Session Time
I set up my gear (see sidebar 2) in the…
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I couldn't move the piano. I therefore immediately abandoned any idea of recording either in surround or in 192kHz-sampled stereo. The challenge was going to be to use four mikes and channels and mix them down after the editing to get a two-channel balance on the CD that would sound sufficiently realistic to serve the music but without the early reflections making the sound too "bathroomy." On the bright side, with four channels I could still record at 24-bits/88.2kHz, making possible an eventual two-channel hi-rez release.
At sessions, I always record a few minutes of the room sound, to splice between individual movements so that the music doesn't fade disconcertingly to black. For interest's sake, fig.1 shows an FFT-derived spectrum of the 24-bit room sound. You can see that almost all the lower-frequency FFT "bins" are below -96dBFS, with all the noise components above 2kHz below -120dB.
Fig.1 FFT-derived spectrum of the background silence of the Maestro Foundation recital hall. Sample rate of original data, 88.2kHz; word length, 24 bits (12dB/vertical division).
However, you can also see…
Sidebar 1: Who Was Who...
Cast of Characters
Robert Silverman, pianist
Jim Turner, producer
John Atkinson, engineer & editor
Mike Kemper, piano technician
Aaron Mendelsohn (The Maestro Foundation), sponsor
David Lemon (OrpheumMasters)
Piano: Bösendorfer 290SE 9' Reproducing Piano
Venue: The Maestro Foundation Recital Hall, Santa Monica, CA
Recording Dates: January 21-24, 2000
Sidebar 2: Equipment
Two DPA (B&K) 4011 ½" cardioids arranged in an ORTF pair, mounted on a Manley Starbird stand, connected via 75' Cardas 300 balanced cables to a Millennia Media HV3B low-noise, transformerless two-channel microphone preamplifier. This, in turn, was connected via 1m lengths of AudioQuest Lapis x3 balanced cable to a dCS 904 two-channel A/D converter operating at 88.2kHz. The two channels of 24-bit audio data were taken via 1m lengths of AudioQuest Digital 2 AES/EBU cable to an open-reel Nagra-D digital tape recorder, with each 88.2kHz-sampled, 24-bit channel stored…
Vienna is a beautiful city known for many things, but the design and manufacturing of audio equipment is not one of them. Waltzes and strudel, yes; loudspeakers, no. One exception is Vienna Acoustics, a company that has introduced a line of loudspeakers named after composers: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn. At the 1996 Las Vegas WCES, Sumiko, US distributor of Vienna Acoustics products (footnote 1), demonstrated the second-from-the-top Mozart, and Stereophile reviewers as diverse in their approaches as Jonathan Scull, Tom Norton, and Sam Tellig (as well as yours truly) were unanimous in…
The same sort of impression prevailed during the period of formal auditioning. (For that, I did remove the SC-IVs from the listening room!) I've heard other small speakers that can play loud, but they tend to sound strained, like an old Honda Civic doing 60mph in third gear. The Mozarts just took it all in stride, maintaining clarity and focus at levels that cause most speakers of their size to lose their composure. Everyone who heard the Mozarts in my system remarked on how much clean sound was being produced by these loudspeakers.
I don't mean to imply that the Mozart is the ideal…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way dynamic loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" silk-dome tweeter, two 5.5" mid/woofers. Measured crossover frequency: 2.8kHz. Crossover slopes: 9-12dB/octave, Bessel. Frequency range: 35Hz-22kHz. Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Recommended amplifier power: 30-200W.
Dimensions: 37" H by 6.7" W by 11.6" D. Weight: 44 lbs.
Serial numbers of samples reviewed: 4792/4326.
Price: $2500/pair (1997). Warranty: 5 years, parts and labor. Approximate number of dealers: 25.
Manufacturer: Vienna Acoustics, c/o Gansterer & Haferi…
Sidebar 2: Big 'Uns & Little 'Uns
In discussing the performance of the Dunlavy SC-VI (Vol.19 No.8), SS and JA pointed out that big speakers tend to sound BIG, always reminding us that we're listening to speakers. (They then noted that the SC-VI is unusually free of this characteristic.) This is one of the reasons (space and financial considerations being others) that I wouldn't want to own monster-sized speakers. However, small speakers have the opposite problem: music reproduced by them tends to sound, well, small, as if it's emanating from a pair of small boxes (which, of course,…
Sidebar 3: System
Analog source was a fully updated Linn LP12 with an Ittok arm and AudioQuest AQ7000nsx cartridge. However, most of my listening these days is to CD (Mea culpa!); digital products used during the auditioning included the Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1 CD player, PS Audio Lambda II and Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 transports, Audio Alchemy DTI•Pro 32 anti-jitter resolution-enhancement device, Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 Mk.II digital processor, and TARA Labs Decade and Illuminati D-60/Orchid digital links.
Preamplifiers were the Balanced Audio Technology VK-5 and Convergent Audio…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
All the measurements were performed without any foam in the ports. Given the Mozart's high specified sensitivity of 90dB/W/m, I was puzzled to arrive at a low calculated figure of just over 83dB at 1m for 2.83V drive. However, the B-weighted figure we use at Stereophile will be affected by frequency-response anomalies in the upper midrange/low treble. If, for example, there was a big suckout in a speaker's crossover region, this would adversely affect the calculated sensitivity. We shall see. The speaker's impedance (fig.1) is moderately demanding in that it dips…