Everything is a bit topsy-turvy at the moment, with much of Planet Earth being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as I write this.

I live in Washington State, which was the epicenter in the USA for the COVID-19 outbreak that has now spread around the country.

As you might imagine the situation is rather dire here at the moment, but not yet as bad as in some other places, like Italy, for example. 

Expect delays on feature reviews for Positive Feedback and fewer posts at Jeff's Place as I sort through the ramifications of what is occurring around me related to COVID-19.

Please be patient with me as these are rather unprecedented times. 

The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Last night in an attempt to relax, I mixed up a variation on a Vespers Martini that I reversed engineered from the Vespers Martinis that Doc Leo and I enjoyed while in London before attending The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre, a few years back.

I modified my Vespers to include elements of a Corpse Reviver 2 cocktail, by adding in a little fresh lemon juice and absinthe. It was excellent!

A lot of you are familiar from these pages with my buddy Doc Leo, who is a fellow music & hifi enthusiast, and a frequent attendee here at Jeff's Place for audio get-togethers. Doc Leo is also a surgeon at a local hospital here. 

I shared the photo above of my variation on a Vespers Martini with the good doctor, and he replied "Hospitals getting busy with Coronavirus and pneumonias. Lots of suspected but unconfirmed cases. Best to stay at home. Enjoy the new vesper. Hopefully I’ll be able to taste one after all this madness is over."

Doc Leo knows his stuff, and he is exactly right that it is best to stay at home during this stage of the pandemic. I worry about him being on the front lines of all this madness. 

There's testing of less than 1% of the population here for COVID-19 at the current time, due to a shortage of test kits being available, so there's a lot more contagious people out and about than most people realize.

I'm in the high-risk group of 60+, so I've been in home-isolation for 9 days now, and not showing any symptoms yet. In another 5 days or so I should know if I'm in the clear or not.

Mom with her grandson, Chris, and her great-granddaughter who came to visit recently.

My Mom, who is 95, with underlying health issues, and in assisted living, is in the highest risk group.

Mom's assisted living facility is taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, not allowing any visitors (including family), testing all staff each day for signs of illness to the best of their ability, and carefully controlling deliveries and such to keep the residents as safe as possible. Mom is handling it pretty well, but it is a very stressful time for both of us.

Washington State is going through a sobering planning exercise right now on how to triage who gets treatment and who doesn't if the hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

As an over 60 retired scientist and current audio writer, I'm not exactly at the top of the list for saving should everything go south, so I am being as cautious as I can.

Let me repeat that if at all possible, you should STAY HOME to lower risk for yourself and others.

Where I live there is way too much of the local populace behaving foolishly, going about as if there's no pandemic.

People here are lining up nose-to-neck at grocery stores, gun stores, marijuana stores, to buy takeout food, taking children to playgrounds and parks, playing tennis, out for walks and hikes, going on bicycle rides, etc., acting like they are on holiday and rapidly spreading COVID-19 among themselves, which will impact even those of us behaving responsibly. 

It looks like a scene from Georges Seurat's “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” around here.

I am really alarmed at my fellow citizens behavior, and am hoping Washington State Governor Inslee joins California and New York in a lock down to protect us from these kind of idiots.

By their behavior they are putting themselves and others, friends of mine, and my family, at much greater risk than is necessary.

Current studies show that social distancing is not enough to contain the pandemic and flatten the curve, that 6 foot separation is not enough, so STAY HOME and help everyone out!

Well what do you do when you're in home-isolation?

I practice my guitar, listen to music, read, write, watch video, play hifi equipment games, etc.

So for me that is not too different than usual, expect for not being able to go out and get the exercise I like to weave into my life, or travel, or ... lots of things have fallen by the wayside I guess.

Now onto audio and music. 

I've really been enjoying listening to music with the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono Signature integrated amplifier and the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player through my Duelund-ized "Stokowski" Altec's. 

The fact that these are both entry level pieces in the Audio Note (UK) product lines is equally impressive, as they're very high performing regardless of taking price into consideration.

Everything sounds so real and musical, whether I am listening to LPs, CDs, or streaming digital, this system makes it a true pleasure to listen to music with. 

People quarrel & quibble about what the highest quality source material for audio is ... analog, digital, yadda, yadda.

From what I've heard personally, I would say the hierarchy is R2R tape, then LPs, then maybe FM, and then various digital formats.

Personally, for me it is not about what the "best" medium for source material is, but rather I want to be able to listen to any kind of source material I have and have it sound like "real" music, instead of some artificially synthetic and stylized audiophile-style of sound, that sounds little like "real" music.

So rather than focusing on the "best" medium, I focus on getting the "best" out of whatever medium I want to listen to, which I think is a good strategy for a lot of people. 

I'll never invest in R2R tape sources as it's such an expensive medium, unless you were into it early on (I wasn't), but I sure do like the way my turntables make LPs sound like "real" music.

I also really like what my Mhdt Laboratory Havana USB DAC does for making streaming music sound so "real" and engaging. The Jazz24 station out of Seattle is mesmerizing with the Havana.

The Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II Level Two Red Book CD player makes Red Book CDs sound like "real" music too, and I have been having a ball listening to my Red Book CD collection, a lot of which I haven't listened to in a decade or more. 

So that's what audio is about for me, finding equipment that makes listening to music fun, and getting a good slice of the "best" out of any given source medium in terms of sounding and feeling like live music. 

I apologize, as I've stalled out on writing my feature review of the Audio Note (UK) Oto Phono Signature integrated amplifier for Positive Feedback. 

I've got most of it written, but not the final listening impressions. No excuses, as it mostly due to a motivational malaise that has overtaken me as a result of what is going on with the COVID-19 pandemic here and figuring out how to best deal with it.

I haven't even picked up my guitar yet today, and it's after 5pm, which just never happens. Usually I'm practicing my guitar by about 8am. 

Peter is also working up some information for me about how he got into audio, and the history of Audio Note (UK), but I know he's dealing with impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well, so he's been delayed getting something together for me to put into the feature review.

I'm really looking forward to reading Peter's writeup, as he's such a fascinating fellow. Soon as I get Peter's writeup, that should kick me into gear, get me going on my final listening impressions, so we can get the feature review published at Positive Feedback. 

I've got to say I've never enjoyed a pair of loudspeakers the way I have enjoyed the Duelund-Altec Project "Stokowski" Altec's for listening to music.

Vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre based audio-visual system.

My vintage Altec A5's are awesome in my video system, but can't match the "Stokowski" Altec's for listening to music. I guess I'm lucky I don't have to choose between them. 

The "Stokowski" Altec's sound so "real" and dynamic, they have tons of natural presence, realistic scale, beautiful tonality with their Duelund CAST tinned-copper crossovers, and they just seem to bring out the best in every piece of equipment I pair with them. 

These are the sort of loudspeakers you can listen to all day long and never grow tired of, which is a good thing, because I'm going to be spending a lot of time with them in home-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The "Stokowski" Altec's have only one down side, which is that all of you don't have a pair of them to listen to too, because I know it would change your musical and audio life if you did. 

Ok, well, I think that's enough for now to let you know what's going on here, I think its time for cocktail hour!

Please, all of you stay safe and be well - stay home if you can - as I want to keep interacting with you in the years to come.

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