Greetings friends, I hope you are well. 

The weather here is getting down towards freezing in the evenings and mornings now, and as fall slides into winter, it has me reflecting on 2025.

I must say it has been a truly remarkable year for me on the music and HiFi front, so I've put together some highlights for you that felt particularly newsworthy. 

The Duelund-Corona 832A Project

Partnering with Frederik Carøe (Duelund Coherent Audio) on projects always makes for an exciting time, and the lofty level of performance  of our latest Duelund-Corona 832A Project loudspeakers completely blew my mind. 

My Vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers. Photo by LA Jazz Audio.

Our project with the vintage Altec Corona 832A loudspeakers started innocently enough, but as it progressed, through several serendipitous events, the level of musical performance we achieved was truly extraordinary. I'm still in awe of the result. Awe. 

Making the project even more interesting, was that the extraordinary performance was achieved in a near-complete departure from audiophile orthodoxy, which has me rethinking what I thought I knew as bedrock truths about certain aspects of audio, with some perceptions being reinforced, while other new, exciting ideas emerged.   

Duelund CAST copper crossover for the Altec Corona 832A loudspeakers. 

I'll be writing an in-depth follow-up article about those musings after I've had time to mull them over a bit more. 

In the meantime, I encourage you to go out and read "The Duelund-Corona 832A Project - Serendipity to Ecstasy!" feature article that was just published at Positive Feedback (HERE). 

The Audio Note (UK) M8 RIAA Phono Preamplifier and AN-S8 SUT

The performance of Peter Qvortrup's (Audio Note (UK)) visiting Tomei 211 SET integrated amplifier, M8 RIAA phono preamplifier, and AN-S8L SUT playing back vinyl records, is easily the most satisfying vinyl playback I've ever heard. Easily. 

Peter showed me that the upper levels of vinyl playback performance were at a much higher level than I imagined being possible. 

Spendy, but if you've got the wherewithal for this dream level kit, I can't imagine anyone being anything but thrilled with the otherworldly level of performance.  Me, an ordinary bloke, I'm going to be buying lottery tickets in hopes that I might join this club. Truly awesome vinyl playback. 

If you haven't read it yet, go out and read "The Audio Note (UK) M8 RIAA Phono Preamplifier and AN-S8/L Step-Up Transformer: Walking through Heaven's door!" feature article that was published at Positive Feedback a short while ago (HERE). 

Teaser: Guess what? There's more vinyl adventures to come! 

The Gold Note DS-10 EVO Streaming DAC and PSU-10 EVO Power Supply

What I really like about streaming is exploring new music, and the Gold Note DS-10 EVO streaming DAC and PSU-10 EVO power supply has been exceptional at that, as it supports all the high resolution digital formats as well as the Red Book standard. 

What I don't like about streaming is that I don't get to hold physical media in my hands like I do with LPs or CDs. I also like a library with books in it instead of pdf documents, so that's my antiquarian perspective coming through as well. It's hard to sway us old geezers away from what we are used to. 

Streaming can guide me towards albums that I can get physical media for, which I do like, so I guess there's room for both streaming and physical media in my audio life. Not for books though. 

Speaking of digital formats, they all sound really good through the Gold Note combo, but none of the high-resolution PCM formats sound as good as a topnotch vinyl source, like the Audio Note (UK) kit mentioned above. That's my take on it so far.

Doc David tells me that when you go beyond PCM to DSD that situation changes, and he has found that quad DSD playback is indistinguishable from master tape quality in his listening tests. 

David just told me he has completed a sampler of DSD files for me to listen to, so I'm excited about that. More to come on this fascinating topic. 

Vintage Beat: The Luxman AS-10 Transformer-Based Constant Impedance Attenuators

Above center: vintage Luxman AS-10 attenuators.

I was so impressed with the results I was getting from the vintage Luxman AS-10 transformer-based constant impedance attenuators in the Duelund-Corona 832A Project crossovers that I bought a second pair from Japan via eBay. 

My idea was to try them in the crossovers of my Duelund-Altec Project crossovers for the Stokowski Altecs, to find out if I could realize the same sorts of benefits in the Hiraga-style crossover circuit as I did with the N800E circuit in my Altec Corona 832A loudspeakers.

The second pair I bought (above) didn't sound nearly as good as the first pair I bought, and had issues with oxidation on their contacts, which made them noisy when switching through the different transformer taps.

So I took them apart to condition each contact point with some Caig Deoxit to remove the oxidation and create better contact at each of the transformer tap contact points. 

I also noted that the wiring inside my second pair of AS-10s appeared to be new, unlike the very weathered looking wiring inside my first pair. My guess is someone rewired them.

Even after the Deoxit treatment the second pair didn't sound nearly as good as the first pair with the well-weathered wiring, in the N800E circuit of the Corona loudspeakers. 

Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers in the "Stokowski" Altecs. loudspeakers.

I had to do modifications to the resister networks in the Hiraga-style crossovers to install the AS-10s - more detail about this in a future article - and I thought the AS-10s did improve the overall sound quality by allowing me to fine tune the high-frequency output, but I was still hearing that "rough" new wire sound signature.

I may have to do some conditioning of the second pair of AS-10s with one of my cable conditioners to see if I can get them sounding better. 

More details to come about this experiment in the future.

Vacuum Tube Apocalypse

When solid-state audio amplification first appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s everyone said that vacuum tube audio amplification was obsolete and would be replaced by solid-state amplification, sort of like people said about vinyl records when CDs came out.

We know that neither happened for the simple fact that musicians and audio enthusiasts knew that vacuum tube amplification and vinyl records sounded more like "real" music than solid-state amplification and CDs.  

Now six decades later vacuum tube amplification and vinyl records are still going strong, and still sound better. 

There has been a lot of progress with solid-state amplification and digital though, and both are sounding better than ever, but still my impression is that the best vacuum tube amplification sounds better than the best solid-state amplification I've heard, and even high-resolution PCM digital can't come close to the performance of vinyl records with a good vinyl front-end, like the Audio Note (UK) one I mentioned above. 

Maybe DSD will sound better than vinyl? I hope to find out more about that in the near future. 

But back to the "vacuum tube apocalypse" rumors that are making the rounds once again, but this time from a different angle.

There's only a couple of countries making significant amounts of vacuum tubes these days, mostly China and Russia, both of which are getting the snot kicked out of them by tariffs.

The rumor going around is that the manufacturing of vacuum tubes will collapse due to them not generating enough profit to make it worthwhile to continue manufacturing them with the tariffs in place. 

That's a possibility, however I believe wherever there's demand and profit to be made, businesses will figure out a way to manufacturer and provide vacuum tubes to customers.

However, you and I will pay more for them because of the tariffs, as the increased costs are passed along to consumers, and we may have to suffer through times of scarcity, so start building up your vacuum tube stash now just in case.  

Still, it might be a good time to buy a couple of sets of vacuum tubes for your prized vacuum tube amplification devices to weather any storms that come along. Prepare for times of plenty and for times of lack.

Music Spotlight: Massenet's Thais Opera

My favorite version of Massenet's Thais opera features Renee Doria, Robert Massard, and Michel Senechal on the Westminster record label (WST 236) - recorded in Paris, 1961. I have this performance on both CD and vinyl, and both are terrific. The vinyl has better sound quality, and better conveys the emotional fidelity of the performance.

I've come to appreciate opera performances more and more, and opera is perhaps the ultimate test of an audio system with its dramatic storylines, singers, choirs, orchestras, percussion, wide dynamics swings, and abundance of musical information. 

Typically, operas are recorded in state-of-the-art sound quality, and no expense was spared in their production. The bonus is you can buy the best opera boxsets on Discogs for peanuts. 

I've really enjoyed exploring opera over the last so many years, and I continue to be impressed by the rich listening experience and dramatic storylines. 

If you haven't yet explored opera, I encourage you to do so, as "There's gold in them thar hills" (Matthew Fleming Stephenson). 

I'll continue to explore opera performances and tell you about the ones that really excite me. 

Ok, that's all of my audio and music ramblings for now. Much more to come. 

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!