Happy Holidays! Triode Lab 45 EVO tube rolling, 2023 Writers' Choice Awards, and other stuff!

Greetings friends, and Happy Holidays to you! I hope you are all doing great this Holiday Season. 🙂 Here in the Pacific Northwest of the USA we've been inundated with rain from the atmospheric river that is dumping on us, with record levels of rain - estimated at 10 trillion gallons over the last week... Read More »

Positive Feedback Review Sneak Peek: Sexy Blue Tubes - The New Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B Rectifier!

The feature review of the new Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B rectifier is now live at Positive Feedback HERE. Enjoy!  As is my custom, I like to give the readers of Jeff's Place a preview of upcoming articles for Positive Feedback, which in this case is the new Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B rectifier.  The... Read More »

More musings about music listening, equalization, audio fun and games, and other stuff!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well!  Audio has many facets, and as such context in audio is important. If you just grab snippets of audio writer’s articles out of context, and then try to apply them to a different context, chances are you’ll be confused.  Recording engineers see audio through one knothole. Audiophiles... Read More »

Jeff checking in: "Hello, goodbye" with Audio Note (UK); and more (updated)!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well! I was just telling my Facebook pals about the weird Fall weather we have been having here in the Pacific Northwest. For a while we were about 10F warmer than average, which made it really nice for getting out on the bicycle or motorcycle for Fall rides. ... Read More »

Music and musings, equalization, audio fun and games, and other stuff!

Greetings friends, I hope life is treating you well! I'm still motorbiking around, bicycling around, doing a light weight lifting routine to slow the decline of strength with age, and of course, still having a ball with music & hi-fi. All good things in my book.  Overall it's been a great year all around for... Read More »

Jeff checking in ... Duelund DCA10GA, Belden 8402 ICs, Sophia Electric 274B, Audio Note (UK), 78 record transfers, and other stuff!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing great! I'll start with the "other stuff" first, which is about my likely last multi-day motorbike ride of 2023 as the inclement Fall weather arrives - which officially signals the start of the indoor audio season!  For those interested in audio only you can scroll down the page... Read More »

First listen: Duelund DCA10GA Sn-Cu speaker cables!

After reading Mark's comments in Disqus about his positive experiences with the Duelund Coherent Audio DCA10GA tinned-copper speaker cables, I've been keen on giving them a listen.  If you are new to the idea of the vintage "art of tone" inspired Duelund product line of tinned-copper loudspeaker cables, you might want to read through my... Read More »

Jeff checking in ... new-old music, Sophia Electric 274B, Duelund DCA10GA, Audio Note (UK), and other stuff!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well! Fall has fallen here at home, with temperatures dropping, inclement weather settling in, sweaters coming out of the closet, hot toddies in the mugs ... which all signal one thing - the start of the Holiday Audio Season - cheers!  It also signals that I'll be getting... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch: Duelund DCA10GA tinned-copper cable!

Greetings, friends, I hope you are doing well! About a month ago on Positive Feedback's Disqus comment service, Mark asked me what I thought of the new Duelund DCA10GA tinned-copper cable. I sheepishly told Mark that I didn't even know there was a new DCA10GA version of Duelund's popular tinned-copper cable product line, but to... Read More »

Adventures in Real Sound with Yazaki-san: Alan-san’s GEC PX25A (DA30) Monaural SET’s - Part 6

Greetings friends! Today I have a real treat for you, the latest installment of Adventures in Real Sound with Yazaki-san: Alan-san’s GEC PX25A (DA30) Monaural SET’s - Part 6.  For those who haven't read the first five articles in Yazaki-san's series and want to catch-up, here are the links: Adventures in Real Sound with Yazaki-san:... Read More »

Jeff checking in ... back in the saddle, Audio Note (UK), Duelund Coherent Audio, Sophia Electric, and more!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well! I'm starting to feel better now, and am back in the saddle after recovering from a recent surgery. The surgery turned out to be more of an ordeal than I was expecting, so my ability to write was impacted, causing delays for all the cool hifi kit... Read More »

2023 Pacific Audio Fest follow-up: Analog Audio Design TP-1000 R2R

As I mentioned in my PAF 2023 reporting, "One of the things that really impressed me in the Genesis room was the new Analog Audio Design TP-1000 R2R machine, capable of both recording and playback, that is being imported by Brian Tucker of Pro Audio Ltd."  "One of the cool things about the Analog Audio... Read More »

High-fidelity and other musings …

Greetings friends, I hope you are well! Update: Just a heads up that the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x CD player full feature review for Positive Feedback will be running a little late. I had to go in for Mohs surgery, and it turned out to be a little more extensive than expected, so I’m... Read More »

Positive Feedback Review Sneak Peek: The Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD Player - Unicorn Sighting!

The full feature review of the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player is now live on Positive Feedback HERE. Greeting friends, I hope you are doing well! As is my custom, I like to share a sneak peek into my upcoming feature reviews for Positive Feedback with all of you here at... Read More »

Richard gives us a tour of his new Sophia Electric 'Aqua II' 274B rectifier! Now with a postscript of listening observations.

As soon as I put Richard's new Aqua II 274B rectifier in the Triode Lab EVO 45 SET amp I knew something special was going on. Fresh out the box the Aqua II 274B sounded gorgeous: beautifully natural tone, a huge sense of recorded acoustic, gorgeous tone color, a vivid sense of imaging presence, and... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch: The Sophia Electric 'Aqua II' 274B - hooray!

A lot of us tubeaholics have been sweating bullets about the unavailability of vacuum tubes coming out of China and Russia due to covid pandemic induced factory shutdowns, supply chain issues, and trade restrictions (Russia).  We've all been hoping that everything would get sorted out and vacuum tubes would start to flow again before the... Read More »

2023 Pacific Audio Fest: Musings, meditations, observations, and random thoughts! Parts 1, 2, 3, 4

The 2023 Pacific Audio Fest is a wrap! It was a fun time for catching up with friends and colleagues, and of course you, dear readers. It was nice to see Doc Robinson at PAF 2023. I really had a nice time catching up with Positive Feedback Managing Editors Dave & Carol Clark during PAF.... Read More »

2023 Pacific Audio Fest: The debut of the Klaudio Magnezar turntable!

Announcement of the debut of the new Klaudio Magnezar turntable at the 2023 Pacific Audio Fest:  Hello, I hope this email finds you well. My name is Peter Park, writing to you on behalf of Klaudio, a world renowned designer and manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. We are thrilled to announce the grand debut of... Read More »

2023 Pacific Audio Fest: Hear the $680,000 Genesis Prime+ loudspeaker system!

The 2023 Pacific Audio Fest is coming up fast - its next week in Seattle! Washington state company Genesis Advanced Technologies will have their $680,000 USD Prime+ loudspeaker system (above) available for Fest goers to hear in the Cascade 9 room. At the 2022 Pacific Audio Fest the Genesis room was one of the highlights... Read More »

Attend the Pacific Audio Fest 2023 in Seattle June 23 - 25! Part 2.

Red alert! The 2023 Pacific Audio Fest is only a couple of weeks away. If you haven't already, it is time to get those tickets, rooms, and flights reserved!  To read Part 1 click HERE.  The Fest hours are Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday... Read More »

Musings about vintage Altec loudspeakers, SET amplifiers, and vinyl & digital sources!

I've had a long time passion for vintage Altec loudspeakers. At the moment I own three pairs: A pair of Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers in my audio-video system, a pair of Altec 832A Corona corner loudspeakers in my bedroom system, and the custom Altec loudspeakers that were built for conductor Leopold Stokowski... Read More »

Attend the Pacific Audio Fest 2023 in Seattle June 23 - 25! Part 1.

In 2023, post-pandemic life is pretty much back to normal in terms of social gatherings, and I think we are all really happy to get back to doing the things we enjoy, like attending an audio fest or a live concert performance.  For those of us living in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, the... Read More »

Listening to Ellington Indigos on vinyl and CD with the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x and Io I MC & silver AN-S4 SUT!

I'm a huge fan of Duke Ellington's music. One of my Duke favorites is Ellington Indigos, which is one of those albums I just never seem to tire of listening to.  Ellington Indigos was originally released in 1958 as a mono LP (CL 1085), a stereo LP (CS 8053), and as a 7 1/2 ips reel-to-reel (GCB 18),... Read More »

Embrace your inner audiophile nerd: Bob Sharples and His Orchestra!

It just sort of fell into my hands while I was looking at CDs in my collection to play through the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x CD player, Triode Lab 45 EVO SET integrated amp, and Duelund-ized Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers combination of hi-fi kit. Bob Sharples' Contrasts in Hi-Fi and Bob Sharples and His... Read More »

Jeff Checking In: Vespers martini, CDs, vinyl, Audio Note (UK), Duelund, Altecs, Westminsters, and Triode Lab!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well!  I've been enjoying the improving springtime weather here. Like the last few years, this could to turn out to be an extra-hot year, as we were within 1 degree of the hottest temperature on record here for this time of year just a few days ago.  That... Read More »

Jeff checking in: The Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player!

Years ago I had written off CDs as a worthy software format for high-fidelity music listening. Boy, was I wrong about that one. It has turned out that a high-fidelity CD player is an indispensable source for me, and it compliments my listening to LPs in ways I would have never imagined possible, back when... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch: Audio Note (UK) Silver AN-V RCA & XLR "Nitro-Boost" Interconnects!

Many thanks to Darko Greguras - Audio Note (UK)'s digital designer extraordinaire - for suggesting I try Audio Note (UK) AN-V silver interconnects in two termination configurations with the $30,850 USD Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player that is in for review. Darko recommends these AN-V silver interconnects for use with CD... Read More »

Positive Feedback Review Sneak Peek: The Mactone XX-440 Line Preamplifier and MH-120 Stereo Amplifier - Adventures in Max-tone!

The full feature review of the Mactone XX-440 line preamplifier and MH-120 stereo amplifier has now been published at Positive Feedback, and you can read it HERE.   As is my custom, I like to give you a 'review sneak peek' into my soon to be published feature articles for Positive Feedback.  This time the feature... Read More »

Jeff checking in: Mactone, Audio Note (UK), Quality Record Pressings, and more!

Greetings friends, I hope you are doing well, and your 2023 is off to a great start! I'm in the midst of listening sessions of, and writing my feature review for Positive Feedback about, the Mactone XX-440 line preamplifier (above), and the Mactone MH-120 stereo amplifier (below). I've taken to calling the Mactone combo "Max-tone"... Read More »

The nanny state is taking away your freedom to listen to loud music!

The nanny state is taking away your freedom to listen to loud music!  Huh? What? What did you say? The World Health Organization has launched a global standard for safe listening at venues and events that is worth reading (HERE), and in response numerous countries around the world are putting in place legislation that sets legal... Read More »

Inside the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player!

Its no secret that the Audio Note (UK) Red Book CD players have challenged my perceptions of what a digital audio reality sounds like, with their analog-like presentation, superb musicality, and exemplary sound quality from Red Book CDs. But that's only part of the Audio Note (UK) CD players allure for me, as where they really... Read More »

First Listen: Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player!

Greetings friends, I hope your 2023 is off to a great start! My own 2023 has started off with a bang, as I've been listening to some impressive audio components that are in for review, like the Audio Note (UK) 5.1x Red Book CD player that is the subject of this post. I always like... Read More »

Inside the Mactone XX-440 preamp and MH-120 amp!

Fellow Tannoy owners will want to take note that the Mactone XX-440 preamplifier and MH-120 amplifier are an exceptional pairing with my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers. At times, the big Westminsters can be a bit fussy about associated components, due to the revealing nature of the 15-inch Tannoy Dual Concentric's horn-loaded tweeter, that is... Read More »

Today's Fresh Catch: The Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player!

If you read my Positive Feedback review of the Audio Note (UK) CD 4.1x Red Book CD player (HERE) you know I was really impressed by its musical and sonic charms. More than that, exposure to the Audio Note (UK) CD 2.1x/II and CD 4.1x Red Book CD players actually changed my life in very positive ways,... Read More »

First Listen: Impressions of the Mactone XX-440 preamp and MH-120 amp!

The Mactone XX-440 preamp and MH-120 amp that Steve Mishoe (In Living Stereo) sent to me were well run-in prior to their arrival, so I had the luxury of not having to do the run-in of them myself. Just a few days of playing music with the Mactone components was all that was needed on... Read More »

The Mactone family: Introducing Kenjiro Matsumoto, son Teiichi, and grandson Daichi!

High-fidelity audio components are often much more than just products to be bought and enjoyed by us hi-fi enthusiasts. Often these high-fidelity components represent the embodiment of a passionate vision for audio reproduction that are both works of audio art as well innovative audio engineering accomplishments.  I'm always fascinated by the background stories of the... Read More »