Loudspeaker Designer Albert Von Schweikert Does the Ultimate Demo at CES
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| (Left to right) Dana Abel, Chris Kokesh, Laura Quigly (members of the Misty River Band); Todd Peterson (marketing and communications, Transamerica Audio Group); Carol Harley (Misty River Band); Brad Lunde (president, Transamerica Audio Group); Chris Huston (FOH engineer). |
"After building eleven prototypes," Von Schweikert comments, "we decided that the only way to know for sure if we've built the ultimate stereo reproduction system is use the best recording gear in the world, make a demo tape and play it back through the speakers." This bold "experiment" took place in front of live audiences everyday in the Chateaux Ballroom of the San Remo Hotel during the recent 2004 CES Show in Las Vegas.
The four-girl singing group The Misty River Band provided the music for the demo. This Portland group -- Dana, Chris, Laura and Carol -- sing and play Bluegrass, Country, Americana and Celtic music and accompany themselves on fiddle, accordion, upright bass, and acoustic guitar. They set up and performed between the two giant monolithic Von Schweikert loudspeakers.
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"In a recording/playback chain you have two elements that are very critical -- the transducers at each end of the chain," Von Schweikert says. In this case, for capturing the group's sound we used the very finest tube microphones from Brauner and Soundelux supplied by Transamerica Audio Group. These mics along with all the gear were carefully chosen over a six-month perusal period."
Todd Peterson from TAG chimes in with these session notes. "The mics we used were the Soundelux ifet7 on accordion, Soundelux E47 on Dana's vocal, Soundelux E49 on Chris' vocal and violin, Soundelux ELUX 251 on upright bass, Brauner Valvet Voice on Laura's vocal, Valvet Voice on Carol's vocal, and Brauner Phantom C on Carol's Guitar. One night, the Soundelux E49 was also a spectacular hit as the sole mic on the group's four-part harmonies."
All the mics were connected to the Geoffrey Daking 16-channel mixing console using custom Zero-Crystal cables made by Acoustic Zen. The board's output was fed to Ed Meitner's EMM Labs' A/D converters and then on to a Sony DSD stereo recording system. After listening to Misty River's performance in the room, renowned mixing engineer Chris Huston carefully balanced the singers and instruments for a "mirror image sound recording" accomplished by carefully selecting the best microphone for each singer and instrument and then finding its optimal mic placement.
Several test recordings were made to arrive at a correct balance of room ambience to direct sound captured by these sensitive microphones. Huston would quickly compare on electrostatic headphones what he heard live in the room to his mix coming out of the Daking console. The Von Schweikert speakers were not used for sound reinforcement only for playback.
For playback, the DSD recorder digital outputs were fed into an EMM Labs D/A converter and then to 250-watt monoblock Valve Amplification Company (VAC) tube amplifiers. "The amplifiers drove our VR11 speaker systems," Von Schweikert comments. "The speakers are over seven feet tall, weigh eight-hundred pounds and sell for $100K to $165K depending on options and finish. Each speaker has four, rear-mounted fifteen-inch woofers connected to built-in 2,000-watt amplifiers. Mounted up front are eight 9-inch woofers, two 7-inch mid-range drivers and four tweeters. One tweeter is wired out of phase, pointed to the rear and fed specially derived ambience information. Each speaker tower has controls for adjusting the level of each group of drivers to match the particular room. The XTC Model used for this demo comes with electronic crossovers and five separate stereo amplifiers for the two towers." Just after the speaker system was installed in the ballroom, Huston and Richard Rives from Rives Audio measured the room acoustically with sophisticated audio software and the Rives Audio PARC. The unit's three-band parametric equalizers along with RPG diffusers were used to tame any standing waves and room modes.
The overwhelming success of this demonstration was clear from the very first public performance. "We had a full house," Von Schweikert comments," standing room only, for each evening performance -- packed with dealers, distributors and the press. So far in the press and on the Internet, we're hearing that this was the closest to a live performance that they've ever heard and that the equipment was obviously the best in the world. But obviously the people in the room that made it happen -- Brad Lunde and Todd Peterson from TAG, Geoff Daking, Chris Huston, and myself -- were all key players too. It was great fun to be a part of this and I plan to purchase all the mics, converters, cables, etc. to start making recordings for an SACD release to be sold along with our speaker line."
Brauner mics meld the best design virtues of the past with the best materials of the future. Every German-made Brauner mic must excel in three areas: sonic quality, technical quality and build quality. Dirk Brauner makes sure each mic is hand-assembled and tuned with Class A mic amplifiers, custom transformers, and the purest signal path possible. Brauner microphones are used in major studios and scoring stages. Users include Erykah Badu, Sarah Brightman, Phil Collins, Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias, and Janet Jackson. Hundreds of movies have been scored with Brauner microphones using the Decca tree configuration, including The Pianist, Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, Armageddon and Brother Bear.
Soundelux mics are designed and engineered by David Bock. The Soundelux philosophy is to recreate the "ideal" vintage mic sound demanded by famous recording studios minus the agonizing and costly repair issues. When designing a new model, David always gets as close as he can to the original version. Soundelux mics are precision engineered to recreate the sound of the "original" and cost about half the going vintage price. Using a variety of Soundelux mics are recording engineers, KC Porter (Santana), Jerry Barnes (Roberta Flack and Chaka Khan), Dave Cline (Alison Krauss), and Mark Cross (Third Watch and ER).
Geoffrey Daking & Co. is a manufacturer following in the tradition of the great console manufacturers like Trident, Neve and API. Using his years of experience as a recording artist, studio engineer, producer, and studio designer, Geoff Daking has created a line of studio products whose sound quality and workmanship are second to none, especially considering their reasonable cost and product support.
For more information, go to www.transaudiogroup.com
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