Morning Coffee with the Maestro’s VOTTs & Thoughts on Vintage Tone – Jeff's Place. My Maestro’s VOTTs & SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier room has become my go-to coffee nook in the morning.
My ‘coffee nook’ room with the Maestro’s VOTTs & SPEC RSA-M3 EX. I’ve developed a week-day ritual of rolling out about 4:30 a.m. and firing up the SPEC RSA-M3 EX, the Mhdt Paradisea+ USB DAC, and my old MacBook that I’m using as a source. Morning coffee with Stumptown & Jura. Then I wander into the kitchen to my waiting Jura and brew up the week’s selection of Stumptown Roaster’s Choice, after which I go back and sit down and listen to the NPR news, usually followed by Jazz24 out of Seattle, to start my day. A DIY ‘Vintage Tone’ USB Interconnect Using ‘Pushback Wire’ » Jeff's Place. The Vintage Beat: A Forgotten Voice from the American Recording Studio » Jeff's Place.
If you read my SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier review in Issue 78 of Positive Feedback Online, you know how impressed I am with the audio designs of Mr.
Shirokazu Yazaki in Tokyo, Japan. (second from the left in the photograph below) It is my opinion that Yazaki-san is one of those rare gifted listeners/designers with an ‘enlightened ear’ that is able to translate the sound of live music into electronics, and his Real Sound Amplifier is one example of that. While I was conversing with Yazaki-san while writing the SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier article for Positive Feedback Online, he told me about two vintage American cables that he was very impressed with, and has been using at international audio shows to demonstrate his SPEC audio electronics: Western Electric WE16GA wire used as speaker cables, and Belden 8402 microphone cable used as RCA interconnects photo above). Yesterday there was a knock at the door, and the DHL driver handed me a package from Tokyo, Japan. Black Cat. Headphone Recabling Supplies & Questions. And my first recable attempt, on a pair of Denon D5000's no less, is complete...
Observations: A heatgun is not at all necessary. VenHaus DIY Power Cord. Why use the new VH Audio Wire vs. my original recommedation of Belden 83802?
************************* My prior design based on the Belden 83802 wire sounded very, very good. However, there were certain parameters could be tweaked even more, producing an even better sounding power cord. The only problem is that I couldn't find anybody that sold the type of cable I had envisioned. So I manufactured my own cable... Here are the details: * Two 12 AWG stranded conductors for low resistance. . * Each conductor contains 19 strands of .0188" bare copper wires (about 25 AWG) for a total AWG of 12 for each conductor. . * Fluoropolymer insulation of the individual conductors AND outer jacket. . * 100% shield coverage. . * The entire braided shield is about 12 AWG, providing a low impedance path to ground. Dark Matter Interconnects – Jeff's Place. I get a lot of e-mail inquiries about the do-it-yourself (DIY) White Lightening Moonshine cables article I wrote for Six Moons way back in September of 2007, which has been second only to the interest generated by the Garrard Project articles (1, 2, 3) I started writing even further back in September of 2004.
I think the reason for those articles enduring popularity is that for a relatively small investment, and a little bit of your own effort, you can own & enjoy some cables or a classic turntable, respectively, that performs as good as anything currently offered in Hi-Fi ‘dom. Bi-Wiring: More Than You Ever Wanted To Know. Bi-wiring You might want to try bi-wiring, but it helps to use something better than just zip cord, no matter what the gauge.If you are running 10-12 foot lengths, a decent single wire set of speaker cables will run around $140 or so, sodouble that for bi-wiring the two front mains.
I would not worry about bi-wiring the center speaker, or usinganything but 12 gauge zip for the surrounds, as the suround signal is processed through a cheap digital delayas well as derived from signals buried in the main signal, and hence is not that clean or wide bandwidth. See this post for a list of decent aftermarket cables that don't cost a fortune, including references to DIY cables: Now, you hook up the (+) and the (-) to the amp output terminals for that channel, connecting BOTH speakercables at once. Specifically, connect the (+) of the woofer cable AND of the Tweeter cable to the (+) terminal ofthe amp. DIY Canare 4S11 Bi-Wire cables. White Lightning Moonshine Cables. Jeff Day Sony PlayStation 1 SCPH-1001, [in for review] vintage Scott 370 Stereomaster [in for review], [in for review] Custom Speaker cables.
Speaker Cable at Blue Jeans Cable. Ultrasonically-Welded Connections on Terminated Speaker Cables Blue Jeans Cable is now America's only vendor of ultrasonically-welded speaker cables; with our recent acquisition of a Sonobond ultrasonic welder (manufactured in West Chester, PA), we are able to weld (yes, that's "weld," not "solder") locking banana plugs, spades and pin connectors to any of our speaker cable products.
Ultrasonic welding allows us to literally fuse the copper wire to the brass banana plug body without using the heat of conventional gas or arc welding, for a tremendously strong physical connection, low contact resistance, and low susceptibility to corrosion. To read more about this unique process, see our article: Ultrasonic Welding at BJC.
DIY Audio: Sennheiser Headphone Cable. Sennheiser, a family-owned audio electronics company founded in Germany in 1945 is one of the most famous headphone manufactures today.
With over 100 different headphones on their site as of this writing, it seems like Sennheiser has a headphone for nearly every budget and every purpose. I would contend that the HD580, HD600 and HD650 trio of headphones are Sennheiser's main staple in the current audiophile headphone landscape. The HD580 really put Sennheiser on the audiophile map back in the spring of 1993, one only has to read Wes Philips of Stereophile's review to see why. Three years later, the company would release the HD600, which was based on the special edition HD580 Jubilee made with carbon fiber and a more free-flowing grill. Finally in 2003, the HD650 was released, which presents what I feel is a more warm and full sounding presentation than the previous two headphones.
One unique feature of the HD580-650 trio of headphones is the user-replaceable cable. The Fine Print: