King Cello is a pretty darn good phono stage

Mike Lavigne said:

http://www.listeninn.com/product/407001-11250/Pre-Amplifier/Cello-Audio-Suite

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Thanks for the post!

Saw this:

For mastering purposes, Cello has developed the first new tape head playback circuitry in 30 years. Studios have been taking original analog tapes and making digital masters on very modern expensive equipment. Standard circuitry in tape decks between the playback head and the "real world" introduces audible sonic coloration, distortion, and noise which limit the quality of the final product. The Cello Audio Suite Mainframe can be equipped with P603/P301 modules which serve as state-of-the-art playback electronics for decks by Studer, Telefunken, Ampex, and other companies. Still this day, the musician/professional connection continues and many recording studios and engineers still use and acknowledge the sonic excellences of the Cello products in their work.

So I assume that Cello had converted their phono section into a tape head preamp back then?

MylesBAstor said:

Thanks for the post!

Saw this:

For mastering purposes, Cello has developed the first new tape head playback circuitry in 30 years. Studios have been taking original analog tapes and making digital masters on very modern expensive equipment. Standard circuitry in tape decks between the playback head and the "real world" introduces audible sonic coloration, distortion, and noise which limit the quality of the final product. The Cello Audio Suite Mainframe can be equipped with P603/P301 modules which serve as state-of-the-art playback electronics for decks by Studer, Telefunken, Ampex, and other companies. Still this day, the musician/professional connection continues and many recording studios and engineers still use and acknowledge the sonic excellences of the Cello products in their work.

So I assume that Cello had converted their phono section into a tape head preamp back then?

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Mike: As I remember, the Audio Suite's 'angle' if you will was its 'modular' nature so you could buy the types of preamp modules you needed. That's always been a cool concept. There is a modern German company doing this currently, I forget the name.

whart said:

Mike: As I remember, the Audio Suite's 'angle' if you will was its 'modular' nature so you could buy the types of preamp modules you needed. That's always been a cool concept. There is a modern German company doing this currently, I forget the name.

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This concept has been done for ages and is still strong today. In the recording business, we buy "500 series lunchboxes" to put as many and different modules in as we want... kinda' mix-n-match.

Bruce B said:

This concept has been done for ages and is still strong today. In the recording business, we buy "500 series lunchboxes" to put as many and different modules in as we want... kinda' mix-n-match.

View attachment 5173

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Bruce, of course. But not as prevalent in high end consumer audio as i might be, don't you think?

Latest King/Cello on the bench in the Lab. I'm hoping to get Ki and Charlie to run a tape tech session at RMAF or other audio event to educate tape buffs on how to align and keep their decks in top shape. Charlie is the 'Master' of the Sound Technology 1500 series tape/phono analyzers and I believe Ki has at least one of them. They are the pre-eminent pieces of test gear for tape and were made around 1980. Peter of Soundsmith has 3 complete ST workstations at his shop.

Video is from last week when Charlie was testing the latest preamp on the ST 1500.
Warning: This video is 5 minutes long and is only for tape anoraks, to use a brit phrase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ8GmZ8tKIk&list=UU4gW24yyVGFf0Z8U4v9NbbQ&index=1&feature=plcp

R

Cello Audio Suite modules

Charlie showed me a price sheet from 1991 from Cello recently. The P-603 module alone was $5000 at the time! You would have to buy the mainframe and power supply at the very least would be looking at over $12K just for tape!!!! This was in 1991 dollars! The 603 module was the most expensive module you could get for the Suite. I'm trying to get Charlie to write a book about Cello and Levinson, sort of like what Ken Kessler did for Quad and McIntosh.

Rich

considering ST 1500's are hard to get and impossible to service, traditional alignment techniques using signal generators, O-scopes and calibration tapes would be a more beneficial tech session for the tape head community on the whole, imo. Just a thought.

ST units regularly show up on ePay. They are not impossible to service- sometimes very difficult. I paid $200 for mine a few years ago and it was 100% operational. I do agree that the service seminar should include more commonly available test gear(oscilloscope, Signal generator, W/F meter, frequency counter and distortion analyzer).

Rich

Interesting thread - and thanks for the comments.

From the information I've gathered, the original phono card in the Audio Suite (introduced in 1985) was called the P100. Cello then made both an "upscale" (two slot) version called the P101, and an "economy" version called the B101. I'll have to check the prices for all three versions but my memory was that they started around $3K. The P603 tape playback card evolved from the P100. These boards all actually evolved from the (encapsulated) phono or low level modules that Tom Coelangelo designed for the (Levinson) ML-1. And this basic circuitry was used in their preamps up thru the ML-11.

Cello's later Encore preamps were all high level units. If you wanted phono capability, you bought a separate accessory "box", called the "Remote Phono" which was simply the P100 (or economy) B100 card in an aluminum chassis.

The Audio Suite was modular in nature, but the cards didn't just plug in because there was a common power / signal output busbar running the width of the whole chassis, to which each card was connected by maybe 8 screws. I have heard that perhaps one other "high end" company, maybe FM Acoustics?, attempted a similar configuration.

A few caveats about Rich's video of bench testing my latest K/C preamp. This was the first time I had applied any tests to it, so what is shown are "raw results" before doing any "tweaking". My main consideration besides frequency response, is noise. In addition to total NAB weighted noise, I am now really concerned about 60/120hz hum components, which can arise from what I'll call "improper lead dress". Typical total weighted values are below -82dB but I try to get the hum components <95dB. So when you turn the volume up to "11" you hear a rush of (component) noise but no "hum". With the "test" Nortronics head in my Stellavox, I can reliably get a frequency response from 20 to 20kHz within 2dB (after HF tweaking) - not counting the inevitable head bump which peaks around 60Hz. Based on feedback from most Studer customers, they don't have to "touch anything", the K/C seems just fine out of the box.

Charles

More on Cello

Mark Levinson started Cello around 1985. His original (Levinson) company went bankrupt in 1984 and was bought (along with his name) by a group of employees. Cello lasted until around 2000 when it also went bankrupt. Paul Jayson (who was at Cello for most of its existence) and a few other employees then started Viola Labs which continues the Cello tradition with products of similar variety and quality in Hamden, CT (some of our CT Audio Society members visited his facility). I understand that Jim McCullough worked in sales for Cello near the end. Around 2005 he went on to found Matthew James (his boy's names I believe), and now makes an amp and preamp based on Cello's "final" Encore series.

Charles

Thanks for the input and info Charles , I must say Mark's version on the history is a little different ..

Here's a cool trick I did with some of the tapes a client sent. I don't have a wow/flutter meter so I recorded the test tones into my workstation. The top tracing is a test tone from an MRL tape and the bottom test tone shows the flutter from the client's tape! If you wanted to, you can count the "ridges" to determine at what freq. the flutter is. This determined that the tape was recorded from a less than optimal machine.

Hi A.Wayne

"Thanks for the input and info Charles , I must say Mark's version on the history is a little different "

I'd love to hear Mark's version of the history. I went to the ML auction "viewing" (in 1984?) and ended up with some test equipment - so I know that part. The Cello events came to me via other sources. Actually I now remember that Mark supposedly sold Cello to a .com zillionaire in 1998 or so; the company then went bankrupt around 2000.

Charles

The man himself ....


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKtPmthrdYw

stellavox said:

"Thanks for the input and info Charles , I must say Mark's version on the history is a little different "

I'd love to hear Mark's version of the history. I went to the ML auction "viewing" (in 1984?) and ended up with some test equipment - so I know that part. The Cello events came to me via other sources. Actually I now remember that Mark supposedly sold Cello to a .com zillionaire in 1998 or so; the company then went bankrupt around 2000.

Charles

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Actually Charlie, Jim McCullough (who's been in the industry for quite some time and had spent time at Levinson, the company) bought Cello and now it's Mathew James. I posted the link earlier in the thread. I'll have the Cello Encore amp down here starting 10/5, so if you want to give it a listen, you're more than welcome.

Careful Myles , you might give up the Tooobs ...

A.wayne said:

Careful Myles , you might give up the Tooobs ...

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Nah, there are some ss amplifiers that I could live with. Loved the Rowlands years ago on the ML. It'll be interesting to hear the Cello since they claim it works really well with the MLs too. They're also bringing along the Cello strings IC and speaker cables. (I'll need a SE to balanced connection for the Cello amps.

A.wayne said:

The man himself ....


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKtPmthrdYw

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Hi,

Thank you for making me aware of this -- certainly interesting

A.wayne said:

The man himself ....


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKtPmthrdYw

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Wanted to ask him about his tapes from ML-5, but all we talk about was his latest pharmaceutical challenges and odd meditation he is into these days...Having a young wife then leave you with your young son would do that to you, I guess...
However, the lunch was good.