A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

The snow is really coming down right now, so it's a classic White Christmas here in Washington State.

I'm bringing my Mom over to share Christmas with, have a nice Christmas dinner together, sip a hot toddy, and listen to some jazz!

For me it's not only the new year of 2018, but the start of a new life as a pensioner, and I am looking forward to it!

While working my day job as a physical scientist, I came to the end of every day and I would think of all the things I wanted to get done, but that just didn't make it to the top of the to-do list.

For example, I've wanted to do a vegetable and herb garden for a quite a while now.

I've also wanted to get my house in order, literally, by doing a little cleaning and painting, and getting the yard fixed up nicer.

You never know, Jeff's Place might be moving to a new city next year!

Gibson Advanced Jumbo (left), Collings OM2C (middle), and Collings Waterloo WL-14L (right).

I've wanted to travel more, play my guitars more, ride my bicycles more, and get to the gym more too.

I've got audio projects that I've been thinking about, but haven't had time to get to.

I've been wanting to rewire my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers internally with Duelund DCA20GA for the high-frequencies, and DCA12GA for the low-frequencies.

It's been getting a bit crowded in the living room of late, so I've also been thinking about how I might go about installing my Duelund Coherent Audio CAST external crossovers internally into my Westminster's to free up some floor space, and to give me some more placement options.

Stokowski A7 Voice of the Theatre loudspeaker.

Another project I've been thinking about is building some Hiraga-style crossovers for my Altec A7 loudspeakers that were previously owned by famed conductor, Leopold Stokowski.

Given the historic nature of these custom Altec A7 loudspeakers I will not modify them at all, but rather will just build some crossovers which will sit on the internal shelf behind the Altec 804A 16-Ohm compression drivers & 511B horns, along with some new internal wiring.

I've had the Leben CS-600 integrated amplifier, along with its matching RS-30EQ phono equalizer, longer than any other equipment I have.

I bought the Leben CS-600 after I finished reviewing it for 6Moons back in February of 2007, and I've enjoyed having it in my life every single day.

Leben RS-30EQ phono equalizer from Japan posing with my now long gone Leica MP & 35mm Summicron camera from Germany

I've been wanting to do a long term retrospective review of the CS-600 & RS-30EQ for a while now, which I think would be a lot of fun.

I've also been thinking it might be fun after a retrospective review, to substitute a few key capacitors and resistors in a voicing adventure.

A pair of monaural McIntosh Model C-8 Professional Audio Compensators.

I read where the original principals at McIntosh thought that the monaural McIntosh C-8 Professional Audio Compensators, produced from 1955 to 1959, were the finest phono preamplifier that McIntosh ever produced, which of course intrigues me greatly, enough so that I bought a pair a year ago.

I've wanted to get my C-8s up and running ever since I bought them, but if you can believe it, I haven't even had a chance to plug them in yet!

I'm working on finishing up the Positive Feedback review of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge, and hope to have all the writing done in the next few weeks - it'll be my first review of 2018!

Also, Guy says he's got some other Audio MusiKraft adventures in mind for me in 2018, so we'll see what the new year brings!

I've also been slowly adding albums to my music section, and hope to get a lot more albums listed in the coming year.

I'll be doing reviews of select equipment in 2018 as well, and there's some exciting reviews to come!

I've also been thinking it would be fun to venture out and visit some Pacific Northwest hifi shops & record stores in 2018 and tell you about them, so be sure to let me know your favorites!

From my home to yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

As always, thanks for stopping by and joining me in my adventures, and may the tone be with you!