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I had dinner last evening with a studio musician




PAINTING: "Double Portrait of Nikola Tesla"

Jon Risch,

You're correct that various audiophile insanity' of yesterday can become the mainstream of today.

Only last evening I had dinner with a guitarist friend, Tim, who had come straight from his weekly session at Sony recording the score for an epiode of "The Simpsons"- along with 40 other musicians I might note- they apparently use quite a large group for the series' music. As well as jazz clubs, he plays on the Oscars and Emmy shows and for feature films.

Tim has about 40 guitars and 20+ amplifiers- all tube driven except a tiny "lunchbox" amplifier he uses in small rooms and practice. He has a high quality home studio- Schoeps microphones and MOTU interfaces with Mac.

I started talking about home audiophile matters and mentioned I had recently installed new speaker cables ( Audioquest Rocket 88, 2 X 15' 48V DBS) that made an astounding improvement in my Audio Research SP10 > D115 > Vandersteen 2C system. Tim jumped in with a description of the custom guitar cables he has made here in Los Angeles, which average about $400 each. I then mentioned that the change of the stock power cord on a Cambridge Audio 640C V2 had saved it from being sold as the Audioquest NRG-2 converted the dry lifeless sound to a dynamic, detailed, and even quieter machine. Tim was fascinated and said he had been looking into power cords. This was originally motivated from the concern that he sometimes has to use very long ones- the Sony studio is apparently something like a 60' X 100' room- and there could be a loss of quality- He also is interested in power conditioners.

Tim mentioned that many of his colleagues in the studio musician world also use and discuss special guitar cables, and even at a more regular retail level now asking for Canare and so on by name, and that his acquaintances are beginning to pay more pay attention to high quality patch cords, using the "weakest link" analogy. Tim also is aware and specifies amplifier tube choices.

It's not surprising that subtle audiophile concerns will ease into the professional world as apparently they spend time discussing the tools of their trade. And, as highly paid as studio musicians are, and the competition for this work, they search to optimise their sound.

It's amusing to think of the cable naysayers' insistence that cables can't sound different, which to me seems to a kind of egocentric perceptual jealousy- this type can't hear it so they're adamant neither can you or I. This I believe must derive from those who have not bothered to train their listening, actually have reduced hearing ability, and/or perhaps don't have a reasonable aural memory.

Cheers,

Bambi B


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