It's been a crazy & busy holiday season for me, but now things are starting to settle down a bit. Yours truly came down with the flu this week, so while nursing myself back to health I've had plenty of time to think about all things hi-fi, and wanted to give you a little bit of an update about what's going on here at Jeff's Place.

Let's start with the music: I’m a big fan of Oscar Peterson, and I just bought the MPS Oscar Peterson 6-LP box set, Exclusively for My Friends, from Acoustic Sounds.  Oscar Peterson considered these to be his best albums, and after listening to them it's easy to see why he liked them so much.

There were some ‘sound restoration’ techniques used, which were all done in the analog domain, and they chose to leave a few master tape boo-boos intact. The original recordings were made in the living room of Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in Germany, a jazz aficionado and friend of Oscar Peterson’s, and the head of MPS back then. I think the work done on the tapes was consonant to the music, and the result is great tone, living room like presence, and musical performances that I wouldn’t want to live without. I think you'll enjoy listening to this box set just as I have.

The vintage McIntosh article about the MX110Z tuner/preamplifier, the MC30 monaural amplifiers, and the MC240 and MC225 stereo amplifiers is almost done. I have a little bit more writing to do, a photo shoot, and the article will be ready to turn over to the Editors at Positive Feedback Online for publication.

It has really been a lot of fun writing about these vintage McIntosh gems, and I hope you'll enjoy the article. You might notice that in the photo above there are two MC225s running bridged as monos. Here's an interesting link to a video about bridging a MC275 amp.

I'll have a lot more to say about The Garrard Project 2015 over the coming weeks.  Ray Clark at the Classic Turntable Company in the UK shipped a tricked-out Classic 301 with a brass platter (not shown) to Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity who has been building one of his custom Statement Plinth's for it. Christopher is putting the finishing touches on the plinth now.

Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement Plinth of Macassar Ebony

Thomas Schick is building two tonearms for the project as I write this, and they should be done shortly. One tonearm will be mounted with an Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII, and the other tonearm will be mounted with an Ortofon SPU Classic GM MKII. When Thomas finishes up the tonearms he's going to send them to Christopher so he can do the final prep of the armboards on the plinth, and then we'll be ready to go! I'll start off by discussing these three fine gentleman involved in making the project happen: Ray Clark at Classic Turntable Company in the UK, Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity in the USA, and Thomas Schick in Germany.

Thanks for stopping by!