While doing the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier adventure we experimented with several brands of new & NOS metal film resistors in the circuit in various places, but basically I always ended up preferring the vintage 2-watt NOS Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors that Andy Moore had suggested I try. The vintage 2-watt NOS Allen Bradley resistors had better tone,... Read More »

The Vintage Beat It sure has been a wonderful experience dipping my toe into the waters of vintage hi-fi gear, like with my original Garrard Project (1, 2, 3) articles: Or with my restored vintage McIntosh kit like the MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, stereo MC240 amplifier, stereo MC225 amplifier, and MC30 monaural amplifiers: Or the world of vintage... Read More »

A good alternate title for this post would have been "The Real Sound Education of Jeff Day" because that is the result of Yazaki-san's and Ron-san's influence on me during our mutual adventures with the vintage McIntosh vacuum tube gear. Due to Ron's influence, I have now made the transition of being a modification observer... Read More »

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a major revelation? In my case my major revelation came at 2:53 a.m. last night, according to the screen on my iPhone. It was three thoughts coming together that triggered my overall revelation, but I want to tell you the story in the sequence that it occurred... Read More »

I sure have been busy lately, it seems, and I haven't been able to keep up with the blog posts I've been wanting to write for you, or to respond to your comments as speedily as I'd like to. If I forgot to answer a comment you directed at me, ping me again, because it... Read More »

Ron, Leo, and I got together to do a little listening to a variety of vintage preamplifiers last weekend, the Audio Research SP-6B, the Harmon Kardon Citation 1, and the McIntosh MX110. First we listened to Ron's vintage Audio Research SP-6B preamplifier so we could get a performance baseline for it, as we are getting ready to... Read More »

I was so pleased with my vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier 'resistor adventure' this morning I just had to tell you about it! As you know, the MX110 Adventure has thrown us a few unexpected curve balls, and in response Ron-san and I have been going through component-by-component to figure out what was going on and... Read More »

It was a lot of fun to have Rafe (Part-Time Audiophile) and Don visit Jeff's Place over the weekend, and we covered a lot of ground musically, sonically, and philosophically. From a musical perspective we did a little bit of a survey of the recording arts, starting with some very early mono recordings, progressing through... Read More »

If you've been reading along about our real sound adventures with my vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, you know the modifications we did threw us a curve ball, and the resulting performance after our modifications didn't sound nearly as good as my stock MX110Z. Argh! While there were some promising aspects to the performance of my modified MX110Z, we basically struck... Read More »

Normally when I hear the phrase 'The Power of the Orchestra' it makes me think of the famous Kingsway Hall recording by Kenneth Wilkinson of René Leibowitz conducting The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Pictures At An Exhibition & Night On Bare Mountain (RCA VCS-2659), which has long been on Harry Pearson's Super LP List, and renowned for its remarkable dynamics,... Read More »

Yazaki-san, Ron-san, and I, buoyed by our dramatic success with our Real Sound adventure with my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers (below), embarked on another Real Sound adventure with my vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier, as I have reported on earlier in several posts. Well how do I say this? Things haven't gone so well with our... Read More »

Ron, Leo, and I got together last weekend to listen to a trio of vintage McIntosh MX110s variously modified by Ron-san with Real Sound modifications as suggested by Yazaki-san, which are similar to the modifications Yazaki-san has performed on his personal vintage Marantz 7 preamplifier. Prior to being modified by Ron-san, two of the MX110s were restored -... Read More »

Happy 2016 my friends, and thank you all so much for all the well wishes in closing out 2015, I truly appreciate it! I want to start the New Year of 2016 with a post about the last thing I mentioned in my last post of 2015 - the Altec A5 VOTT Project. The Altec-Lansing Voice... Read More »

The waning hours of 2015 are upon us, and I thought I'd make my last post for 2015 a look back on the year. This past year has had so many highlights it boggles my mind as I think back on it, and I’m so thankful that I was able to share all my audio &... Read More »

As I was preparing the Jeff Award for Yazaki-san, I was also thinking about another friend who has had a profound influence on me and my enjoyment of the audio & musical arts over the last several years, my good friend and fellow audio adventurer, Ron Barbee. Ron is a life-long audio enthusiast, music lover, musician (guitarist),... Read More »

For my 12th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards I did something that I've never done before, I gave an award to a person instead of an audio product, Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki. The Positive Feedback Writer's Choice Award acknowledges Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki for "his significant design work" which he surely deserves. In Japan, the term 'Living National Treasure'... Read More »

As you know if you've been reading along, I've been flabbergasted with how incredibly musical the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifier is, and if you haven't yet read my The Vintage McIntosh Experience article I wrote for Positive Feedback in Issue 77 discussing it, I encourage you to go and give it a read. Quite a number of posts... Read More »

My Maestro's VOTTs & SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier room has become my go-to coffee nook in the morning. I've developed a week-day ritual of rolling out about 4:30 a.m. and firing up the SPEC RSA-M3 EX, the Mhdt Paradisea+ USB DAC, and my old MacBook that I'm using as a source. Then I wander into the kitchen to... Read More »

If you read The Vintage McIntosh Experience article in Issue 77 of Positive Feedback you know I'm a big fan of the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier. The MX110Z makes vinyl & FM sound astonishingly good, it even makes digital your friend. Performance-wise it can easily hold its own against contemporary preamplifiers, and feature-wise it outclasses any modern preamplifier on... Read More »

A couple of posts ago I told you about my adventure of building up an AC power cord with the Western Electric WE16GA and trying it out on my Mhdt Havana USB DAC. It takes a while for the Western Electric WE16GA to settle down, but I thought my newly constructed WE16GA power cord sounded promising, and... Read More »

Here's another of The Jeff Awards for 2015, and these are all things that I personally use and enjoy, and I think you'll like them a lot too. It also happens that most of these are relatively affordable gift ideas that will fit into a Christmas stocking, so the 12 Days of Christmas Stocking Stuffers Award... Read More »

Due to your critical acclaim, the Jeff's Place Readers' Choice Award unanimously goes to Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki's 'Real Sound' recommendations for the Western Electric WE16GA wire and the Belden 8402 microphone cable. I particularly liked the way that Mark Paul said it in his nomination to me for the Readers' Choice Award, "I think it’s safe... Read More »

The call for Positive Feedback writers to submit their annual Writers' Choice Awards came out yesterday from Editors Dave & David.   It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards roll around, as it provides a time for me to reflect back on the past year and think about its... Read More »