Godspeed Ed Sheftel
I am sorry to report that I was just informed by Bob Reite that trumpeter extraordinaire, Ed Sheftel, passed away on Tuesday. Many of you will recognize Ed's name from the 6Moons articles I wrote back when Ed introduced the work of Tom Evans to US music enthusiasts. Ed had just recently told me how... Read More »
More thoughts on the RCA 6LCGC Black Plate and GE 6L6GC Grey Plate Vacuum Tubes
In my last post I talked about my growing awe for the Duelund Silver CAST 6.8uF capacitors, and my first reaction after a quick listen to the NOS RCA 6LCGC Black Plates (below right) that my buddy Leo brought over and the GE 6L6GC Grey Plates (below left) that came in my McIntosh MC30 mono amplifiers that I bought... Read More »
Breaking News: Duelund Silver CAST Transformers for Tannoys Are Almost Ready!
I have a breaking news report to share with you: I just got an email from Frederik Carøe in Denmark and he has some very special and exciting news for Tannoy enthusiasts! Frederik is building the first set of Duelund CAST Silver Transformers for Tannoy crossovers right now and they are almost ready! (That's the Duelund Silver CAST 6.8uF capacitors above... Read More »
Duelund Silver CAST Caps, NOS RCA Black Plate 6L6GCs, New Vinyl, Vintage Vinyl, and Other Stuff
Last Sunday George, Leo, Ron, and myself had a blast listening to music, drinking some fine wines, and munching down on pizza. I mentioned how impressed we were with Ron's pristine vintage H.H. Scott stereomaster integrated vacuum tube amplifier on the big Tannoy Westminster Royal SEs ... ... but something I hadn't mentioned, and wanted to... Read More »
Another Vintage Sunday at Jeff's Place: The H.H. Scott stereomaster
It was another fine vintage Sunday at Jeff's Place with Ron bringing over his beautiful example of the H.H. Scott stereomaster vacuum tube integrated amplifier from his vintage collection. Ron, Leo, George and I had a ball listening to music as usual! Food, good wine, good music, and friends makes for a great Sunday of... Read More »
Panicos Checking In: News from New Valve Order
Most of you remember me writing about Panikos Kontemeniotis, the music lover & hi-fi aficionado - a man of superb taste in many things - who happens to be the exporter of the New Valve Order designs of talented fine audio constructeur, Andreas Hadjiminas, working out of Nicosia, Cyprus. Panicos sent me a note telling me... Read More »
Frank Rodgers Checking In: Track Audio Isolation Feet for the Duelund-WRSE
Frank Rodgers, fellow Tannoy Westminster Royal SE enthusiast like yours truly, and with Duelund external crossovers too (!) just sent me a message to tell me about his latest discovery: Track Audio Isolation Feet. I haven't tried them myself yet, but given that Frank has particularly good taste in audio, I thought it was important... Read More »
Jim Smith Checking In: The Duelund-Canterbury Crossover Project
Jim Smith just checked in and told me he's now finished with building and installing the Duelund external crossovers for his Tannoy Canterbury loudspeakers. Jim told me his "Canterburys are singing like never before." Below is a photo of Jim's audio system just before installing the Duelund external crossovers. Man, this is so awesome, Jim!... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The Soundcoat Company
A while back I made a post about The Soundcoat Company who has been providing specialized noise control solutions for aerospace, medical, and industrial applications since 1963. Steven Klein at Sounds of Silence had told me about how effective their GPDS damping sheets were when he applied the .070 GPDS vibration damping material to strategic locations within the chassis and external... Read More »
Dr. Paul Mills on 'The History of Tannoy and the New 'Prestige Gold Reference''
Here's a real treat: a video of Dr. Paul Mills talking about 'The History of Tannoy and the new 'Prestige Gold Reference''. Watch the video HERE. Enjoy!
Winter, Duelund, and Vintage Crown Jewels!
It's officially Winter in North America, with snow and cold temperatures the norm, particularly in the Northeast! Fellow Duelund-WRSE Project adventurer, Frank, just sent me a couple of chilly looking photos. The first is the view from Frank's listening room (below) ... ... and the second is looking out from his loft over the fishing... Read More »
2013 in Review, Secret Insights, and a Look Behind the Veil of 2014! (part 2)
Yesterday evening I wrote myself into a state of burnout, so for therapy I spent the rest of the evening listening to music for pleasure, drank a cup of good Ethiopian coffee with its 'citrus & dark cocoa' flavor tones to help keep my ears open, and then finally had a glass of a nice... Read More »
2013 in Review, Secret Insights, and a Look Behind the Veil of 2014!
The end of 2013 is arriving rapidly and 2014 will be on us in no time! I thought it would be fun to take a look back at 2013's notable moments and to take a look behind the veil of 2014 to see what might be waiting. First up are those treasures that I wrote... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project: Part 5 – Listening and Conclusions!
It's Christmas morning here in the Americas. I've got a fire burning in the fireplace, a hot cup of good coffee in my hand, and I've got Northwest Public Radio playing a lot of really great Christmas themed material today through my vintage McIntosh MX110Z's vacuum tube tuner. Heaven. At the moment NPR is playing... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch - I'm not really sure what to think of this - 78 RPM Record Coasters.
I was browsing through a recent Orvis catalog and I ran across these 78 RPM record coasters. The Orvis website says "During the 1950s, 78 rpm records dominated the sonic landscape. Re-live the golden age of the 78s with these repurposed vinyl record coasters. Cut from vintage 78s, laminated, and backed with felt, these are... Read More »
The 10th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2013 - The Best of the Best!
For the complete 10th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2013 click here. As an excerpt, here's my Awards for 2013: It is time once again for the Annual Positive Feedback Online's Writers' Choice Awards, which means that it is time once again for yours truly to sift through my past year of reviews... Read More »
First Listening Impressions of the Silver Duelund CAST Capacitors - Wow!
The Duelund-Westminster Special Edition (SE) external crossover project was a rousing success, and you can read about its step-by-step progression by following the links in the Review Archives here ... ... or you can cut to the chase and read the final feature article I wrote about it for Positive Feedback Online here. For those of... Read More »
Duelund Silver CAST Capacitors are in the Duelund-WRSE Crossovers!
As I mentioned in the Today's Fresh Catch post about the Duelund CAST Silver Capacitors (here), Frederik made up a pair of 6.8 uF Duelund CAST Silver capacitors (below) for me to give a listen to in the C1 position of the Duelund-Westminster Royal SE high-frequency crossover. As you can see in the photo of the... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: Duelund CAST Silver Capacitors!
As I mentioned in my Sneak Peek a little while back, Frederik Carøe, the founder of Duelund Coherent Audio, was building up a set of his exotic Duelund Coherent Audio CAST Silver Capacitors for me to try in the Duelund-Westminster Royal SE High-Frequency Crossover! Well, today they arrived - talk about an exciting development! I was... Read More »
Sneak Peek: The Making of Duelund CAST Silver Capacitors!
A little while back Frederik Carøe - the founder of Duelund Coherent Audio - asked me if I would like to try a set of his exotic Duelund Coherent Audio CAST Silver Capacitors in the Duelund-Westminster Royal SE High-Frequency Crossover, and of course I said yes! Frederik asked me which of the capacitor positions in the... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project: Part 4 – Rewiring the WRSE Loudspeaker
As I've promised in earlier posts, I’m archiving the Duelund-Westminster External Crossover article here at Jeff’s Place so you can find everything in one place for reference purposes (Part 1 - Intro, Part 2 - Breadboarding, Part 3 - Final Design). The full version of the article was just published in Issue 70 of Positive... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: Channel D 'Pure Music' High Resolution Music Server Software
I'm currently working hard on writing the review of the Mhdt Labs Stockholm V2 vacuum tube USB DAC (below). For a digital front end I am using my iMac with the new Mavericks OS and iTunes, which I've loaded around 900 to 1000 CDs at full resolution onto. I really wanted to make sure I... Read More »
Sunday Afternoon at Jeff's Place
On Sunday afternoon Ron (center) and Leo (left) joined me for a fine day of hi-fi fun and games, and as usual we had a ball! (Sorry for the blurry photo. Note to self: remember to use the correct camera setting next time!) After a lunch of a combo pizza and a few glasses of... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project: Part 3 – The Final Version of the Duelund CAST External Crossovers
As I promised in earlier posts , I'm archiving the Duelund-Westminster External Crossover article here at Jeff's Place for reference purposes (Part 1, Part 2). The full version of the article was just published in Issue 70 of Positive Feedback Online here so be sure to check it out if you haven't already. Here is the next installment... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The Soundcoat Company GPDS Damping Sheets
The Soundcoat Company has been providing specialized noise control solutions for aerospace, medical, and industrial applications since 1963. I first became aware of The Soundcoat Company through Steven Klein at Sounds of Silence (who imports the New Valve Order Audio electronics to North America), when he told me about the superb results he experienced through applying .070 GPDS vibration damping material... Read More »
Hi-Fi Road Trip: George's Place
It's always a lot of fun to gather together with friends for a little Hi-Fi listening, and Leo, Ron, and myself had a blast visiting George's Place for a little Hi-Fi fun and games. That's George's system below, with Leo, George, and Ron, left to right. Here's a description of George's system starting with the... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster Project is Live on Positive Feedback Online!
The Duelund-Westminster Project is live on Positive Feedback Online in Issue 70! As I mentioned in an earlier post, the article is huge with over 40 pages of text and 137 photographs. Editor Dave decided to break it up into two parts to make it a little more manageable to read on the website, and... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project: Part 2 – Breadboarding the Duelund Crossovers
The full Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project article has been submitted to the Ye Olde Editors Dave and David of Positive Feedback Online for publication in the November 2013 issue next week. The article is 41 pages long and includes 137 photographs - it is a doozy! As I mentioned in my Part 1 sneak peak,... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: Vintage Johnny Smith 'Phase II' LP on Verve
Today's Fresh Catch is a vintage Johnny Smith Phase II LP on the Verve label that my buddy Leo picked up for me while cruising the record stores - thank you Leo! Wait until you hear it on the Westminsters, Leo, it'll blow your mind - it is an awesome album! I'm sitting here listening... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: Antonio Vivaldi - Le Quattro Stagioni on AudioNautes Recordings
The Acoustic Sounds website says this recording of Antonio Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni with Giuliano Carmignola on violin is one of the 10 best recordings of the last century, and after listening to it tonight I don't doubt it. Here's a formula for success: pick one of the 10 greatest recordings of the past century,... Read More »
The Week In Review and a Look Ahead! McIntosh, FM, Duelund, and Vinyl
This has been quite an eventful week (and weekend!). Yesterday the the restored vintage mint+ McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier that I purchased from vintage vacuum-tube specialists Tom Manley & Terry DeWick in Knoxville, Tennessee, arrived. The MX110Z was in pristine condition (mint+ actually) and needed hardly any restoration, with only a few internal components needing to be... Read More »
The Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project: Part 1 - An Introduction
I'm working hard writing the Duelund-Westminster External Crossover Project article for Positive Feedback Online right now. I can't even begin to guess how many hours I've got into this project between doing the project and writing about it - a lot - and I've enjoyed every minute of it! I thought it would be fun... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: McIntosh MX110Z Tuner-Preamplifier
Today's Fresh Catch is the restored vintage mint+ McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier that I purchased from vintage vacuum-tube specialist Tom Manley at McIntosh Audio, and was restored by Terry DeWick in Knoxville, Tennessee. The MX110Z is a beauty for sure! Here's a left side view: Here's the other side ... Here's a top-front view ... I haven't... Read More »
Today’s Fresh Catch: The Oyaide R-0 High-Performance AC Receptacle
As I've posted a couple of times recently (1, 2, 3), that while I was writing the Acoustic Revive Chronicles Chapter 10 article for Positive Feedback Online, I was very pleasantly surprised by what a tremendous performance enhancement - both musically & sonically - the Acoustic Revive modified Oyaide R-1 AC receptacles (below) were in my... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: My *New* Restored Vintage McIntosh MC30s Arrive
FedEx delivered the set of my 'new' restored vintage McIntosh MC30s mono amplifiers today that I purchased from Yves Beauvais at Vintage Vacuum Audio after hearing my friend Leo's MC30s that impressed me so much. I unpacked the Mac's and set them up in the system with my Westminster Royal Duelund Special Edition loudspeakers, and put... Read More »
The Music Awards!
I started my listening this evening with the 45 RPM version of the Shelly Manne & Bill Evans album Empathy from Analogue Productions and I've just been blown away. Certainly a lot of the credit goes to this wonderful album, Empathy, which I've reported on before, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention... Read More »
