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 »

In 1877 Thomas Edison invented recording with the phonograph, and kicked off the acoustic era of recording that lasted until 1925, when Western Electric initiated the electrical era of recording with the development of microphones, amplifiers, disc cutting machines, loudspeakers, and sound for movies. Western Electric supported the theater movie sound business until 1936, when... Read More »

I finished up my Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki article yesterday, and it is now live at Positive Feedback here. It has been an immense pleasure for me to get to know Yazaki-san and to tell you about him, and his ideas & recommendations for 'Real Sound' have made a wonderful difference in my hi-fi.... Read More »

A couple of posts ago (here) I shared a little of the article Adventures in Real Sound With Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki that I am writing for Positive Feedback. I've been making good progress on the article, and I am hoping to be able to finish it this weekend, so it can get published before next week's... Read More »

I just heard from Yazaki-san, and he sent me some photographs of the DA30 SET monaural amplifiers he made for his friend Ookubo-san, and they're so beautiful I wanted to share them with you! The DA30 SET monaural amplifiers Yazaki-san made for his Ookubo-san are based on using the vintage Western Electric 310A as the driver, a vintage... Read More »

I am hard at work on my article for Positive Feedback, Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, and thought I'd share a snippet of it with you. I'll add more as time goes on. Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki By Jeff Day In Issue 78 I introduced you to the remarkable... Read More »

After reading Bill Dion's comment about how well he liked the interconnects he made using vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire, I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a try too. Many thanks to Bill for such an awesome comment! So out came my vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire, four Switchcraft SWC-3502AAU RCAs, my Hakko soldering station, and... Read More »

It's been a hectic time, and I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd tell you about a number of things at once to make up for lost time, like vintage Western Electric WE24GA wire, some delicious vintage phono cartridges, some music 'scores', and... Read More »

"Nobody is going to believe what we're hearing from your Westminsters with this Western Electric internal wiring," said Ron, "it's hard to put into words how good it sounds." Ron and I just spent Sunday morning and a good part of the afternoon rewiring my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers with vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire from Mr.... Read More »

I spent the last week in Chicago for a work review at Fermilab and Argonne, and since man cannot live on neutrinos alone, one of our gracious hosts - William - put on an awesome Chicago pizza extravaganza for us one night that was a blast! Many thanks to William! It also meant that upon... 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 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 »

I have now installed vintage Western Electric WE16GA in the Duelund low-frequency crossovers of my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers to replace the Neotech copper wire I used originally as part of the Duelund-WRSE crossover project. As you know, last week I replaced the Neotech silver wire I was using in the high-frequency section of... 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 »

I got up this morning and fixed a nice double espresso to get the day started, fired up the stereo, and started listening to Gil Evan's New Bottle Old Wine. In a sudden inspiration, I decided I wanted to try a short length of Western Electric WE16GA in the high-frequency section of the Duelund CAST crossovers... 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 »

Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki of SPEC Corporation (photo below, second from left) has told me how highly he regards the performance of vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire used as speaker cable. Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki uses the Western Electric WE16GA wire as speaker cables as his personal reference both for the research & development work he does for... Read More »

If you read my SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier review in Issue 78 of Positive Feedback Online, you know how impressed I am with the audio designs of Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki in Tokyo, Japan. (second from the left in the photograph below) It is my opinion that Yazaki-san is one of those rare gifted listeners/designers with an... Read More »

FedEx delivered the set of my 'new' restored vintage McIntosh MC30s mono amplifiers today that I purchased from Yves Beauvais at Vintage Vacuum Audio after hearing my friend Leo's MC30s that impressed me so much.  I unpacked the Mac's and set them up in the system with my Westminster Royal Duelund Special Edition loudspeakers, and put... Read More »