A Real Sound Adventure With the Vintage McIntosh MX110Z
If you read The Vintage McIntosh Experience article in Issue 77 of Positive Feedback you know I'm a big fan of the vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier. The MX110Z makes vinyl & FM sound astonishingly good, it even makes digital your friend. Performance-wise it can easily hold its own against contemporary preamplifiers, and feature-wise it outclasses any modern preamplifier on... Read More »
The Vintage Beat: The Maestro's Custom VOTT Loudspeakers
Yesterday Ron and I embarked on an audio adventure and drove to the Emerald City of Seattle to look at (and listen to) a pair of vintage Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers that were custom built for Leopold Stokowski (April 18, 1882 – September 13, 1977), while he lived in New York and was conducting the... Read More »
Alan Kafton's audiodharma Cable Cooker
With all the cable rolling I've been doing lately with the Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects, and the Western Electric WE16GA, I thought I should mention how handy Alan Kaftan's audiodharma Cable Cooker is for running in cables and getting them to sound their best. I use my Cable Cooker all the time on cables when... Read More »
Western Electric WE16GA Power Cords for the Vintage McIntosh MC30 Monaural Amplifiers
A couple of posts ago I told you about my adventure of building up an AC power cord with the Western Electric WE16GA and trying it out on my Mhdt Havana USB DAC. It takes a while for the Western Electric WE16GA to settle down, but I thought my newly constructed WE16GA power cord sounded promising, and... Read More »
Frank Checking In: Westminsters, Duelund, The Lark Ascending, and an Old Friend
With its cooler temperatures and wetter weather, Autumn in the Pacific Northwest is a time when life starts to shift indoors. It means kicking off new audio projects, getting the fireplace going, getting out a good book, with the muse of music stirring thoughts of the past as well as dreams for the future. So it is also with my... Read More »
The Jeff Awards for 2015 ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Stocking Stuffers ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
Here's another of The Jeff Awards for 2015, and these are all things that I personally use and enjoy, and I think you'll like them a lot too. It also happens that most of these are relatively affordable gift ideas that will fit into a Christmas stocking, so the 12 Days of Christmas Stocking Stuffers Award... Read More »
The Jeff Awards for 2015 ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ The Vintage Beat! ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
I am continuing to roll out The Jeff Awards for 2015. One of my biggest revelations over the last few years was how ridiculously good restored vintage vacuum tube gear could be, and I'd like to recognize the superb restoration work done by the vintage McIntosh specialist team of Tom Manley & Terry DeWick of McIntosh... Read More »
The Jeff Awards for 2015 .•*¨*•♫♪ Readers' Choice Award .•*¨*•♫♪
Due to your critical acclaim, the Jeff's Place Readers' Choice Award unanimously goes to Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki's 'Real Sound' recommendations for the Western Electric WE16GA wire and the Belden 8402 microphone cable. I particularly liked the way that Mark Paul said it in his nomination to me for the Readers' Choice Award, "I think it’s safe... Read More »
A little bit of music for a Saturday afternoon
I just received my latest vinyl fix from Acoustic Sounds (and in case you are wondering, these aren't freebie samples, I buy them at full retail price just like you do). My order for this paycheck was Mobile Fidelity's 45RPM version of Rickie Lee Jones' first album, Rickie Lee Jones; Mobile Fidelity's 45RPM version of Miles Davis' Kind Of... Read More »
Introducing ♫♪ The Jeff Awards ♫♪ for 2015
It's always tough for me to narrow down my award choices for Positive Feedback during the annual call for the Writers' Choice Awards, so I'm starting something new: The Jeff Awards. The Jeff Awards will include the best hi-fi equipment from my formal reviews, honorable mentions of gear that hasn't been formally reviewed, and recognition for notable albums... Read More »
The Call for Positive Feedback Writers’ Choice Awards for 2015
The call for Positive Feedback writers to submit their annual Writers' Choice Awards came out yesterday from Editors Dave & David. It’s always an exciting time of year when the Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards roll around, as it provides a time for me to reflect back on the past year and think about its... Read More »
A Western Electric WE16GA Power Cord for Friday Afternoon
When I read Marvin's comment about making some Western Electric WE16GA power cords I was intrigued, and I remembered I had some Furutech AC connectors that I had gotten for a DIY power cord project that I had never got around to. Well, better late than never I suppose, so I grabbed the Furutech AC... Read More »
Breaking News: The Duelund CAST Copper/Silver Hybrid Capacitors!
As I alluded to in yesterday's post, there have been some exciting developments on the Duelund Coherent Audio front: Frederik Carøe has announced a new copper & silver hybrid Duelund CAST capacitor that gives a big slice of the ultra-expensive pure silver Duelund CAST capacitors' performance (below) at a price very close to that of the... Read More »
Jeff checking in ... a peek into the crystal ball at what is to come!
There's a lot of exciting audio projects coming up which I think you'll find very interesting. The one that's occupying a lot of my attention right now is the upcoming Altec Lansing A5 Voice of the Theatre project. In my introductory post I mentioned that I had chosen the Altec Lansing 515E ceramic magnet low... Read More »
Another Akihabara Adventure: Yazaki-San Reporting from the "Tube Audio Show " in Akihabara in Tokyo (more show photos added)
Immediately after posting about Gary Bronner's adventure at Sun Audio in Akihabara, I received a delightful message from Yazaki-san to Gary Zabel & Daryl Stahler at Arizona Capacitors & me about another Akihabara adventure, the "Tube Audio Show" which Yazaki-san just attended. Dear Gary-san, Daryl-san and Jeff-san, "Tube Audio Show" is now held in Akihabara / Tokyo... Read More »
An Akihabara Audio Adventure: Gary Bronner's Visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo
While Gary Bronner and I were discussing the upcoming A5 'Voice of the Theatre' project, he was telling me about his recent visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo. It sounded like such a fun trip I asked Gary if it would be ok to share it with all of you, as I thought you'd all enjoy... Read More »
The Vintage Beat: The Altec Lansing A5 ‘Voice of the Theatre’ Loudspeaker Project
In 1877 Thomas Edison invented recording with the phonograph, and kicked off the acoustic era of recording that lasted until 1925, when Western Electric initiated the electrical era of recording with the development of microphones, amplifiers, disc cutting machines, loudspeakers, and sound for movies. Western Electric supported the theater movie sound business until 1936, when... Read More »
Jeff Hangin' at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2015
I just got back from the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2015 in Denver, Colorado. Kudos to Marjorie and everyone else involved, they really did a great job of putting on the show! It's been quite a while since I've ventured out to an audio show. I got burned out on them years ago, but I... Read More »
Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki is now live at Positive Feedback!
I finished up my Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki article yesterday, and it is now live at Positive Feedback here. It has been an immense pleasure for me to get to know Yazaki-san and to tell you about him, and his ideas & recommendations for 'Real Sound' have made a wonderful difference in my hi-fi.... Read More »
Siedy Checking In from The Netherlands: Listening Adventures With SPEC Real Sound Amps!
Listening Adventures With the Wonderful SPEC Amps! By Siedy Abee I am one of those guys who is a regular reader of Jeff's Place. It is always a great pleasure to open up Jeff's website and to read about his newest adventures. This year Jeff reported about a new amp from SPEC (here). I had never heard about the SPEC... Read More »
Adventures in Real Sound With Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki - Sneak Peek 2
A couple of posts ago (here) I shared a little of the article Adventures in Real Sound With Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki that I am writing for Positive Feedback. I've been making good progress on the article, and I am hoping to be able to finish it this weekend, so it can get published before next week's... Read More »
Yazaki-san checking in ... DA30 DH-SET monaural amplfiers!
I just heard from Yazaki-san, and he sent me some photographs of the DA30 SET monaural amplifiers he made for his friend Ookubo-san, and they're so beautiful I wanted to share them with you! The DA30 SET monaural amplifiers Yazaki-san made for his Ookubo-san are based on using the vintage Western Electric 310A as the driver, a vintage... Read More »
Chad Kassem checking in ... Westminster Royal SEs and more!
Most of you probably know Chad Kassem as the founder of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., the superb Analogue Productions record label, the Blue Heaven Studios recording studio, and most recently the Quality Record Pressings record pressing facility (there's a nice overview on Wikipedia) Thursday, when I went back to my office after a meeting, the light... Read More »
Saturday Afternoon At Jeff's Place
I always love the weekends, when I get a chance to cook up some fine food, listen to music, play hi-fi games, go for a bicycle ride, and just generally kick back and enjoy life! I invited my Mom & Dad over for dinner and some music listening (Mom's 90, and Dad's 92). I grilled... Read More »
Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki - Sneak Peek
I am hard at work on my article for Positive Feedback, Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, and thought I'd share a snippet of it with you. I'll add more as time goes on. Adventures in Real Sound with Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki By Jeff Day In Issue 78 I introduced you to the remarkable... Read More »
