2004 is my first full year as a crew member here on the good ship 6moons and I have had the good pleasure to review a number of superb products like the Almarro EL84 single-ended pentode integrated amplifier, the complete Cardas Golden Reference cable set, the Fi 2A3 single ended triode monoblocks, the awesome Nirvana Transmission Digital Interface, the wondrous $39 Sonic Impact T-amp and the absolutely stunning Yamamoto 45 single-ended stereo amplifier.


Then of course Srajan and Gordon Rankin allowed me the pleasure of indulging my musical Jones with a review of the Wavelength Guitar Engine GAS Junior guitar amplifier. Then our own Jules Coleman and his pal Jonathan Halpern got me spun up about vintage gear and I started down the road of a vintage journey with the Garrard 301 transcription turntable restoration project.


I only review products that I think have the potential to be remarkable in some way - in terms of absolute sonic performance, their ability to play music, a remarkable cost to performance ratio or just plain old high-fun factor. I think I could easily say that each and every one of the products I have reviewed this year deserve a "2004 Years' Best Award" and that you should just go read the reviews but I suppose that wouldn't be playing fair to Srajan's charge of recommending two or three items for my personal "Year's Best".


I guess it would be easy if I just recommended the things I bought with my own money like the Fi 2A3 SET monoblocks and the Garrard 301, or the Almarro which I asked to purchase after reviewing. I mean if you vote with your own money, it's the ultimate recommendation, isn't it? Well, truth be told, I would have bought every single item I have reviewed so far at 6moons if I could have afforded to. In fact, one of my criteria for saying yes to a review assignment is "Would I buy this with my own money if I could afford to?" So that ain't gonna work.

My Year's Best of the Best Award goes to Stephæn Harrell. "What? You're recommending a person?" Yeah, I am. The best thing you can do for your HiFi hobby and life is to make new friends or join a HiFi club. Invite some friends over or get out and have some fun with your pals and enjoy a richer life as a result! For example, my good friend Stephæn and I have had a ball playing HiFi games, drinking a little good wine, eating some great food and enjoying the fellowship of other HiFi friends. Stephæn & his sweet wife Marcia introduced me to some of their HiFi friends and things really got rollin'. I got to meet Terry and Leslie Cain of Cain & Cain Audio, Srajan and Ivette Ebaen of 6moons, Rod Morris of Audio Asylum, Pete Riggle of Pete Riggle Audio and Bill Van Winkle, the ultra- cool 74-year old sightless master piano restorer/tuner and babe magnet. These folks have had a tremendously beneficial impact on my life and HiFi hobby and I couldn't be more appreciative and humbled to have such good friends. You're the best!

Ok, so I threw you a curve ball for the first recommendation. I bet you didn't expect Stephæn to win my Year's Best of the Best Award, did you? But my next recommendation knocks it out of the SET ballpark: the Yamamoto stereo 45 SET amplifier. If you're in the market for a 45 SET amplifier I can't recommend the Yamamoto highly enough. At $2250 it's a stone cold bargain and the best-sounding 45 amplifier I have ever heard. I said in my review that the Yamamoto "... comes with a custom chassis, custom transformers, custom RCA connectors, custom speaker binding posts, custom Teflon tube sockets and NOS tubes. It looks gorgeous and simply sounds stunning. Products like the Yamamoto amplifier -- and men like Yamamoto-San and Brian Bowdle who offer such stellar products at such reasonable prices -- give me hope that audio is headed in the right direction after all. Truly, I am awed. Gentlemen, I bow to you in respect: Bloody well done!" Need I say more? Original Blue Moon Award below.

If I gave out a Vintage Award, you'd expect the Garrard 301 to steal the show. It would - except that its story is still in progress so instead, it's an early nominee for "2005 Year's Best Vintage Award". It's my 1963 all vacuum tube H.H. Scott 370 FM Tuner that wins the 2004 Year's Best Vintage Award. I fell in love with FM tuners when I reviewed the Magnum Dynalab MD-90 Triode FM tuner in 2003 but sadly, I could not afford to purchase it at the time - maybe one of these days. When Pete Riggle showed me his awesome all tube 1960s H.H. Scott 350B FM tuner -- the big brother to my little 370 -- I fell in love and began to
search for one of my own. I couldn't find a 350B, but I ran across the little 370 on eBay and bought it. I heard that a 370 with a few select parts upgrades is in the same sonic ballpark as the legendary Marantz 10B but instead of costing $2000 - $3000 for a mint used one, a 370 can be bought for 1/10th of that. I bought an excellent Magnum Dynalab ST-2 vertical omnidirectional FM antenna to go with it just like I used in my MD-90 Triode review. Guess what? You can expect another vintage journey restoration & red-hot hot-rod article on the H.H. Scott 370 FM tuner with comparisons to its bigger sibling, the Scott 350B. Did I say that these vintage vacuum tube tuners sound bitchin'? They do!


I wish all of you the best for this Holiday Season! Stay safe and make new friends!