been dragging my feet on doing the needed maintenance, but when I watched the Care & Cleaning Of Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifiers & Amateur Radio... Read More »