20A direct heated triode line stage at the local audio club meet the other night. Lundahl iron, custom case work, regulated filaments, the works. Even the wireless remote is homemade! The homebrew guys are just built different around here! #hifi #tubes #diy #audio
I’ve spent the last two weeks or so listening to a very bonkers moving coil cartridge a buddy loaned me through a set of step-transformers I designed and hand wound. Good excuse to revisit all my favorite records with different preamp/amp permutations. #hifi #vinyl
hooting, hollering, carrying on, as one does
recent addition to the stable from some horse trading… homebrew 6B4G push-pull amp, have mostly been running this on the Tektons but threw it on the Tannoy rig out of curiosity and it WHIPS #hifi #tubes
Ticked a couple long-timers off the want list recently, clean ones too!
Put some 12BH7s a buddy gave me in the driver section of the ST-70. A little more authoritative than the stock 12AU7s, might have to find some NOS bottles to compare. #hifi #tubes #triode
Finally snagged the Universal Sounds reprint of this gem to tide me over until the right OG copy comes along. Completely improvised and cut live to mono in the Smithsonian National Collection, in front of paintings by the great Henry O Tanner. Better than I have words for, truly. #jazz #vinyl #hifi
Re-shuffled the front room rig to accommodate a new acquisition, a pair of Tekton Uruz speakers. Two-way design, full-range driver crossed at 5 kHz with a ribbon tweeter. Not quite the dispersion of the Infinity RS2.5's, but they don't take 500 W per side to sound their best! #hifi #vinyl
I also cut a new armboard for the Thorens and installed an AudioQuest PT-9 tone arm with a Fidelity Research FR-1 mk 3 cart, which runs into some custom 1:30 step-up transformers I designed and built myself. Not too shabby! #hifi #thorens #tube #movingcoil
Ticked one off the forever list today… beautiful copy, a real thrill to find in the wild! #jazz #hifi #lloydmcneill
There is apparently some contention as to whether the Nimbus West reprints on Outernational Sounds are legitimate (only found out after purchasing) but they are VERY nice sounding records! Double 45 cut of the Creative Arts Ensemble. #vinyl #jazz #hifi
Another addition to the top shelf... been after this one for a minute. Dyani is one of the only guys who can harmonically lead a piano-less small group like this. If you like Mingus' "Presents Charles Mingus" you'll dig this. #jazz #vinyl #hifi
Quality bit of obscurity here: Double LP of private press mid 70s live jazz from DC, Marshall Hawkins (of the Lloyd McNeill Quartet) on bass, Jimmy Hopps (of Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc) on drums. Exactly my kind of shit! #jazz #vinyl #hifi
bondi in that hearing like
This is exactly the kind of Seattle vs New England I'm invested in!
If Billy Strings is our generation’s Doc Watson, then Mike Seal is our Chet Atkins. Familiar yet inventive, tasteful yet expansive. How he does it all as a fingerpicker is boggling. Enthusiastically recommended!! #MikeSeal #guitar #vinyl #hifi
For anyone else needing something calming and soothing these days, the most enthusiastic recommendation possible here. The Cosmic Tones Research Trio is doing some very important work in this space!
This is without question the best quality pressing and packaging job I’ve ever come across in a modern LP. The material is exquisite and it’s so refreshing to see a label, especially a new outfit, stick the landing. This is THE definitive reference standard that everyone should shoot for! #vinyl
A couple days late in revisiting this but I always have to steel myself a while before this one. Recent system improvements make it that much more engaging. A real masterpiece. #bowie #hifi #vinyl #blackstar
Out of curiosity I grabbed this 2025 reprint of #BillDixon Orchestra's superb 1967 recording, "Intents and Purposes", from Parole records, to compare to the first stereo pressing on RCA and the 2017 reprint on Superior Viaduct. #vinyl #jazz #hifi
RIP Bobby. Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there…
One of those albums that always makes the world seem like a slightly less awful place.
2006 Acoustic Sounds reprint of, in my opinion, one of the most important jazz albums of all time. #MJQ #vinyl #jazz
I also had enough Richlite, plywood, and lead shot left over to make some record stabilizer pucks, one of which got matching stain. Weighs about 3/4 pound, and I'm not convinced they do much, but doodads and baubles are always more satisfying if you gnaw them out with your own teeth. #hifi #vinyl