I thought I'd provide you a bit of a status on what's coming up here at Jeff's Place. 

At the moment I'm working on finishing up the feature article for Positive Feedback about the Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier, with a target date of approximately November 1st. Also, I hope to write for you a "sneak peek" post into the article towards the end of next week.

The Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier has been a real "ear-opener" and is a fantastic match for the Duelund-ized "Stokowski" Altec's, and has been my favorite amplifier to power the Altec's so far.

The "entry level"  Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier is entry level only in price ($4900 USD), and its performance is truly impressive, putting to shame a lot of "audio jewelry" amplifiers costing many times its price. Super build quality, impressive performance, and an affordable price make the Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier a real winner!

Next up for Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback are the Great Plains Audio (nee Altec) 16 Ohm versions of the current production GPA 416C low-frequency driver (above) and the 802G Series II high-frequency compression driver (below).

The current production GPA 416C low-frequency drivers and the 802G Series II high-frequency compression drivers are the closest match for current production drivers to the vintage Altec 803B 16 Ohm low-frequency drivers and the Altec 16 Ohm 804A compression drivers in the "Stokowski" Altec's.

Stay tuned on this one, as I hope to provide you all kinds of useful information about these new GPA drivers and how they compare to the vintage Altec drivers.

I am working with Bill Hanuschak (GPA) and Santos Oropel (Troy Audio) to get that information for you, so a big "Thank you!" to Bill and Santos for that!

The plan is to tell you about the the evolution and refinements from the first Altec low-frequency driver - the 803A - to the 803B low-frequency drivers I have in the Stokowski Altec's, all the way up to the current 416C low-frequency driver that will be the subject of the upcoming blog posts at Jeff's Place and the eventual feature review at Positive Feedback. 

I'll also be telling you about the evolution from the first versions of the vintage Altec 802/804 compression drivers, all the way up to the GPA 802G Series II high-frequency compression drivers that will be featured here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback, along with full specifications of each driver.

I'm really looking forward to check out these latest drivers and telling you all about it!

I had hoped to be telling you more about the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier  before now, but due to a busy schedule at Audio Note UK, they have not been able to get the additional information to me that I requested, so more about the Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier when I get more information.

The Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier has been getting run-in time on my cherished vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers, and is coming along nicely!

If you've got relatively sensitive loudspeakers the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier may just turn out to be the ultimate one-box integrated amplifier solution for you.

I love the fact that the high-performance Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier has a built-in phono preamplifier, which is how all integrated amplifiers ought to be built, in my opinion.

That's true value to the customer to include the phono equalizer inside the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier chassis, and a much better solution for the customer than having to buy an external phono stage for a couple of thousand dollars more. Like I said, that's true value.

The Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier is a really impressive piece of audio engineering, and as long term readers know, I go out of my way to find really special audio components to tell you about, and the Audio Note UK Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier is certainly that.

Stay tuned, I'm looking forward to telling you more about the Oto Phono SE Signature integrated amplifier as soon as I receive more information! 

Everyone is excited about the new Leben CS600X integrated amplifier, including me, having been an owner of the original Leben CS600 for many years.

The Leben CS600X integrated amplifier continues to sound great as its getting some run-in time in my vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre audio-visual system, and yes, I do like its warmer overall presentation better than that of my original CS600.

The Leben CS600X integrated amplifier is a lovely vacuum-tube integrated amplifier in the best tradition of classic vacuum tube amplifiers, with a rich, warm, and nuanced presentation that is destined to be responsible for many happy new Leben customers.

As soon as I get an open window of time I'm going to remove the Leben CS600X integrated amplifier's bonnet and take a look inside - more coming soon!

Eventually I'll get around to doing some coupling cap mods on both the original CS600 and the new CS600X, to see if I can make the original CS600 sound more like the new CS600X with some PIO coupling caps, and to see if I can make the new CS600X sound more like the original CS600 by swapping in the coupling caps that Yoshi-san sent me.

So stay tuned Leben CS600X updates, as well as future coupling capacitor adventures!

I'm also writing my contribution right now for the 2019 Positive Feedback Writers Choice Awards. 

My cutoff for this year's awards will be the upcoming Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier feature article for Positive Feedback, so reviews that occur after that in 2019 will be included as contenders in the 2020 Positive Feedback Writers Choice Awards. 

Like always, there's been an impressive group of components that I've written about in 2019, like the January 2019 feature article, "The Acoustic Revive Chronicles, Chapter 14: The Absolute Power Cables, The RCA Absolute FM Interconnects, and the PC-TripleC/EX Headshell Leads".

Or the April 2019 feature article,  "Three Simple and Cost Effective Hot-Rod Mods for the Classic Thorens TD-124 Turntable!".

Or the July 2019 feature article, "The Hanze HiFi HAT Turntable Power Supply".

Or the October 2019 feature article about the stunning "The Duelund-Altec Project – Dare to Dream!".

Or the upcoming November 2019 feature article about the Pass Labs XA25 Class A stereo power amplifier.

That's the field of the five candidates for my 2019 Positive Feedback Writers Choice Awards. As you know, we writers are able to nominate three awards each year from the potential award candidates, so who will be the three awardees for 2019?

Also, as a final note, the "Stokowski" Altec system page in the right side-bar of Jeff's Place has been updated to reflect that system's current composition. You can read it HERE.

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