At HE2004E, Gingko Audio's Vinh Vu used a pair of B&K accelerometers and a laptop computer loaded with spectral-analysis software to prove that his Cloud 10 had an…
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The idea, which you've probably envisioned by now, is that the balls allow the Cloud 10 to shrug off airborne and structural vibrations in virtually any direction—vertical, lateral, rotational—whereas spikes, squishy feet, and springs are much more limited in the ways they can move. That the low-mass Cloud 10 also tends not to store energy puts it at an even greater advantage over its comparatively ox-like competitors.
A couple of months back (March 1993, p.7), I wrote that as far as I was concerned, video was television dressed up in fancy dress, thus there was no place for coverage of the medium in Stereophile. As the magazine's founder, J. Gordon Holt, has been a committed videophile for many years, I sat back and awaited a reaction from him. One was not long coming. I am running his response as this month's "As We See It" feature.—John Atkinson
I believe JA's March "As We See It," explaining why Stereophile has no plans to cover video, was wrongheaded. Sure, some of our readers may consider video…
The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men.—Glenn Gould
"I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow." John Atkinson, Stereophile's editor and our producer for this, the magazine's second recording project, had decided to call it a day. Our recording engineer, Kavichandran Alexander, had just walked into the control room asking if we'd noticed that the left channel was still louder than the right. It was the last of many crises of the night, and we still hadn't done Take One. My day had involved a leisurely Sunday-afternoon drive up from my then home in Los…
While the rest of the crew set up the microphones and piano, I took the opportunity to check out the environment. Measured by means of my calibrated 28" pace, it turned out to be roughly 55' deep by 35' wide. As I claim the talents of neither Fred Astaire nor Jeff Goldblum, I had to estimate the height; it appeared to be a bit greater than the width—say about 40'. A second-level choir loft in the rear extended back over the entry, increasing the depth somewhat in that area. And an alcove in the front (estimated to be about 20' by 20') opened up the space somewhat further. The piano was…
The imbalance problem solved, we now noticed a low-level rustling noise in the right channel. Jiggling the microphone leads eliminated it—though it recurred several times before we finally wrestled it into submission. After at least another hour of experimenting with microphone patterns in an attempt to obtain the lowest possible hiss (we eventually returned to the Blumlein configuration), jiggling wires, and general fiddling, we finally arrived at a point where we appeared to be ready for some real recording. While we never eliminated the mike noise to everyone's complete satisfaction, it…
Unfortunately, the squeaky soft pedal returned during the recording of the first movement. The volume level of this movement made it less of a problem, but with quieter movements coming up, it had to be fixed. The tuner had been called back in, and by 10:00pm appeared to have the problem solved. The sonata's fourth movement (the Intermezzo) was scheduled to be done next; it took us scarcely an hour to complete two virtually flawless takes and a number of minor touch-up takes.
During the retakes which followed, I took the opportunity to listen to the "real thing" in the church, abandoning…
Sidebar 1: Intermezzo
INTERMEZZO: Works for Piano by Brahms (AAD, 1-6; ADD, 7-8) STPH003-2
Robert Silverman, piano
Brahms: Piano Sonata in f, Op.5 40:57
[1] Allegro maestoso 10:41
[2] Andante espressivo 11:56
[3] Scherzo: Allegro energico 5:25
[4] Intermezzo: Ruckblick 4:39
[5] Finale: Allegro moderato ma rubato 8:16
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op.117 16:45
[6] Intermezzo No.1, Andante moderato 5:24
[7] Intermezzo No.2, Andante non troppo e con molta espressione 5:12 (Not LP)
[8] Intermezzo No.3, Andante con moto 6:09 (Not LP)
Cover…
Sidebar 2: Denis Stevens on the Music
Johannes Brahms: Piano Sonata in f, Op.5
At the age of 19, Johannes Brahms was steadily putting his life together. For seven years or more he had worked intensively with Eduard Marxsen, a magnificent and munificent piano teacher, hard as nails and sentimental as blazes, pupil of one of Mozart's pupils and well-acquainted with a friend of Schubert and Beethoven. Marxsen never asked his young protégé for a fee, and was like a second father to him.
It was Marxsen who urged Brahms to compose seriously in addition to practicing the piano,…
Sidebar 3: TJN on Robert Silverman
On Tuesday evening, the last night of our recording effort for the second Stereophile production, Robert Silverman treated us, between takes, to a spontaneous outburst of Liszt's heroic B-minor sonata. No doubt inspired by the Reference Recordings Nojima disc we had heard during a visit to a local Santa Barbara high-end salon earlier that day, it was, nevertheless, another indication—if any was needed by this point—of his superb talent as a musician and performing artist. I have to admit, rather sheepishly, that I was unfamiliar with this gentleman's…
Sidebar 4: JA on the sound
I'm fascinated by the sound of the recorded piano. While the instrument under the hands of the virtuoso—the Baldwin and Earl Wild, the Steinway and Alfred Brendel, the Bösendorfer and Ivan Moravec—is subservient to the music, there is a thread to be found running through these sounds that is pure "piano," the instrument imposing its own voice. And not only does every instrument have an identifiable sonic personality; every recording session is a unique occasion with a unique acoustic having a unique effect on the instrument's sound. If you have listened to any…