The 13th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2016 are live here. There were lots of great nominees from me for this year, but only three winners! Please stop by Positive Feedback and check out all the winners from 2016, from me, and all the other Positive Feedback contributors. As always, thanks for stopping... Read More »

You'll have to wait a while before the full 13th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2016 appear at Positive Feedback, but I thought you'd enjoy this sneak peek into my nominees for 2016. Enjoy! The 13th Annual Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2016 It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive... Read More »

Like usual, I've been up since 4 a.m. this Saturday morning writing like a crazed man so I can get the Duelund Coherent Audio DCA16GA premium tinned-copper cable article finished up for the November-December issue of Positive Feedback. I'm done with the article and it will appear on November 1st. I think (I hope) you'll find my... 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 »

It's always fun to get together with good friends, and I was delighted to have pals Leo, Pete, Ron, and Santos visit me for a frivolous Sunday afternoon of laughter, music, and hi-fi tomfoolery at Jeff's Place! Besides a nice selection of food & wine to nip & sip on, the menu included: 1) Finalizing the crossover... Read More »

I'm excited by what I'm hearing from my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers. I've made a few modifications to the crossovers I'm building, and to the wiring from the crossovers to the drivers, that really are working great together. I still have a few experiments I want to try with the crossovers, but I feel like I'm... Read More »

Last week was a rough week, so it was especially sweet to relax on Saturday, and work through some listening tests with the A5 Voice of the Theatre Project, Western Electric WE16GA wire, Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects, Duelund DCA16GA wire, Jupiter Condenser Red Astron capacitors, and the Woody SPU tonearm. The Pete Riggle Audio Engineering Woody SPU Tonearm: I'll start with a... Read More »

After writing my last post, I got all excited about wiring up my A5 VOTT's Altec 16 Ohm 515B Alnico drivers in the 825B bass horns with Duelund DCA16GA wire. First I removed the backs of the Altec 825B bass horns so I could get at the 16 Ohm 515B Alnico drivers, and then removed the vintage... Read More »

It sure was fun to go to Matt's and Milagros' wedding at Mount Vernon, and to visit with all the family and friends that attended. They sure are a fantastic group of people, and it makes me thankful and proud that I can call them 'family'. Now I've got a few things to tell all... 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 »

It's always good to get home and fire up the stereo after being off on a long week of work travel. The first thing I did after getting home from a long day of flying was to plug in my vintage McIntosh vacuum tube electronics and vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers based system to... Read More »

It's been really busy lately for yours truly, but tonight I'm relaxing for a little bit, and listening to a little jazz over my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers project, which at the moment is playing my Analogue Productions test pressing of Chet Baker's Chet. I probably shouldn't say this, as it drives prices up,... Read More »

The Duelund Coherent Audio DCA16GA has arrived at Jeff's Place! If you've been following this developing story, you know how excited I am about the Duelund Coherent Audio DCA16GA wire from Frederik Carøe in Denmark. "Why?" you ask. I'm glad you asked, so let me give you a brief recap of events up until now to help explain why I am... Read More »

It's been a crazy busy time for yours truly, with travel, work, looking after my 91-year young Mom, getting ready for some memorial services for my Dad, keeping up here at Jeff's Place, and the like. Sometimes 24 hours in a day seems woefully insufficient. But I wanted to check in and say, "Hi!" and... Read More »

I'm not often gobsmacked by audio gear anymore, but when I laid my eyes on Markus Klug's Klughoerner hand-crafted wood replicas of historic multi-cell horns I almost swooned and fell out of my chair! Markus' Klughoerner multi-cell wood horns are stunning! To the right in the photo above, you can see Markus' hand-crafted Klughoerner wood replica... Read More »

I had a nice day of music listening yesterday afternoon with Leo, Pete, and Ron, as we did some listening comparisons with the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers and their Hiraga-san inspired crossovers. The Jean Hiraga designed crossovers are about as perfect a match to the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers as one could hope for,... Read More »

As I have gotten older I've found myself becoming more interested in history in general, and our audio history in particular. Over the last ten or fifteen years I've become increasingly fascinated with the vintage Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers that started their storied journey into theaters back in 1945, as World War II was winding to... Read More »

I've been thinking a lot about tone lately, and in particular, vintage tone. If you look up 'tone' in the dictionary you'll see half a dozen definitions for it, but what I'm referring to when I say 'tone' is more in line with what musician's mean when they say 'tone', and what I think music lovers & audio hobbyists mostly... Read More »

I am delighted to say that the vintage Altec-Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre Project is now moving forward again! In the first phase of the project I commissioned Gary Fischer to restore a vintage pair of Altec-Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers, which I described in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.... 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 »

Ron-san and I got together today to celebrate the joys of audio & music and to listen to the latest iteration of our Real Sound Adventure with the vintage McIntosh MX110 tuner-preamplifiers. To complement our listening adventures, we had a couple of superb bottles of regional wines to sample, a 2013 Walla Walla Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 2013 Anelare... Read More »

It has been bitterly cold here in my part of the Pacific Northwest until this last week, when temperatures soared into the high 40's and low 50's (Fahrenheit). The skiers & snow boarders have been happy with all the snow in the mountains, but us bicycle riders in the flatlands a little less so. The previous... Read More »

In my Part 1 post I introduced you to Gary Fischer and the Altec-Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre restoration he did for me that forms the basis of the Altec A5 VOTT Project here at Jeff's Place. For my restoration, I chose two 825B bass horn cabinets, two 515B Alnico low-frequency drivers, two N-500-C crossovers, two 1005B 10-cell horns,... Read More »