"Master of Sound" event in The Hague, July '19
 

A couple of weeks ago, we attended another splendid demo in The Hague, at Chattelin Audio.
Those who follow my posts know I really appreciate the approach of the Chattelin team.

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Ben, in the middle, treated our room in such a professional way last year that we gladly stayed in contact to see his other activities in the music business.
As I wrote in earlier threads, he's involved in the whole audio chain: from recording in a fantastic studio, over importing and selling of gear, till installing it and treating the room of his clients.

This time, the show featured a couple of premieres.
First, Brendon Heinst, recording engineer, was going to present his work at the trptk studio and label.
Second, Benelux debut of the Hegel C-55.
Third: a surround set-up with 5 KEF Blade 2s. Just like in the trptk studio.
Fourth: explanation by a composer of his works, in the presence of some musicians (fifth).

Chattelin sell high end, but also nice entry level gear.

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Okay, into the room!

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5 Blade 2s.

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Cabling by Furutech, that sponsors the label.
Brendon told us he could never afford those crazily expensive custom-made cables without their support.
Everything in the studio is high end: the microphones, room treatment, cables, electronics.

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The Hegel C-55.

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5 x 150W into 8 Ohms, doubling each time into 4 Ohms and 2 Ohms.

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5 modules, each with its own power supply.

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This amplifier also exists as a C-53 and C-54 (3 and 4 channel versions).

The rears and the centre channel were driven by it, the fronts by a H590.

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That beast delivers 2 x 300W into 8 Ohms.

I don't know exactly why, because the C-55 seemed more than capable enough to deliver the power for all 5 KEFs.
Ben told us he wanted to imitate the trptk studio as closely as possible: the H590 houses the H30s the studio has.

Power handling:

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A more than full room.

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Johan Coorg, brand ambassador for KEF - I've seen him a lot of times during shows!
He's now doing PR work for Hegel also.

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He's always an entertaining person when he speaks about his beloved KEF (and now Hegel).

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Brendon Heinst, that is the young audio engineer we came for in the first place!
He's 28 years old but has already quite a lot of experience.
Studied music and art, and finally audio engineering, together with musicology and IT.
He wanted to really understand how for example Shostakovich came to his music, how a composition is built up, how it is played, and finally how to record it under the most ideal circumstances.
Worked with Bert van der Wolf (from Challenge Records and Turtle - see my separate thread).

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I've already posted a lot of the trptk albums.
They are all exceptionally well recorded.
Brendon explained how he came to the specific positioning of his microphones.
Basis: the classic 3 microphone set-up of Decca (the 'Decca Tree') in the 50s and 60s, that Bert van der Wolf further refined, and that he now develops even more.
It has to sound natural in 5.0, but also in 2.0, and even in mono (transistor radio), he said.

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Brendon demonstrated this albums from the Merging Hapi, the professional version of the Merging NADAC for consumers.

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First recording from the trptk label was with the fantastic cellist Maya Fridman.
Here she is during the pause, in company of Jacobus Thiele (percussionist - album 'Melting Textures').

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The album:

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Brendon played 'Fratres' from Arvo Pärt (for cello and piano).
Ben tuned my room with this piece.
It always moves me to tears at home (stereo).
In 5.0, it was even better, of course.

The recording was made in a small, 450 year old church.
It was quite challenging for Brendon to get both instruments in balance.
The piano overpowered the cello most of the time.
The end result: this version 'Fratres' is one of the most touching pieces I know.

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Brendon recorded more albums with Maya Fridman.
One of them get a very special mention in the Absolute Sound ("best recording from the last decades").

Johan Coorg asked him: "DSD or PCM?"
"Great question, difficult answer".
"Recordings in DSD-256 sound truly magnificent - cf. Channel Records - but you can't change anything about them or you have to make the conversion to PCM again. All those conversions don't improve things of course. I feel naked when I can't do any mastering and I don't like to be naked!"

Next piece came from this album:

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'Luiza' from Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Goose bumps!

Next: this album.

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Jan-Peter de Graaff, composer of one of the pieces, 'The Bells of St. Clement's', could talk about his work.

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If you like percussion recordings that sound freakin' real, have a listen! :thumbsup:


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