Ampzilla, VMPS and Live Music at January CES

lifewithmusic · « **Reply #100 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 06:13 am »

I enjoyed three sessions in the VMPS room on Saturday. In one session I sad dead center, first row. The difference between live and recorded was very slight, much closer than I ever dreamed it would be. Very, very impressive. An outstanding effort by Brian and his crew. I can't imagine how it could have become better on Sunday, but if Brian says so, I believe him. During the end of rehearsal session I walked back back and forth from wall to wall in front of the row of chairs farthest back. I did this during the live and recorded performances, and I'm surprised to be able to report that on the piano recording, the whole back row would have had great sound. I guess I need to start modifying a room and saving pennies for some V60s.

Hopefully Brian will post the details of all the equipment and wire from mic to speakers . . .

ferenc_k · « **Reply #101 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 12:51 pm »

Congratulations for all of you guys. It sounded very good. Huge efforts and large success - at least for me. Thanks again.

John Casler · « **Reply #102 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 03:18 pm »

Here is the Stereophile Blog about the Live versus Recorded presentation.

Even James Bongiorno gets some Kudos for his keyboard skills which are quite impressive.

http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/

Housteau · « **Reply #103 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 04:03 pm »

The Alexis Park

Setting Up

Sound Checks

The Performances

ricmon · « **Reply #104 on:** 14 Jan 2009, 04:23 pm »

I would also like to extend a hardy congratulations to James Bongiorno as well. The Sons of Ampzilla amps are just flat out amazing and after last night I truly understand why big B chose these to show off his speakers. Me and a friend were listing to some live music captured at the sound board of a P-Funk concert last night and the volume was at live levels. During a guitar solo all of a sudden we were it by a serious transient peek and the volume increased by an order of magnitude. At this point the lights on the front panel went full RED and my heart jumped out of my chest as I rushed to reduce the volume. At this point I was fully expecting for some thing to let go but all was fine. No blown fuses, no burned tweeters….the amps just kept on doing what they do. This was truly an amazing display of reproducing the live experience at home.

Congrads to both Brian and James.

Ric

John Casler · « **Reply #105 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 02:21 am »

Here is a Photo of one of our "guest performers" Jason Serinus.

Jason is well known to Bay Area Audiophiles and also writes lots of thoughtful reviews.

Who knew he had such a GIANT talent as a WHISTLER???

He took over the stage and narrated the set ups to some superlative demonstrations of this talent.

Apparently he also has some connection to Charlie Brown Cartoons (animated) and the character "Woodstock".

Here he is in "MID-WHISTLE".

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #106 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 02:28 am »

Jason is a competition whistler. For us he reprised the routine he performed on the Johnny Carson Show some years back which included his "Peppermint Patty and Woodstock" cartoon scenes.

His sound is amazing, unique, and treasurable. I was very happy to invite this "Pavarotti of Pucker" to perform for us.

John Casler · « **Reply #107 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 02:29 am »

Also as mentioned before, in between acts James Bongiorno would take the opportunity to tickle the ivories to some very impressive tunes.

John Casler · « **Reply #108 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 02:32 am »

This photo is of the Recording Engineer (if I remember correctly his name was Steve)

He had the system quite dialed in.

John Casler · « **Reply #109 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 02:35 am »

This is another photo of the Orchestra, including our own Percussionist Monsieur Cheney awaiting the next big Cymbal Crash in Rhapsody.

Housteau · « **Reply #110 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 03:21 am »

And we can't forget Marcus

Rocket_Ronny · « **Reply #111 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 05:00 am »

Maybe I missed it, but what mics and pres were used?

Rocket_Ronny

ricmon · « **Reply #112 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 05:15 pm »

Brian I want to ask question concerning the way you have the speakers connect to the SoA 2000. It appears from the photo that one speak is connected to both channels (one lead on left channel and one lead on the right channel). I am using a pair of SoA's 2000 as mono blocks but have 1 speaker per amp connected to just one channel. Why are you connecting your speakers in this fashion, what are the benefits?

thanks
Ric

opnly bafld · « **Reply #113 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 07:00 pm »

Quote from: Rocket_Ronny on 15 Jan 2009, 05:00 am

Maybe I missed it, but what mics and pres were used?

Rocket_Ronny

From the "We Did It" thread by Big B, "Ray's crew has two sets of mics (an ORTF Schoeps pair, plus a Sennehiser 800 pair in XY) and must decide what to do based on headphone monitoring, since the speakers are still silent.".

John Casler · « **Reply #114 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 07:39 pm »

Quote from: Housteau on 15 Jan 2009, 03:21 am

And we can't forget Marcus

Yes Marcus was GREAT!

He perfromed a really challenging version of the John Legend Hit Ordinary People, which won a Grammy last year.

Have to say with a song that difficult, and not playing your own piano, he really did a great job. (with only about 30 min of rehersal with the keyboardist)

John Casler · « **Reply #115 on:** 15 Jan 2009, 08:44 pm »

Quote from: John Casler on 15 Jan 2009, 02:29 am

Also as mentioned before, in between acts James Bongiorno would take the opportunity to tickle the ivories to some very impressive tunes.

Silly me

I forgot to point out that the Photographer in this photo, is none other than John Atkinson of Stereophile.

Sorry John A.

mjosef · « **Reply #116 on:** 17 Jan 2009, 05:39 am »

I attended on Saturday afternoon, it was a blast to actually meet other VMPS-ers...John and David plus a couple in the audience. My sister was convinced that John Casler is a famous TV personality

From my seat in the back row, I thought the playback was quite close to the live performance...I rated it @around 85-90% of the real thing. On playback I thought Lesley voice lost a little of its airiness with a hint of 'chestiness', I thought "woodyish'(like I could almost hear the wood enclosure of the speakers) ...I guess the mid tone of her voice was reproduced with a slight boost...also I thought the sound of the bass player fingers hitting the strings lost a bit of its natural dynamic snap. Those two things stuck out in my impression. One more point...the playback level was a little lower varying from .5 - 1. dB.
But it was an effective and mostly successful(?) venture IMHO. Even my sister, a non audiophile, enjoyed the experience.

Lesley has a very delicate and airy voice, very relaxing to listen to. I bought two of her cds and she was very accommodating in autographing them both. Thanks Lesley. And thanks to John and David for being such gracious hosts, and Brian for putting it all together.

Brian Cheney · « **Reply #117 on:** 17 Jan 2009, 07:14 pm »

Lesley's voice was too far back in the mix so I moved her closer to the mic. This results in a phenomenon called the "proximity effect" which enhances the low and midbass response of the source. Radio announcers uses this effect to make themselves sound more authoritative. It's also called "chestiness".

Since we didn't have a mixing board or processing available we had to live with this slight coloration. You can count yourself a perceptive audiophile to have noticed.

We used a slightly lower than live playback level so as not to clip our playback amps. Due to mishaps we were down to only 100W channel on the mid/treble (we started with 200W which gave us sufficient headroom for live level reproduction).

mjosef · « **Reply #118 on:** 18 Jan 2009, 11:04 pm »

Thanks for explaining why I heard what I heard, always good to learn something.
After reading your detailed report in the other thread, one can only have more respect for the effort you expended in bringing this demo to fruition.
My only regret was not getting back there on Sunday to hear the final(and 'perfect' balance?) demo results.

John Casler · « **Reply #119 on:** 19 Jan 2009, 03:45 pm »

Quote from: mjosef on 17 Jan 2009, 05:39 am

I attended on Saturday afternoon, it was a blast to actually meet other VMPS-ers...John and David plus a couple in the audience. My sister was convinced that John Casler is a famous TV personality

It was great meeting you and your very lovely sister. I find "any" female who has the slightest interest in audio, a very rare gem. (especially if they think I am a TV personality)