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 is born.

The Holiday season is rapidly approaching, with the Thanksgiving Holiday just around the corner here in the States, and then the countdown towards the Christmas Holiday begins.

So while it might seem to be a little early to be talking about the Holidays, I wanted to give you plenty of lead time to gather goodies for your pals, or to give some relatively affordable Holiday gift idea suggestions to your significant other, that will light up your Hi-Fi life on Christmas morning.

One. Understanding the Fundamentals of Music DVD Set ($69.95 USD): The Understanding the Fundamentals of Music DVD set is one of the best purchases I've ever made for music and hi-fi. As I said in my review in Issue 43 of Positive Feedback, "Buying this DVD set may be the single most important thing you ever do in audio, and it will transform your musical and Hi-Fi sensibilities for the good regardless of how long you've been in the hobby - very, very, highly recommended."

Dr. Robert Greenberg is a Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances, and in the Understanding the Fundamentals of Music DVD set he does 16 fascinating, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable lectures of 45 minutes each that will change the way you think about music and the high-fidelity reproduction of music in your home.

The Understanding the Fundamentals of Music DVD set is a reference that you'll want to add to your library, and then periodically go back to watch, and remember what is truly important about reproducing the sound of music in your home. No music lover's or hi-fi nut's library should be without this DVD set!

I recommend you go out and read my review of Understanding the Fundamentals of Music in Issue 43 of Positive Feedback, then immediately visit The Great Courses web site and order a copy for yourself. You'll be glad you did!

Two. Get Better Sound DVD Set ($29.80 USD): The Get Better Sound DVD set by Jim Smith is another essential for your library. Jim Smith has literally written the book on the setup and optimization of high-performance audio and video systems with his book Get Better Sound, and Jim has produced a 3-DVD Get Better Sound reference video set that details his setup and optimization techniques so you can see exactly how he does it.

More than any other person that I am aware of on Planet Earth, Jim Smith has the ability to listen to a Hi-Fi system, and then by drawing on his enormous experience and knowledge base related to live and reproduced music, Jim knows exactly what to do to optimize that system's setup, allowing it system to play dramatically better than anyone ever thought possible.

I believe that Jim's unique abilities allow him to get more performance out of $10K Hi-Fi system than the vast majority of Hi-Fi enthusiasts, dealers, and audio reviewers can get out of a $100K Hi-Fi system. Really. If you'd like to set up a modestly priced 'David' system that can kick ass on many expensive 'Goliath' systems, this is your chance to how it's done.

I recommend you go out and read my review of the Get Better Sound DVD set in Issue 59 of Positive Feedback, and then go order it from Jim, here.

Three. Acoustic Revive RR-888 ($695 USD): The Acoustic Revive Schumann Generator room treatment devices (RR-77, RR-777, and now RR-888) are hands down my favorite audio accessory. In fact I like to use two of them in my main (larger) listening room, and one each in my two smaller listening rooms.

The improvement an RR brings to the listening experience is not subtle, and I absolutely love demonstrating these little RRs to friends & visitors to my listening room, and watching the bewildered looks when they experience the RR effect for the first time. It's not unusual for them to wonder if I'm playing some sort of trick on them. I'm not. If you can only buy one audio accessory for your Hi-Fi rig, I recommend you make it an RR, you won't be sorry.

I wrote about the RR-888 in Issue 76 of Positive Feedback, and I recommend you go read that article to learn more about the RR-888.

The Acoustic Revive RR-888 is imported to North America by Joe Cohen of  The Lotus Group.

Four. Oyaide R-0 AC Outlet ($147 USD): Good sound in your hi-fi starts at the wall outlet that you plug your equipment into, and a high quality outlet is one of the highest bang-for-the-buck additions you can make to your hi-fi's performance.

My favorite high performance audio AC outlet is the Oyaide R-0. The Oyaide R-0 outlet was developed specifically for audio applications, and is non-magnetic to minimize any possible degradation from magnetic fields. The Oyaide R-0 has an unplated, highly polished, beryllium-copper electrode, and a heavy-duty mounting bracket that is 24k gold-plated brass. The Oyaide R-0 body is an insulator made of glass-filled nylon, which Oyaide says gives it high rigidity, resonance absorption, and safe insulation properties.

I predict you'll be shocked at how much performance increase the Oyaide R-0 will bring to your hi-fi, and you can read more about it in Issue 76 of Positive Feedback (scroll down a bit in the article to find it).

The Oyaide R-0 AC outlet is imported to North America by Joe Cohen of The Lotus Group, and is worthy of your attention.

Five. Thomas Schick Graphite Headshell (250 Euros): The Thomas Schick graphite headshell is shockingly good, and it absolutely destroyed my very good Yamamoto Sound Craft HS-1A African Black Wood headshell  in direct comparison, where it was both better sounding and more musical.

Thomas' headshell is CNC machined from high-density graphite that is oil-soaked and sealed with a protective finish, and weighs in at 15.4-grams. Thomas' graphite headshell has a finger lift, quality headshell wires, a gold-plated SME connector, and comes with a set of cartridge mounting screws.

For a real treat throw in a Denon DL-103 phono cartridge as well, which goes with the Schick like peanut butter goes with jelly.

Contact Thomas directly to order.

Six. Vintage Western Electric WE24GA Headshell Wires ($45): If you have an SME-style headshell like the Schick or Yamamoto Sound Craft, you're in for a real treat with the vintage Western Electric WE24GA headshell wires.

The difference in sound & musicality between the stock Yamamoto & WE24GA headshell wires was at least as big in magnitude as the difference between different interconnects. The WE24GA headshell wires soundly trounced the stock headshell wires, bringing the same sorts of gains in richness, texture, tone color, emotional connection, etc., as do the Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects or vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire as speaker cables.

I haven't tried the WE24GA headshell wires on my Schick graphite headshell. The connectors on the Schick headshell are recessed, so you might want to check with Thomas first to see if the headshell wires can be swapped easily. Or who knows, maybe Thomas would fit them up for you if you're ordering one of his graphite headshells.

These WE24GA headshell wires have extremely limited availability, and for all I know they might be unavailable by now. Yazaki-san was very graciously helping Jeff's Place readers get sets of these WE24GA headshell wires, but keep in mind Yazaki-san doesn't make money on these, their price might vary depending on their availability in Japan at any given moment, and Yazaki-san is just being a nice guy and helping us get a chance to hear the magic of Western Electric.

You can email Yazaki-san to see if there are still some available.

Seven. Belden 8402 Microphone Cable Interconnects (about $65 USD for a 1 meter pair): The Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects have that same richness, texture, tone color, emotional connection, etc., as the Western Electric WE16GA and WE24GA does, except it is way easier to get some Belden 8402 of your own.

Best-Tronics Pro Audio in Tinley Park, Illinois, will make you up a pair of the extremely musical Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects of your own, just like the ones Yazaki-san recommended to me, so you can hear what all the fuss is about.

Apparently Best-Tronics got so many requests for Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects as a result of my earlier posts them, that they have put up a dedicated page for ordering them. Here’s a link to their Belden 8402 page where you can order assembled interconnects just like those described here on my blog.

Thank you Best-Tronics!

Eight. Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII Phono Cartridge (approx. $900 USD): The Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII phono cartridge has a musical balance that reminds me a lot of the aforementioned Western Electric WE16GA & WE24GA and Belden 8402 ICs, being sublimely rich, textured, with oodles of tone color, and a rock 'em sock 'em emotional connection to the music.

I absolutely love mine, and it is a bonus that it'll play directly into my vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier without the need for a step-up transformer.

I bought mine from Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity while we were working on the Garrard Project 2015. Christopher can order one for you too.

Nine. Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII Phono Cartridge (approx. $1200 USD):  When I was putting together the scope for the Garrard Project 2015, I wanted one of the Schick tonearms to have a mono cartridge, and the other one to have a stereo cartridge, so I could switch between mono and stereo records on the fly.

It seemed to make sense to order the Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge to accompany the Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII phono cartridge, and I'm glad I did, as I've really enjoyed it.

The Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge sounds a lot like the Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII phono cartridge (but not exactly like it), and shares that same rich, textured, beautifully colorful, and emotionally engaging presentation that you're seeing become a theme here at Jeff's Place.

As above, Christopher can order you an Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge of your own.

Ten. Intact Audio Bespoke Step-Up Transformer: There is one major difference between the two Ortofon SPUs mentioned above, and that is the amount of output voltage they each have.

While the Ortofon SPU Mono CG 25 Di MkII phono cartridge has a hefty output voltage of 1.5 mV that allows it to play directly into my vintage McIntosh MX110Z tuner-preamplifier, the Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge has a comparatively wimpy 0.2 mV of output, so it needs a little help from a step-up transformer (SUT).

I really like the bespoke SUT that Dave Slagle of Intact Audio made for me, it is a superb match to my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge, and it makes me smile every time I listen to it.

Dave's SUTs are bespoke, so pricing depends on your particular application and what you want (silver or copper) in it, so inquire with Dave about pricing for you particular needs.

Eleven. SPEC AP-UD1 Analog Disc Sheet ($350 USD): The SPEC AP-UD1 Analog Disc Sheet is a turntable mat, and it probably will not fit into your Christmas stocking, so you'll have to improvise and put it under the Christmas tree.

I think the SPEC AP-UD1 Analog Disc Sheet is a great turntable mat, and it is what I use on my Garrard Project 2015 player system, as recommended to me by Yazaki-san.

The SPEC AP-UD1 Analog Disc Sheet is available from Jonathan Halpern at Tone Imports in North America.

Twelve. Acoustic Sounds Gift Certificate: It's pretty hard to beat an Acoustic Sounds gift certificate so you can go out and order the albums you want. Tell Chad that Jeff sent you!

Many thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy these 12 Days of Christmas stocking stuffer ideas!