On the Road Again
I've just come off of an audiophile "Grand Tour"
of sorts. I spent four days in Northfield, MN observing John Atkinson and Jim Johnston
record the men's chorus Cantus. I started off the week by joining JA in a presentation on
"The Future of Audio" at the Audio Society of Minnesota's March meeting at the
Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, and I ended it with a trip to the Festival du Son &
Image in Montreal. Sweet!
Paradise on earth
The ASM meeting was a complete gas. First off, they have
their regular meetings in the Pavek Musuem of Broadcasting (www.pavekmuseum.org), which is far
cooler for an audiophile than PeeWee's Playhouse. The small museum is crammed to the
rafters (no exaggeration) with historical audio and broadcasting gear. I felt awestruck in
the presence of their massive tube collection, which included many DeForrest audions. Then
I began exploring the collection in earnest and stumbled over some real gems.
Such as one of the original AEG Magnetophons brought into
the country after WWII! That's right, one of the first tape recorders in existence. This
one was brought back by Bing Crosby's broadcast engineer and was used to record the 1947
and '48 seasons of der Bingle's radio show. While I was oohing and ahhing over it, Tom
Mittelstaedt casually strolled over and turned it on. The brick red tape on the reel was
one of the originals from the 1947 season and it sounded fantastic as Bing dueted
with Mildred Bailey on "Old Rocking Chair." I felt like I was hearing ghosts.
AEG Magnetophon (photo courtesy of the Pavek Museum of
Broadcasting)
Museum visitor, Minneapolis Southwest High School student Dan
Herzberg, playing RCA model Thereimin. (photo courtesy of the Pavek Museum of
Broadcasting)
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Tom also fired up a 1912-vintage Murdock
rotary spark-gap radio transmitter (similar to the one on the Titanic), which
probably shut down all communication at the nearby Twin Cities Airport. It certainly was a
viscerally exciting demonstration, what with all the generator noise, mechanical linkages,
and three-inch sparks jumping all over the place. So that's why they call naval
radio-operators "Sparky."
John Atkinson and I also got to play an early RCA Theremin,
which was a huge thrill. It just illustrated the tremendous difference in class between
us: I attempted to play "Good Vibrations," while he undertook Beethoven's
"Ode to Joy."
But cool as the museum was, it was the ASM meeting that was
the corker. Ah, my kind of people! Turnout was high to hear JA, but they let me sit on the
podium next him -- just as if I belonged there. We answered questions on a broad range of
topics, from where we think two-channel is going (we reached a consensus on that one: Hell
if we know) to whether online magazines will eliminate the need for print magazines.
(JA's a print guy, so you know his answer; mine is that electronic magazines pose
no real threat to print until they reach a point where you can carry them into the
bathroom with you).
We could tell from the questions that the membership of the
ASM ranged from hardcore objectivists to tweakazoid subjectivists -- and yet everyone got
along really well. In fact, each faction seemed to express an affectionate skepticism
toward the other that was downright brotherly. I enjoyed my time there and highly
recommend that all visiting firemen stop by the Pavek Musuem and the Audio Society of
Minnesota (www.visi.com/~asm/index.html).
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Then it was on to Northfield, MN and the campus of Carleton
College, where JA and Jim Johnston, an ATT research scientist working with surround sound
models for music, were scheduled to record Cantus, and I got to be the
writer-in-residence.
Cantus is a twelve-voice men's chorus specializing in music
from around the world. In this single session, they recorded songs in Gaelic, Zulu,
Finnish, Mandarin, and Dravidian. And that was just to warm up! We also got some doozies
in English. I was really impressed by the group's professionalism -- they worked ten-hour
days, recording complete and partial takes long beyond the point where it was fun anymore.
I've worked with seasoned pros who were far less focused on the goal -- these guys are
serious musicians who are seriously concerned about good sound.
I hope to go visit Jim Johnston at his lab soon -- and when
I do, I'll report on how his surround system works (assuming there are no non-disclosure
constraints). He was recording in seven channels, but he didn't bring a mixer so we could
only listen to two channels at a time. However, his recorder displays did a grand job of
mapping the hall, and we amused ourselves between takes by watching the progress through
the stage area of the various participants as they walked around. We got so we knew
exactly where on the stage they were just by watching the meters blink. (I know it sounds
silly, but you get punchy sitting in a recording booth for hours at a time -- especially
when you have to turn off all ventilation fans for noise reasons.)
I'll write more about the recording sessions at a later
date, but what I heard though my reference headphone setup at the venue (HeadRoom MAX,
Sennheiser HD-600s, Kimber KCAG) suggests that a stunningly real-sounding vocal recording
will come out of the endeavor. Stay tuned. (For more information about Cantus, go to www.cantusmensinging.org.)
And then, as if I hadn't had enough fun, I flew home,
dropped off my dirty laundry and took back off to Montreal, where I joined Doug Schneider
and Marc Mickelson at the Festival du Son & Image. God, I surely do love my
job!
They’ll let anybody across that border -or-
Wes Phillips visits the Montreal Hi-Fi Show
When Doug Schneider and Marc Mickelson suggested I might
want to come up north for the Son et Image show, I agreed immediately. I'd never been to
the Montreal Festival, but after more CESes than I can recall and over a decade of Stereophile
Shows, I figured I knew what to expect.
I was knocked out by this jewel of a show -- it's
everything that CES and the Stereophile Hi-Fi Shows aren't: relaxed, personal,
friendly and sane. My wife and I arrived late on Friday, the opening day, thanks to a
driving sleet/snow storm that scrambled airline schedules and had pedestrians following
complicated paths from curb to curb, to avoid stepping in the icy slush.
But once inside the Four Points and the Delta, things
couldn't have been warmer. The crowds were friendly and polite to a fault, and most of the
rooms were set up extremely well. Good sound was the norm -- and demo levels, for the most
part, were respectful of the other exhibitors. The complete absence of dueling subwoofers
was one reason why this show seemed so much more relaxed than the others -- I wasn't
clenching my teeth the whole while.
I really enjoyed hearing native-grown Canadian
manufacturers demo their gear. I heard fantastic sound in the Simaudio room (all
Simaudio gear driving a pair of Dynaudio Confidence 5s) and then, across the hall, from
Gershman Acoustic's beautiful new Opera Sauvage loudspeaker (USD $15,500). Audio Aero, a
French company, new to me, was providing fine sounds with their Prestige monoblocks (USD
$29,500) and spiffy 24/192 Capitole CD player (USD $6495) -- in one room with a fairly
conventional pair of loudspeakers, in another with a wild horn/coaxial combo from RL
Acoustique, Lammhorn 1.8s, that seemed to utilize untreated paper cones. I heard a CD of Miles
Smiles on them and it sounded spookily real.
I loved the sound in Nagra's room. They were playing
their jewel-like PL-P preamp (USD $9500) and VPA monoblocks (USD $12,400) and a pair of
Sonus Faber speakers. What I swooned for was Rene LaFlamme's warm, natural recording of
Doreen Smith's In the Still of the Night: A Tribute to Julie London [Fidelio
FACD006]. Wowsa! It's a winner. You can order it at www.fidelioaudio.com -- and you should.
 David Wilson gave a popular
(lines at the door all weekend) demo of the latest X-1s, coupled to a Watchdog sub, which
mimicked the natural dynamics of live music like no other audio system I've ever heard.
Later in the weekend, Peter McGrath scheduled a private demo of some of his four-channel
recordings (made with Jerry Bruck's sphere), which were absolutely yummy (using MAXXes for
the rear channels). Multichannel, when done right -- which it mostly isn't, I hasten to
add -- is awfully convincing. That last little smidge of realism offered by recorded
ambience in the rear channels is the angel's share -- the difference between superb and
sublime.
We also saw some spectacular-looking HDTV demos from
stand-alone sets and from projectors that were almost affordable. I'm starting to think
that the price/performance ratio is beginning to favor the consumer. Could a widescreen TV
be in my future? Oh, don't look at me like that -- you know you want one, too.
Best of all were the Montreal audiophiles, who struck me as
intelligent and experienced and who asked excellent questions, both to the folks demoing
and to those audio journalists they recognized.
Would I go again? Just try to stop me.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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