Greetings friends, I hope you are well. 🙂 

I am celebrating getting through the holidays intact, and I’m looking forward to what unfolds in 2025! 

I’ll start with my thoughts for the New Year: Be civil and kind to each other. Maximize virtues. Minimize vices. Grow as a person. Do something to make your part of the world a better place. Learn new things. Read books by illuminated authors: George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, and Epictetus’ Enchiridion would make an excellent start to a 2025 reading list. Listen to more music: enjoy old favorites and explore new music. Be grateful for what you have in life, and don't stress about what you don't have. Life is good. Enjoy it. 

End of my 2025 pep talk to myself.

Now what you came here for: There looks to be some very exciting audio equipment coming in 2025 for review, which I’ll be telling you about in more detail as the new equipment starts to arrive for review. 

Think vacuum tubes: Audio Note (UK) and Spatial Audio Lab. Possibly more. 

Audio Note (UK)

Over the last few years I've been sharing a grand listening adventure with you courtesy of Peter Qvortrup (Audio Note (UK), where I've explored and told you all about Peter's Io I moving-coil phonograph cartridge, silver AN-S4 step-up transformer, M3 RIAA phono equalizer, M6 RIAA phono equalizer, CD 2.1x/II CD player, CD 4.1x CD player, CD 5.1x CD player, the Oto Phono SE Signature EL84 single-ended-pentode integrated amplifier, the Meishu Phono Silver Tonmeister 300B single-ended-triode (SET) integrated amplifier, the Tomei 211 SET integrated amplifier, the AN-V & AN-SPe silver cables, and AN/K-SPe loudspeakers (use the search function to find all the articles and reviews about these components here at Jeff's Place & Positive Feedback). 

Those weren't just a random selection of Audio Note (UK) components either, they were chosen by Peter to demonstrate how his tiered Performance Level System (PLS) works, which goes from an affordable entry level "Level Zero" all the way up to an astonishing level of performance in spendy  "Level Six" components, for example.

The idea behind the PLS is to provide access to the Audio Note (UK) music experience at whatever "Level" your budget allows for, and is an aid to Audio Note (UK) customers and dealers in assembling synergistic sets of components for a new home audio system.  

For example, let's say you have a budget that will accommodate "Level Two" Audio Note (UK) components. Your dealer can then help you pick out a synergistic set of Level Two components to build a complete home audio system - from source to loudspeakers - that will work like musical magic together.

If you've ever tried to assemble an audio system with all the components from different manufacturers, you know how frustrating it can be trying to get everything working correctly together, if you ever do. 

With the PLS your new audio system is plug & play, and works perfectly from the get-go, with no screwing around trying to get things to work properly together.  It plays music just the way you want it to right out of the box, and avoids the years of frustration many audio enthusiasts go through trying to setup an audio system assembled from components sourced from different manufacturers. 

If you desire, the PLS also makes it easy to go to the next level of performance within the Audio Note (UK) product lines. 

What I've found as you start ascending the Levels within the PLS, the increase in performance is not subtle when going up through ascending Levels.

You get what you pay for: more refined circuits, higher performing components within the circuits, and more exalted levels of sound quality and musicality. 

Here's a real world example: phono stages. When I listened to the internal phono stages of the Oto & Meishu integrated amps I was truly impressed with their performance. They sounded great and made recordings feel like I was listening to real live music.

Then I listened to the external M3 RIAA phono equalizer, and it totally blew me away. It was a big jump up in every attribute of performance. Then I listened to the M6 RIAA phono equalizer and ... gasp! ... it was at an astonishingly higher level of performance. 

I found the same thing to be true for the ascending Levels of CD players and integrated amplifiers I have listened to.

While I am delighted to listen to music with any Level of Audio Note (UK) components, there is no denying that the performance goes up dramatically with ascending Levels. 

I was massively blown away by the jump in performance when going from Level Three to Level Four components.

So you know where this is going, right?

Peter said, "Since you have now experienced the jump between Level Three and Level Four, I thought that the next step might be a comparison between Level Four and Level Five starting with an M8 RIAA and an AN-S8L for example, so you can get an idea of how the MC transformers also get better. Would that be of interest?"

Oh yeah, that would definitely be of interest, Peter! 🙂

More to come about Level Five in the not too distant future. 

When I look back on my Audio Note (UK) listening adventures over the last couple of years, there were a number of revelations that led to personal growth for me in understanding what I really desire from my audio & music listening hobbies. 

Playability. I define "playability" as the ability of an audio component or audio system to be able to play any given album - regardless of fidelity of the album - and deliver its best performance in terms of sound quality (i.e. fidelity to the recording quality), in terms of fidelity of the musicians intent for the music (i.e. the fidelity of feeling for the intent of music), and in terms of accessibility, or being able to play anything and become immersed in the glories of the musical performance.

I know you are all familiar with fidelity in terms of recording quality, and part of that kind of fidelity is the ability of a component or audio system to preserve the authenticity of the recording style, or era.

Enrico Caruso acoustic era recordings.

One of the most satisfying aspects of my audio & music hobby over the last so many years has been enjoying listening to music that spans the eras of the recording arts: the acoustic era (1877 to 1925), the electric era (1925 to 1945), the magnetic era (1945 to 1975), and the digital era (1975 to the present). 

Louis Armstrong from the electric era.

It has been truly exciting for me to discover and explore the musicians & music of all those eras. To hear the authenticity of the recording era fidelity preserved, with the albums played back in a level of sound quality I would have never have thought possible, and a fidelity of feeling from the music that was transcendent of the recording era. 

All of the eras of the recording arts can provide real listening thrills over a high-fidelity audio system. I continue to be amazed not only by the fidelity I hear from all those recordings, but even more importantly, the fidelity I feel. 

If you want to become a recording era explorer, a good CD player is a must, as it will give you access to all those early recordings that have been made available on CD. 

Particularly for the highest quality stereo magnetic era recordings, you will also want to have a good turntable on hand to show them at their considerable best. 

Ok, more on the music in a moment.

Spatial Audio Lab

Those of you who  have been following vacuum tube audio for a while know about the design talents of Lynn Olson and Don Sachs.

Well it turns out that these two talented designers are the design genius behind the Spatial Audio Lab Revelation Series Raven preamplifier (above), and the new Blackbird 300B monaural amplifiers (below). 

Look at all those gorgeous vacuum tubes!

Lynn, Don (Don Sachs Consulting), and I have been chatting over email.

It turns out that Don is practically a neighbor! Don says he'd like to come by and install the Raven pre & Blackbird monaural amplifiers personally, so that will be a fun adventure.

I love vintage HiFi kit, and I've lusted after Don's meticulous restorations of vintage Harmon Kardon kit. Sadly, Don's got too much going on to do vintage restorations these days, but he's all in when it comes to the Revelation Series kit from Spatial Audio Lab.

Ok, this is just a teaser for now, as we haven't figured out a time slot yet for a review, but I'll keep you posted on details as we get a little more clarity on timelines.  

The Music

You know all about the deluxe Blue Note Tone Poet Series of records, right? I just bought the Grant Green 1963 reissue of Idle Moments from Acoustic Sounds, and put it on the 'table while I am writing this. This is an all-analog reissue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

I'm listening to it through the Audio Note (UK) M6 RIAA phono preamp, and OMG! Beautiful musicianship, superb tone, and visuospatial attributes to die for. What a great record. I'll have to tell jazz guitarist David Gitlen about this one, I think he'd enjoy hearing it. This is one of those no-brainer reissues, just buy it. 

Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Landmarks of Recorded Pianism. Marston Records.

Another no-brainer is Ward Marston's Landmarks of Recorded Pianism. This three volume set is a superb survey of recorded pianism that spans the acoustic, electrical, and magnetic eras of recording, and it is superb. If you want to be blown away by incredible performances across the eras of recording, this is a go to set.

For those of you who are not yet all that familiar with music recorded during the different eras of the recording arts, this is a great place to start. 

In fact, I was so impressed that I was inspired to redo my "The Music" page here on Jeff's Place. The new page is just a stub at the moment, but I am going to add all kinds of great albums for you to explore over the course of 2025.

I scrapped the old page, and I'm just getting started revising this page to include albums and/or music sources that I've been enjoying, which spans the eras of the recording arts: the acoustic era (1877 to 1925), the electric era (1925 to 1945), the magnetic era (1945 to 1975), and the digital era (1975 to the present). 

My intent is to include musical performances from streaming sources, optical media, and vinyl records that I think you'll enjoy knowing about and having in your music library.  

The idea is to make you aware of some great musical performances that you might not otherwise come across in audio publications, as well as provide some fun history lessons about the eras of the recording arts.

Much more to come for The Music page here at Jeff's Place.

I just came across Opera Vision, which broadcasts and archives full opera productions from some of Europe's leading opera companies, and you can stream them for free.

I'm streaming them from my MacBook Pro via HDMI to my A-V system, and I must say the video quality I've seen so far is excellent, as is the recording quality. Check it out if you enjoy opera! 

That's all for now.

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