Greetings friends! I hope you are doing well and enjoying life.
Tomei 211 integrated amp (left), M6 RIAA (center), M3 RIAA (right)
My primary focus at the moment is listening to the Audio Note (UK) M6 RIAA phono stage, and playing tons of records to top-off its bedding in time of 100 hours.
From the Audio Note (UK) website: "The M6 RIAA phono stage requires around 100 hours of initial use (called “bedding in”) before the circuitry becomes stable and optimum performance is realized. As the device “beds in” the sound will become increasingly more smooth, detailed and open."
I have 100+ hours of "powered-on time" on the M6, and about half that time playing records. I think I'm getting close to it stabilizing and achieving its optimum performance level.
Initially the sound of the M6 was a little brash and forward on less well recorded albums, but quite beautiful on well recorded albums.
Now the sound quality is settling into the smooth / liquid, detailed / nuanced, open / spacious, naturally musical sort of sound quality that's getting the best out of every record I listen to.
There is a lot of audible contrast evident in the M6's playback ability with records over the lower to higher-fidelity span of recordings.
When a record is really of good recording, mastering, and production quality the M6 delivers a performance that sounds like a million bucks.
What might be even more impressive is how the M6 turns those just for fun low-fi average old records that I like to listen to into impressive listening experiences that don't sound low-fi at all.
How do they do that? That's Peter Qvortrup's comparison by contrast voicing process making itself known, and I don't know exactly how they accomplish it, but the results are impressive, as the M6 makes me feel like its delivering the very best version of the music from any record I'm listening to.
I'll keep playing records until I'm sure that the M6 is fully bedded-in and stabilized, then next up I'll pop the top off both the Level Four M6 RIAA and Level Three M3 RIAA, and do a 'walk through' tour of the circuitry of each so you can see what the differences are between the Level Four and Level Three versions of the Audio Note (UK) M3 preamplifier product line.
It is a bit scary how good my audio system is sounding with the full complement of Audio Note (UK) sources and amplification. It's very, very, easy to get attached to this level of performance.
Word of warning: Listening to an Audio Note (UK) Level Four audio system is potentially dangerous, as after spending some time listening, you may want to raid your 401K, take a second mortgage on your home, or rob a bank, just so you can experience this level of performance on a daily basis. You've been warned!
If you live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA you know the Pacific Audio Fest is a lot of fun, and it is great to have a close by audio fest where you can see and hear a lot of cool audio kit.
The Genesis room at the Pacific Audio Fest.
We're in a New Golden Age of audio, and there's lots of amazing audio products out there that will blow your mind at how good they are, like the Audio Note (UK) kit I mentioned above.
Update: The Pacific Audio Fest is going to a biennial format.
Starting this year, the Pacific Audio Fest is going to an every other year (biennial) format, so I encourage you to make every effort to attend PAF 2024, or you'll have to wait until PAF 2026 before it comes back around.
By the way, if you haven't read it at Positive Feedback yet, Lou Hinkley, the founder of the Pacific Audio Fest, has written an article about this new Golden Age of audio shows we're in, and the luxury we have of regional audio shows to attend (HERE).
Regional audio shows that the public can attend are relatively new to the audio enthusiast world. Back when I first started attending audio shows, like the CES, back during the Jurassic period, it was an industry only show, so having regional audio shows that the public can attend is pretty sweet.
Also, thanks to all of you who come up to say "Hello" to me at the PAF. It always makes my day to meet a fellow audio traveler.
While there's a lot of really cool audio kit in this new Golden Age of audio, there's also some pretty special audio kit from the Golden Age of audio from years gone by.
The custom Altec loudspeakers made for conductor Leopold Stokowski.
A case in point are the vintage Altec loudspeakers that were custom built for conductor Leopold Stokowski's home use by Altec, back in the day, when he was still living in New York City.
Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers installed into the "Stokowski" Altec loudspeakers.
One of the highlights of my audio life was when Frederik (Duelund Coherent Audio) and I collaborated on building new crossovers for Dr. Stokowski's historic Altec loudspeakers using Frederik's then new product line of tinned-copper CAST components (above).
The result was spectacular, and I wrote it all up in The Duelund-Altec Project – Dare to Dream! article at Positive Feedback back in 2019 (HERE).
I have too many massive pairs of vintage Altecs here at home (is that possible?), and I've kind of run out of space for them. As a result, I'd been 'storing' the Stokowski Altecs in my office, but I haven't had them setup to play music for a while now.
I've been jonesing to give them a listen again, so I decided to set them up impromptu to play a little music (above).
These are massive loudspeakers, each one is about the size of a top-freezer refrigerator, and I couldn't get far enough away from them in my smallish office to get them both fully in the photo.
I've got them installed in room boundary positions (corners) so I could fit them into the room in a semi-reasonable fashion.
One would think they would be way too big to work in such a little room, but Altecs never cease to amaze in that they can perform so well in even a small space.
Those rumors you hear about Altecs only being suitable for large spaces are baloney - they can be amazing in small rooms!
The superb little Triode Lab 45 EVO SET integrated amp is providing 2 watts of magic juice (it is sitting upon Acoustic Revive quartz discs to raise it up off the carpet).
For the highly-sensitive Altecs 2 watts is enough to provide very, very, loud SPLs should one desire to do that. The 45 EVO is an amazing amp, and if you've got speakers that can accommodate its 2 watts of power, the 45 EVO should be on your short list of amplifiers to consider.
Cabling is a Sablon Audio AC cord, Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper speaker cables, and with Belden 8402 tinned-copper microphone cable RCA interconnects connecting the 45 EVO to Yazaki-san's amazing little streaming vacuum tube DAC (below), and I am using my iPhone as a source.
The little Yazaki-san Bluetooth DAC is really beautiful tonally, provides a completely immersive listening experience in this system (one of the benefits of using Altecs in a smallish room), and is information rich.
Streaming Jazz24 this system provides an emotionally engaging listening experience that is off the charts.
Yazaki-san really is a wizard when it comes to fine audio performance, and the mods he made to this little Douk Audio U4 DAC have turned it into a high-performance musical monster. It's really, really, good.
Oh, and of course, the Duelund CAST Sn-Cu crossovers make these mighty vintage Altecs sing with an incredible voice!
This system is really impressing the heck out of me. Now I'm thinking about how to get my vintage Thorens TD124 into this system.
I need to figure out a rack to fit into the space between the Altecs, to sit the TD124 on, and the other audio kit on, so there's that to sort out yet.
More to come on this truly fun audio system!
Jeff's A5 VOTTs as restored by Gary Fischer.
Oh, there's some really cool news on the Altec front, as Gary Fischer (Gary Fischer Speakers), Markus Klug (Klughoerner), and Santos Oropel (Great Plains Acoustics), are collaborating to bring you 'reissue' versions of the Altec A5/A7 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers, with custom true-to-spec Altec cabinets (Gary), custom wooden horns (Markus), and Altec / GPA drivers (Santos).
If you missed out on Altec Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers during the first Golden Age of audio, this is your second chance to own a pair. You can read all about this exciting Altec development HERE.
Ok, that's all the news for now.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
