Today's Fresh Catch: High-Performance AC Receptacles from Acoustic Revive, cruzeFIRST Audio, and Oyaide
I just finished up writing Chapter 10 of The Acoustic Revive Chronicles and submitted it to the ye olde Editors Dave & David of Positive Feedback Online for publication in the very near future. I always have had fun writing about the products from Acoustic Revive, and Chapter 10 was no exception. In fact a... Read More »
The Week in Review and a Look Ahead: Vintage Gear, Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles, NVO SPA one, and more!
Hi everyone! I hope you're having a nice weekend! I was out of commission part of this week as a victim of a stomach bug that's been going around, so you could say this week is ending a lot better than it started. Last weekend was an awesome vintage weekend of listening to Ron’s quad of... Read More »
Another Vintage Sunday at Jeff's Place: Crown, Marantz, McIntosh, Vacuum Tubes, and Music!
It was an awesome Sunday of fun and games listening to vintage Hi-Fi gear here at Jeff's Place. On the menu was a fine selection of vintage vacuum tubes for a little tube rolling in the McIntosh MC240, a Crown 800 professional portable reel-to-reel deck, a beautiful Marantz 8 stereo amplifier, and some mighty fine... Read More »
DIY: Binding Post Bypass Adapters for the McIntosh MC240
Yesterday I posted in Today's Fresh Catch about the spade terminal adapters for vintage McIntosh amplifiers with terminal strips that I found and purchased on eBay. While the price was right at slightly less than $10 USD, the performance and design of the adapters was not really up to what I wanted for use with... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: Spade Terminal Adapter for Vintage McIntosh Amplifiers
Since I bought my 50 year old vintage McIntosh MC240 amplifier I've been thinking about how best to connect speaker cables to it. Given that the Macs back then used terminal strips instead of binding posts, it's a bit of a challenge to attach modern speaker cables like the bi-wire Panatela for Tannoy Westminster Royal... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The Philips 7027-A Vacuum Tube
While I was shopping for a vintage McIntosh MC240 amplifier, I asked Jim McShane for some 6L6GC tube recommendations, and Jim told me that his all-time favorite 6L6GC vacuum tube is "the JAN Philips 7581A - a remarkable tube!" Jim also went on to tell me there are a lot of really good current production... Read More »
The Week In Review and A Look Ahead: Acoustic Revive, Duelund & Tannoy, and Vintage McIntosh!
Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles This weekend I am hard at work writing Chapter 10 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles. As many of you know, I really love the Acoustic Revive audio accessories that are designed and manufactured by Mr. Ken Ishiguro in Japan. If you’ve looked closely at the photos in my... Read More »
Chad's 'Seattle Through The Back Door' Bicycle Tour
Those of you who are familiar with Rick Steves' Europe Through The Back Door probably picked up on my little play on words. Rick's place is located just a little North of Seattle in Edmonds, and I've really enjoyed my trips with Rick Steves' tours. Over the 4th of July weekend I spent three days... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The McIntosh MC240 Stereo Power Amplifier, My 'New' Vintage Reference
I just got home from a terrific bicycle tour of the Seattle area led by my friend Chad (below). We covered over a hundred miles and saw lots of amazing sites, drank some awesome microbrew beers, and ate some incredible food. (A travel post shall follow shortly) Waiting for me when I got home was... Read More »
Now Live at Positive Feedback Online! Survey of the Sablon Audio Corona Family of Power Cables
My survey article of the Sablon Audio Corona family of power cables, designed by Mark Coles, is now live in the new issue of Positive Feedback Online, Issue 68, here. Here's a few snippets from the article: "I think its pretty cool that Mark practices the philosophy of continuous improvement for his cable products. You... Read More »
Frank Checking In From Canada: The Duelund-WRSE Project
The Duelund-WRSE Project has been truly exciting, both in working through developing the external Duelund crossovers, and also hearing from those of you who are working on your own projects. Frank just finished up his Duelund-WRSE Project, took some great photos, and wrote it all up to share with all of us. Thank you Frank!... Read More »
New Valve Order News: SPA-II Phono Equalizer Featured in July 2013 Issue of Stereophile and More!
I just got home from a 26 mile bicycle ride and walked down to my mailbox, and there waiting for me was the July 2013 issue of Stereophile. As I thumbed through the issue I was delighted to see that Michael Fremer wrote about the New Valve Order SPA-II phono equalizer that is being imported to... Read More »
Coming Reviews and Other Stuff
Here’s what’s in my current review queue and what you can expect to see reviewed at Positive Feedback Online in the future. The last reviews to be finished up were of the wonderful ASR Basis Exclusive phono equalizer and ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier (above). I'm still in withdrawal after their departure - wonderful... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: Sablon Audio Panatela WRSE Internal Wiring – Part 2
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, I got back from Idaho yesterday afternoon where I had joined with my family to celebrate my Dad's 90th birthday! It was awesome! After getting home I unboxed the Panatela WRSE internal wiring set that Mark Coles had sent for the Duelund-WRSE Project. This project has... Read More »
Happy 90th Birthday Dad!
I got in late afternoon from travel yesterday, where I'd been off visiting my Dad in Idaho for his 90th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! Cheers! My awesome sister-in-law, JoAnne, and my equally awesome nephews, Matt and Chris, made the journey to Idaho from around the US to help wish Dad (Grandpa Jack) a Happy 90th... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: Sablon Audio Panatela WRSE Internal Wiring - Part 1
I was excited to the see the package arrive from Mark Coles containing the custom internal Westminster Royal SE Sablon Audio Panatela wiring harness that Mark made for the Duelund-WRSE Project. These are the exact same custom Panatela Special Edition Component Speaker Cables that Mark optimized for the WRSEs with Paul Mills' input that I reviewed in... Read More »
The Duelund - WRSE Project: The Crossover Isolation Stands are Finished!
As I mentioned in my last progress report about the Duelund - Westminster Royal SE Project, my buddy Dave and I made some real progress putting the isolation bases together that the Duelund crossovers are mounted on. Dave brought in the finished frames to the office yesterday, I gave their newly lacquered finish time to... Read More »
It Was a Fine Vintage Amplifier Day Here at Jeff's Place
The last time Ron stopped by it was a real treat to listen to his vintage Harmon-Kardon Citation II and Citation V amplifiers, as well as his beautiful deHavilland 50A mono amps (new at the time). Man what a day we had listening to those fine amps! It was a Hi-Fi celebration! Harmon-Kardon Citation II... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The Sablon Audio Quantum Gran Corona Power Cord
Mark Coles of Sablon Audio fame has developed a new power cord in his Corona product line: the Quantum Gran Corona. Here's what Mark told me about the Quantum Gran Corona: With the quantum power cord, I have thrown every tweak I know at the existing Gran Corona design to create an ultimate statement cord.... Read More »
The Duelund - Westminster Royal SE Project: Progress!
Over the last couple of weekends I have made quite a bit of progress on the Duelund-WRSE Project. Last weekend my buddy Dave and I worked on the final chassis design for the outboard Duelund crossovers, and we went into Dave's woodworking shop to get the chassis started and made a lot of progress. As I... Read More »
The Music Scene: This one's for Mike!
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on my 1oth anniversary as an audio writer! I appreciate Mike's encouragement to write a little more about recordings too, because that's something I always intend to do, but the software scene seems to get away from me when I'm trying to keep up with the hardware scene!... Read More »
Panicos Checking in from Cyprus: New Valve Order News!
It's no secret that I really like the New Valve Order SPA-II phono equalizer and have been using it as my reference, and as I posted earlier, I have the new entry level SPA One in for review (below), and from what I'm hearing it promises to be something special as well. Panicos told me... Read More »
10-Year Anniversary Writing About Hi-Fi!
Today I added a Review Archives page to Jeff's Place in the top navigation bar as a resource for finding different articles I had written over the years. As I was putting together a list of links for the article archive I realized that it’s my 10 Year Anniversary writing about Hi-Fi! I started writing about Hi-Fi... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: Peavey Color Coded Microphone Tape
I just wanted to let you know about something handy I've run across: Peavey color coded microphone ID tape. The Peavey color coded microphone ID tape includes eight rolls of tape in different colors: yellow, blue, red, orange, brown, green, white, and silver. While the intention of the Peavey tape is to identify various stage... Read More »
The Duelund Westminster Royal SE Project: A Few Listening Notes & Next Steps
I've been listening to the breadboarded versions of the Duelund crossovers on the Westminster Royal SE's this week, in the evenings after I got home from the office, and man, what a revelation! I decided to take today off and get some more work done on Duelund-WRSE Project. Before getting started on what I need to... Read More »
Siedy Checking in from The Netherlands: The Sablon Audio Panatela, Gran Corona, and Petit Corona
If you've been following along you know that Siedy (photo below) has been a true inspiration for yours truly. If it wasn't for Siedy I would never have had the opportunity to try the superb ASR electronics that are hand-crafted by Friedrich Schaefer in Herborn, Germany. It was a wonderful experience writing about the ASR electronics... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: A Stereo Pair for Sunday
I just finished up installing the other Duelund crossover on the right Westminster Royal SE, so now I have a stereo pair up and running. Not bad progress for a weekends worth of work! I was able to improve the layout of the right channel pair of Duelund crossovers and make it quite a bit more... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: First Listening Impressions of the Duelund Crossover
I was chatting with Frederik Carøe in Denmark this morning by email while waking up with some nice hot coffee (medium roasted Kenya beans). I wanted to give Frederik an update on how things are going with the Duelund-WRSE Project, and ask Frederick for any suggestions he might have on improvements and such. I... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: A Fine Friday with Pete & Stephaen - Updated
Stephaen sent an early morning email: "I'm going to stop at the El Fat Cat Grill taco truck and get us lunch, and I'll meet you and Pete at your place at noon." While the El Fat Cat Grill is actually a taco truck, referring to it as 'taco truck' is like referring to the... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: Duelund Coherent Audio Silver / Carbon Resistors
In the Duelund-WRSE Crossover Project we are using the Duelund Coherent Audio Silver / Carbon resistors exclusively in the circuits (seen on the far right in the photo below). Resistors are inherently simple electrical devices that are used to control the flow of current in a crossover circuit by providing a constant resistance that does... Read More »
It's going to be a Duelund sort of Day!
I'm up early this morning drinking coffee and listening to the Beatles' Rubber soul LP from the new box set through the Sophia Electric 91-03 300B integrated amplifier. Particularly considering the 91-03 hasn't even been playing for an hour, its sounding really good. Very natural, sweet, and musical. Today Pete Riggle & Stephaen Harrell (6Moons) are coming over to... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The Sophia Electric 91-03 300B Integrated Amplifier
As most of you know, the Sophia Electric 91-01 300B mono amplifiers that I reviewed for Positive Feedback Online back in January of 2011 reignited my interest in SET amplification, because they made incredibly beautiful music with my Tannoy Westminster Royal Special Edition loudspeakers. Richard Wugang, the President of Sophia Electric, just sent me a... Read More »
Today's Fresh Catch: The New Duelund Coherent Audio CAST Mylar 200uF Capacitor
Today's Fresh Catch is the new Duelund Coherent Audio CAST Mylar Capacitor. For those of you who have been following the developments of the Duelund-WRSE Project, where we are building custom outboard crossovers for the Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers using the state-of-art Duelund Coherent Audio CAST components, you know that Frederik Carøe created a... Read More »
The Duelund-WRSE Project: Breadboarding with Pete & Stephaen
I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than eating wood-fired pizza, drinking some nice Italian & Argentinian wines, and laughing & talking with Pete Riggle and Stephaen Harrell while breadboarding the Duelund-WRSE crossovers. We started with a full set of the Duelund CAST components for the crossover. (seen below sitting on... Read More »
ASR Basis Exclusive Phono Equalizer Review Live at Positive Feedback Online!
The ASR Basis Exclusive phono equalizer review is now live at Positive Feedback Online here. Here's a few snippets from the review: "Like the Emitter II amplifier, the ASR Basis Exclusive phono equalizer is a remarkable product that will delight those vinyl lovers lucky enough to own one." "The Basis Exclusive consists of two chassis... Read More »
Send a photo of your Tannoys in your room!
Pambos just sent me an email with an excellent suggestion about posting photos of peoples' Westminster Royal or Canterbury loudspeakers in their listening rooms, based on the interactions we've had for upgrading the crossovers on those two speakers. We've got a lot of Tannoy owners that drop by, and I didn't want to exclude anyone,... Read More »
