It has been my great pleasure to bring you posts from Yazaki-san for his article “My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7”. Thank you, Yazaki-san, for taking time to write this article and share your substantial audio wisdom with us, it is very much appreciated by me, as well as all of us here at... Read More »

It has been a great pleasure to bring you posts from Yazaki-san for his article “My Adventure With My Old Marantz Model 7”. Many thanks to Yazaki-san for taking time to write this article and share his substantial audio wisdom with us, it is very much appreciated by me, as well as all of us here... Read More »

My morning started off with a bang today when I got a couple of text messages from my buddy Dave about a yard sale and an estate sale with some pristine records in it - thanks, Dave! I jumped in my Leaf and headed out to check the sales out, and I made quite a... Read More »

In my earlier blog post I introduced Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki to those of  you who are new to Jeff's Place, and for the rest of you Yazaki-san needs no introduction, as you have been following the illuminating audio adventures with Yazaki-san for quite some time now. I met Yazaki-san back in early 2015 while I was preparing the article about... Read More »

As I posted earlier, I'm really looking forward to trying friend Yazaki-san's ideas for modifying my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers. It's always fun doing audio adventures with Yazaki-san, as his insight, knowledge, and experience have really changed the way I think about audio performance, and for voicing my system at the 'DNA level' using resistors,... 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 always wonderful to hear from Yazaki-san, and he's always got some great ideas for audio adventures! A week or so ago Yazaki-san told me: Dear Jeff-san, I have a plan to send you a pair of resistors and also a pair of reproduction WE18GA wire for power cables. The resistors are prepared for the... 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 »

It is always a delight to hear from Yazaki-san as he travels the world pursuing audio adventures with kindred spirits, this time checking in from Surabaya, Indonesia, while visiting Handoko-san at his shop Mega Audio & Disc Collection. Thanks for sharing your audio adventures with us Yazaki-san! "Dedicate to Jeff-san, After pleasant business talk with... Read More »

It's always a pleasure to hear from the delightful Yazaki-san about his ongoing audio adventures, and this time Yazaki-san is checking in from Bangkok while visiting Nattawut-san and Tanawat-san. "I hope you are all well, Jeff-san!" "I am far away, southwest of Japan, and I meeting again with Nattawut-san and Tanawat-san in Bangkok. They have been eager readers of Jeff's... 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

It's always a delight to hear from Yazaki-san, and I got a very nice email from Yazaki-san introducing his good friend, Kato-san. "I’m so happy to introduce my good old friend, Kato-san to you and Ron-san. Kato-san had been working in the research and development division of PIONEER until 10 years ago, and at the same... 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »