To get my mind off the plunging stock market and my plunging retirement savings, I thought I'd do something edifying like give my Thorens TD124 a try on my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers. I've wanted to revisit the Leben CS-600 integrated amplifier and Leben RS-30EQ combination that works so well together... Read More »

Yazaki-san has been out on another adventure to the Sentimental Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, and has shared some photos of his visit! Since Yazaki-san's visit to the Sentimental Cafe last October, they have become a Spec Corporation dealer, and today, September 22nd, they hosted an open house so visitors could experience Yazaki-san's beautiful Spec audio electronics... Read More »

There's so many new readers at Jeff's Place these days, that I thought it would be a nice idea to go over the purpose of my Jeff's Place audio blog again, describe where it fits in my spectrum for audio reviewing and reportage, discuss my reviewing methodology, my biases & preferences, and give you a 'master list' of... 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 »

I've got today off from work so I'm playing hi-fi games with my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre project loudspeakers, and I have a ton of fun things to tell you about! Facebook also informed me that today is my one-year anniversary of starting my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre project, and guess what,... Read More »

In 2015 I started what is intended to be the start of a new tradition for me, called the Jeff Awards, which are intended to recognize the most momentous events of musical & audio significance that happened here at Jeff's Place during the year. The Jeff Awards can include hi-fi equipment from my Positive Feedback articles, or honorable mentions... Read More »

The last week or two I had begun to miss my usual Tannoy Westminster Royale SE loudspeakers with their Duelund CAST crossovers, so I pulled my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre project loudspeakers out of the system, and put the big West's back in. Please don't take that as condemnation of the vintage... 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 »

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 »

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've been traveling in England the last couple weeks and got home last night at 1 a.m., and am now trying to get caught back up on everything, including some sleep and some music listening. I was on a tour with Rick Steves' Europe that was a lot of fun. Rick is a cultural treasure... Read More »

After getting up this fine Saturday morning, while drinking a couple cups of my favorite coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, I set about pulling off the bottom of my vintage vacuum tube McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier so I could do a little surgery on it. I had two things I wanted to do while under the bonnet, the... 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 »

A lot of you (and me) have been lamenting that the superb Western Electric WE16GA wire has become essentially extinct, and I am down to the last little bit of WE16GA I have left, which is what I am using to wire my new crossovers for my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers project.... 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 »

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 »

To borrow from Dina Washington's album, What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!, the title certainly describes the results of the listening session that Ron, Leo, and I had on Sunday afternoon with the Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers that were so lovingly restored by Gary Fischer. When Ron and I first listened to... Read More »

It's Christmas morning here in Washington State, and I'm sitting here with a hot steaming cup of coffee, and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Like any kid looking forward to the arrival of Christmas morning and opening the presents under the Christmas tree, I have been looking forward to the arrival of a pair... Read More »