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 Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants

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PostSubject: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeThu Sep 12, 2013 6:15 am

TuneLand Welcomes Harold Cooper

On the way to stereo writing heaven (Stereophile) people pass through the city of Albuquerque, NM. On my journeys there I would visit every audio shop along the path as in that day there were many stereo stores with a large percentage of them carrying RoomTune. I can remember these stores in two ways, box movers and listening salons. Salons were often overlooked because the stores tried to wrap up the amp of the month products and would try to somehow push away the existance of the home dealer. "if you didn't have a store front" well Question  I found these stores however to be ran by folks usually who spent less time showing the chassis to people and more time listening.

While the crowd was talking about the myths and legends of high end audio Harold was discovering the art of creating the soundstage.

After years of little contact I'm happy to see Harold on the pages of TuneLand.

Harold is in a far different room than the one back west and we are setting out to capture the magic.

The journey should be fun and you who live near or are clients of Sound Consultants are more than welcome to join us on this midwest listening trip.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeThu Sep 19, 2013 4:08 am

Harold has moved to a typical midwest basement with (in the summer) high humidity and blocks walls.

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants H9

The first thing we took a look at was the joist ceiling. Sometimes these do work but most of the time the defussion patterns are a nightmare. The test to see if this is a good or bad ceiling for sound is the ole cardstock trick.

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants H11

and

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants H12

harold's response

"Just wanted to let you know that I got things set up again just the way they were prior to covering the ceiling. Things sound WAY better, not just a little bit, WAY better! The sound is focused now, the detail is there, and the transients are quick. Guess I didn't realize how bad it was before"

Now we can look at the tuned SAM that I will be making and some extra wall wood that was done in the past for Harold.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeThu Oct 03, 2013 7:41 pm

Harold has been at work and asking about the different toys.

He's thinking of getting the SAM wall behind him and also has 2 36" PZC's from his old location.

First what to do with the PZC's?

Harold ask if a stand should be made turning them into floorstanders but I'm thinking because they are really meant to be wall mounts maybe not unless the frame (which is only .25" thick) can be used as a support without hurting the performance. Is this practical? Not sure and maybe there could be a better fixed solution.

However if he had a couple of these

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants M69

This could be really cool.

My gutt though is telling me if fixed here would be a spot for one of the 36"

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants M70

One thing for sure the more sound of wood that is put in here the better.

I would also consider putting a tuning board on a slant right here.

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants M71
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeThu Mar 27, 2014 10:03 pm

So Harold Cooper is visiting "TuneLand Vegas"  Very Happy 
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeFri Mar 28, 2014 12:04 pm

Is this Harold's first visit to the HQ of the Tune?

Hey Harold, please post your first impression of the sound at Mr Green's.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeFri Mar 28, 2014 1:06 pm

First impression was just "oh my God!". I have been talking about the tune with Michel for many years, and have experienced some of it at shows when he used to have rooms set up, and I use his products in my own system (only pillows and some old PZC's) which have made a big difference, BUT I was totally unprepared for what I heard! The sound was all around me, and in total balnce, front to back and side to side. Initially I found (for me) that I had to leave my head in one spot for the particlar recordings he chose to play to get the full effect. But, I am back again today and after a little tuning, everything is in focus as it should be in any head position. That proves that all people hear differently, and there is no "one size fits all" which I knew anyway, I have discovered the magic of the tune, and that his systems allow the listener to configure it perfectly for their ears and their recordings.

I also want to add that I am now sitting in this bedroom as I write this, and I still hear a real sound stage coming from the music room!

Bottom line - I was skeptical at first, but now I am a true believer. Everyone should have a system that sounds like this. I can't wait until I get mine!
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeSat Mar 29, 2014 2:16 pm

Having fun here with Michael. Spent the day yesterday learning about wood and helping him with some projects like sanding and finishing. Today is supposed to be a day cutting wood. My main take away from yesterday was I now know how to listen to wood and was amazed at what a diiference just a swipe of sand paper will make to the sound!
Heard some great sounds this morning - live Pearl Jam and Robin Trower. The live recording had the ambience of the hall (unusual for a rock recording) and was very real. I also realized there's a lot more going on in Bridge Of Sighs than I thought!
As all of you know, all recordings are different, and a proper system will reveal those differences. That's why we all love this hobby!
Just experienced a system "reset" - things were not sounding quite as good as we expected and by simply picking the transformer up off the tuning block and setting it back down, the magic was back!
Stay tuned for more!
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeSun Mar 30, 2014 11:35 am


Hi Harold

Wish Sonic was there too!

Can you take one recording you heard at Michael's and describe more fully what images you heard from the plane of the loudspeakers to your listening chair and to the wall behind you? Was everything in the space between the loudspeakers to the wall in front of the listener? Did the soundstage go wider than the room? Was it ambience or instruments?

Where was the lead vocals in relation to the instruments? When you heard the ambience of the live recording, where were the audience handclaps in relation to your listening seat and the loudspeakers?

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeSun Mar 30, 2014 12:14 pm

Oh yes....forgot an important question, Harold.

How loud were you playing the Trower Bridge album and other stuff you listened to>?

Could you hold a conversation with Mr Green in the room in a normal voice or did you have to shout/turn down the volume?

Of course if you had an SPL meter and took a reading tell me  Very Happy 

One of the things Sonic could not get a fix on is how loud tunes listen. I listen to my baroque and classical musick at 65 to 70 dB average for small ensembles and 70 to about 78 dB average for larger ensembles and jazz measured at my listening chair.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeSun Mar 30, 2014 12:42 pm

Hi Sonic,

One of the artists I listened to was one of Michael's favorite femal vocalists, Julie Cruz.  Don't know if you know her either, but she has a wonderful voice with an almost spooky hovering quality to it.  She was always dead center in front of me no matter how I moved my head.  The music filled the space around her, across the front and around the sides of my head, with a bit in back as well.  The soundstage went much wider than the room, and the trailing edges of transients and ambience went out even wider.  

In the live Pearl Jam, the handclaps were basically all around me but not necessarily in front of me, as though I were in the front row of the hall with the stage in front of me and the audience all around me.

Regarding volume, I like to listen about 2 volume clicks louder than Michael - don't know about dB level as we do not have a meter.  The volume is a matter of personal taste - the sound image is the same at any listening level that I wanted.  

Yesterday I learned and made the first pass on the parts for a complete platform with the initial finish coat.  I also helped Michael choose some great sounding redwood at the lumberyard.  Today we will be working on more of the same.

My best to you, Sonic, and anyone else reading these posts!

Harold
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeMon Mar 31, 2014 9:40 am


Hi Harold

That's a very clear description of what the Tune is capable of. Certainly this is due to everything -- the equipment, the supports and the room treatment -- working together. Given my limitations, the best Sonic can aim to do is to get closer to what you heard.

The good thing is the Low Tone Redwood blocks are doing something very good in my system (described in my thread).

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeMon Mar 31, 2014 12:47 pm

Hi Sonic

I think Harold is going to give you the Abbey Road cricket test, but then we are going to start testing wood and flavoring things for you to hear how he reacts to the flavor changes.

An interesting note: we have not been tuning recording particular but instead listening like audiophiles one recording after another.

Another interesting note if I may. As I spend time with Harold here I'm noticing he as the days go on is starting to listen a little closer to my volume settings than at first. I believe this may be because Harold is focusing more on the "all around" sound compared to the typical audiophile straight forward sound. We will see what he thinks of "harvest".

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants M154

Keep the questions coming, he's having fun with this.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeMon Mar 31, 2014 1:12 pm

Hi Sonic,

Regarding the Abbey Road crickets, they were shockingly way outside the room on the right hand side (frogs too) - I'm talking like 8-10 feet outside.

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists - I have played much of his music myself (my avatar shows that I am a guitar player). Harvest is obviously a mult-track recording done back in the days when the recording engineer was striving for that "stereo" effect. That was very evident on the song Harvest, as Neil's guitar in the non vocal portions was separated from Neil for effect. This was much more evident on Michael's system than on other high end systems (like mine at home) that I have listened to this song on. Also, his voice had much more depth and space than I am used to.

Made the first pass at making some platforms yesterday and am learning Michael's voicing procedures to some degree. On to more platform work today!

Harold
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeMon Mar 31, 2014 9:54 pm

I'm looking forward to hearing Harold's comments after the last listening  Very Happy 

update

testing some light weight LT Redwood Blocks

We were going to go with something (recording wise) that had a big stage to test the Blocks we were doing, but decided to keep Neil on, who knows right. Well Harold comes downstairs with a look on his face like, you gotta hear. nice

 affraid  well I don't want to take away from his posting, but sitting down to Harvest after letting it settle a little was  Shocked Where did the room go? This room is only maybe 9x9, but that stage after Harold's listening was, well about ten feet outside of the left and right, lets see, 10 + 10 + 9 in a small room = in my book about a 29' wide Neil Young playback, which makes the recording extremely believable. My favorite (I think) is when the orchestra kicks in, that's until the next song starts then for me the love affair changes to that song over the last. Earlier today I could listen to a song, now I have to listen to whole thing, start to finish. A song ends, I for a second start to get up, then can't, I'm pulled back into the chair. "Harold, I guess we might not be getting together tonight  Laughing , not sure Neil is going to let me leave. The stage is still growing.

our listening during the visit

Harold is a great listener and that makes it double fun for me. We both apperiate the same things and are fast to see the importance of music cues and the space of a recording. Might be a musician thing, but it's cool to hang with someone that is heading in the same directions (letting the music play and do it's thing). Nothing worst than two audiophiles telling each other what to hear  Rolling Eyes  or saying this is right or wrong. Our listening has been about letting the music grow and seeing where it takes us on the journey. Both of us feel the same way about that, and kinda picked on a few of our audio designer buddies who say "listen to this" then they go about describing a sound that is nothing like the picture painted (don't tell anyone).  Understanding that everyone has their own ears on, and style, still walking into the "audiophile sound" is not what we have been going after since Harold got here. Space is a major part of our listening sessions along with the interaction of the instruments and not only how they sound but how they relate and contribute to the over all. Harold's sensitivities have been outstanding and when he does describe the sound to me I can totally see into his vision and can't wait to check it out.

Looking forward to tomorrow but also looking forward to stop writting this and go take another listen  Very Happy
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeTue Apr 01, 2014 9:31 am


Hi Michael and Harold

The cricket test in Sonic's system is very strange -- the crickets are separated from the frogs. Crickets are a few feet thru the wall in the right rear wall ahead of the corner but the frogs are outside the right speaker. The restart of the loop tape is very clear. And the crickets move to the left past the Left speaker.

A 29ft stage for Harvest --WOW!

This is a recording I am very familiar with. My question over to Harold's thread.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeTue Apr 01, 2014 9:38 am


Hi Harold

If you took any track of Harvest as an example -- can you describe how things pan out in the 29ft stage that Michael talked about.

I am interested to learn what instruments you hear in the 10ft zones each side of the 9ft room. How big are the images?

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeTue Apr 01, 2014 1:13 pm

Hi Sonic,

I'll try to address this using a couple of Neil's songs. One of my favorites is Needle and the Damage Done which I have played many times on my acoustic guitar. It was surprising to me to hear the full body of Neil's voice about 6-8 feet behind the front wall, and the ringing of the guitar body after every note. Even at the end of the song when the applause starts, I could still hear the guitar body above the crowd noise - and the hand claps were all around me.

Moving on to A Man Needs a Maid - Neil's voice was as before, and the piano was full sized and to my left. When the orchestra came in it was all around me, the strings and the horns were very realistic, with the bells hanging in space. It's playing right now as I right this, and I'm still getting a soundstage in the next room.

On an electric guitar piece like Alabama, the pick strikes on the strings were obvious and the slightly over driven guitar growl was there like I was sitting in front on the amp - just like when I've played it myself on stage with my amp behind me.

That's all for today. These new extra light weight tuning blocks are very special!

Harold
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeWed Apr 02, 2014 9:49 am


Hi Harold

This is fascinating! Sonic played Harvest (CD) on my system after proper warm up and here's what I got:

A Man Needs a Maid

Neil's voice is about 2 to 3 feet behind the plane of the speakers, focused but not "hi-fi small".

Piano is full sized and images to the left of centre at the Clampracks

The orchestra's direct instruments are roughly in the plane of the speakers but when the full orchestra kicks in, the impression of size is about 3x the width of the room and front to back goes quite a through the front and rear walls. Huge. Bells hang in space, horns melodious and hold the tune.

Alabama

Neil's voice images as with A Main Needs a Maid

I can hear the pick on the strings plus his clear notes as well as the notes he mutes as part of his unique guitar playing style.

The Needle and the Damage Done

Neil's voice is about 3 ft behind the plane of the speakers therefore about 5 ft from the front wall into the room. The acoustic guitar is in the same place as Neil's voice as you'd expect since he is singing and playing at the same time.

I can hear his foot taps, his picking and muting of notes and the percussiveness of the heel of his hand on the guitar bridge.

The applause is not surrounding me but "shooting out" the sides of the area around the speakers to the right and left beyond the room walls though how far I have difficulty in telling.

Playing this track on Michael's system, where is the acoustic guitar in relation to Neil's voice which you say is "6 - 8 behind the front wall" -- I take this to mean that Neil is imaging beyond the front wall in the yard?

Comments and observations from you and Mr Green on what I am getting with this recording.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeWed Apr 02, 2014 1:31 pm

Sonic,

It sounds like you are getting a lot of the same spacial cues that I am hearing, which is great. Regarding Neil's voice and guitar, they are definitely togther, just deeper into the front soundstage.

I put together a couple of the current platform designs for Michael yesterday (only 24x24), and he put them in this AM under the speakers. I just listened and things are already better than before - basically a lot more body and completeness of all the images, and it will only get better as this is only after 5 hours of settling time.

Michael will add his comments later. This is my last day here, so this will be my last post for a few days. Have to get caught up on lots of non audio things when I get back home.

My Best to you Sonic,

Harold
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeWed Apr 02, 2014 2:20 pm

Hi Sonic

As Harold said, it does sound like your stage is fairly similar to here with the exception of the hall going around us as if we are a little more inside the recording. And when I say that I don't want to give the impression of a headphone sense but more of, you stepped into a hall and it is live with sounds happening all around you while the entertainer is at the stage. Sometimes it is not even a sound as much as a feeling that you are inside the stage. The great thing about this recording is it takes you from intimate to big and back, which really makes you apperiate the space.

For me here's the cool thing. This is a 9 x 9 x 8 room with a receiver, CD player, very little treatment, and a set of mini monitors. Let me repeat that "a set of mini monitors". You have no mini monitor sound going on here, but full range, lush, clean, expansive sound.

Now that I say all of this, I feel it's time I get serious with this room and setup. Going from the Music Ply platforms to the Brazilian Pine/LTR ones has my ears a flame and I'm hearing things I want to implement into the sound. Over the next several days I will be hearing the platforms heading toward settling, which to me is when my enjoyment level will be smiles, and I will start to be able to put my finger on just how much this platform out does the Ply and what happens as I start to tune. I'm happy that it is nice out of the box, so to speak, but the magic is yet to be discoved and I know this is the tip of what is to come with these additions to the sound. I will give more music info on my thread  Smile 

It has been a great experience listening with Harold, and I am already looking forward to his return and he hasn't even left yet. BTW, rumor has it that Harold will be installing a "tunable room" at his place.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeWed Apr 02, 2014 7:58 pm

One final post before I leave Michael's place - with the platforms I threw together yesterday just settling for 12 hours, the soundstage is now about 40 feet wide! The orchestra on Man Needs A Maid just goes swoosh out to about 40 feet. The transients are starting to fill in and the layering is incredible. One final WOW!

I can't imagine how good this will be with settling time and Michael's tweaking.

Well, it's back to reality for me now - I'm on my way out the door.

Later,

Harold
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeThu Apr 03, 2014 1:14 am

Well it was simply fantastic having Harold here. It was like having our own private CES.

I'm going to move to my thread but not without saying that the stage has changed even more in the last few hours. I have to say that I almost thought there was something wrong with the system when I got home from my last meeting with Harold. Entering the house and going up the stairs it almost felt like entering a studio. The Hi Fi-ness of the system was completely gone. I wasn't sure I liked it till I got to the rooms entrance then I could clearly here exactly how the engineer was adding the effects and flavor. I could hear it but didn't understand it that is. The more I listened, I could hear that there was some unusual inner mic things going on that I hadn't noticed before, like there was a feeback kind of thing going on, and the use of (am I nuts) different acoustical flavors feeding back through the system. I couldn't help myself and had to research the recording.

""The Needle and the Damage Done" was taken from a live performance at UCLA on 30 January.

The recording of the remainder of Harvest was notable for the spontaneous and serendipitous way it came together. The story is told in an article in Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which includes interviews with the producer, Elliot Mazer, among others.

Young arrived in Nashville in early February 1971 to perform on a broadcast of Johnny Cash Show where Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor would also appear. Mazer had opened Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville, and invited Young to dinner (or breakfast according to another Mazer interview) on Saturday, February 6, to convince him to record his next project at the studio. Neil admired the work of the local studio musicians known as Area Code 615 who had recorded there and was interested. Young had been working on new songs that he had been performing on the road, as seen by the repertoire on Live at Massey Hall 1971, and told Mazer that all he needed was a bassist, drummer, and pedal steel guitarist. Young made the decision to start recording that very evening.

Since many of the Area Code 615 musicians were working on a Saturday night, Mazer scrambled to find drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond (who was just walking down the street), and steel-guitarist Ben Keith. That night, they laid down the basic tracks for "Old Man", "Bad Fog of Loneliness", which remained unreleased on compact disc until Live at Massey Hall 1971 in 2007 (though it was included on Young's live "Red Rocks" DVD released in the year 2000), and "Dance Dance Dance" which was also left off the album but showed up that year on the debut Crazy Horse album.

According to liner notes in Archives Volume 1, "Heart of Gold" was only recorded on Monday 8 February with the same basic line-up as the 6 February session. However, it has been reported that after taping the Johnny Cash Show on the evening of Sunday 7 February, Young invited Ronstadt and Taylor to come back to the studio with him. The three sat on a couch and recorded the background vocals for "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man." Taylor picked up Young's Banjo guitar (a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar) and overdubbed a part for the latter song.

"A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" were recorded by Nitzsche with the London Symphony Orchestra in early March in the wake of Young's appearance on the BBC and concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

"Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and "Journey Through the Past", along with overdubs by the session musicians James McMahon (piano on "Old Man") and John Harris (piano on "Harvest"), and Teddy Irwin (second acoustic guitar on "Heart of Gold"), were recorded in later sessions in April. A solo piano recording of "Journey Through the Past" from Young's winter 1973 tour was released on Time Fades Away.

The electric-based songs were recorded in a barn at Young's ranch in California in September, where the master takes were recorded at the end of the month. Using a remote recording system, Mazer set up PA speakers in the barn for monitors rather than have the players wear headphones. This resulted in a lot of "leakage" as microphone picked up sound from other instruments, but Young and Mazer liked the sound. "Are You Ready for the Country", "Alabama", and "Words" were recorded in these sessions with Buttrey, Drummond, Keith, along with Jack Nitzsche on piano and lap steel. Young named this band, which would accompany him on his tour in the winter of 1973, The Stray Gators.

Background vocals by Crosby, Stills & Nash were later recorded by Mazer in New York.

Mixing was done both at Quadrafonic and at Young's house. During playback at the ranch, Mazer ran the left channel into the PA speakers still in the barn and the right channel into speakers in the house. With Crosby and Nash beside him Young sat outside listening to the mix. When asked about the stereo balance, he called out, "More barn.""

Hearing all the effects with such defined clarity today and continuing this evening is a real treat. I feel like Neil unlocked the door and invited us in.

thank you Harold for a great week Exclamation 
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeFri Apr 25, 2014 7:03 am

Michael Green wrote:
Hi Sonic

I think Harold is going to give you the Abbey Road cricket test, but then we are going to start testing wood and flavoring things for you to hear how he reacts to the flavor changes.

An interesting note: we have not been tuning recording particular but instead listening like audiophiles one recording after another.

Another interesting note if I may. As I spend time with Harold here I'm noticing he as the days go on is starting to listen a little closer to my volume settings than at first. I believe this may be because Harold is focusing more on the "all around" sound compared to the typical audiophile straight forward sound. We will see what he thinks of "harvest".

Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants M154

Keep the questions coming, he's having fun with this.

I was quite intrigued to hear about tuning with wood. Can someone give a more detailed description of how this is done, IE - where to use it, how much wood to use and types of wood preferred.
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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeFri Apr 25, 2014 7:34 pm

Hi Tim

Harold is art shopping for the weekend but I'll pass along the post. Your stuck with me and any of the others for now.

BTW while were talking, it's nice to see you on the Stereophile forum. It's really hard sometimes for someone who is use to following a certain way of doing things to all of a sudden get hit in the face with variable tuning. We are (I was) so use to changing out systems to get different results that it was a must for me to figure out why systems are not more flexible. I guess it was slapping me in the face a little more than some of my friends because they weren't sitting there during the Atlanta Symphony rehearsal and then coming back to the store to listen. I was doing 8 classical rehearsal a week because not only was I doing house sound but I also did the chambers. That meant 10 different halls that I was in and out of, plus my own listening rooms. I couldn't do this without questions about why audio products couldn't play the whole piece of music. I read the reviews and traveled to the shows but as much as I heard the audiophile industry talk about each sound and then me listening to that sound. I knew something was not right. We shouldn't be lining up 5000 different sounds and trying to match them to music, we should be making our systems able to play any music. I can see that this bugs some of the guys on Stereophile, but what can I say.

tuning your products

There are two parts to using the wood and other parts of the tune to get the results we talk about. The first thing is to see how tunable the products someone has is, and the second thing is to help that person find the right transfer toys to get the sounds they want. I'd recommend reading some of the other threads here because you will be able to see the process each person goes through. Also the www.tuneland.info archive has a lot of info too.

to start though

If you take a look at your system, there are many places where the parts could be dampening or blocking the audio signal. Screws, bolts, ties, chassis, clips, heavy circuit boards, power cord connections, interconnect jackets and ends, wall outlets, bent cable, glue, gaskets... it goes on forever in High End. The very first thing I suggest to someone starting is don't take my word. Go to your components and make the first turn yourself. Turn the screws on your speakers and wall outlets and take off a chassis top, and loosen a few screws. If your sound doesn't change after this you need to let us take a look at the system cause something is wrong. You might have rubber all over the place or some of these sand filled mdf boxes or whatever but it is something stopping your setup from opening up.

Once you turn a screw or two and hear the difference (good or bad) sit back a minute and look at the whole system. You are in charge of your sound, and if you take your system down to the point where it is pure signal you could start back up making the sonic decisions of the sound. Don't want to mess up your components, we'll recommend ones that are very tunable to play with without spending a lot of cash. I say this because once you start opening up the sound your going to be shocked. So shocked that you may find yourself removing almost the whole component. Again look at what others have done.

The woods I like to use are super dried and then finished and cured. At this point you could go DIY but you might want to read the difference in sound between the DIY and my goodies. I have really spent a lot of time on voicing and not taking away from any one else who might want to try it, but...it's the difference between what you read about here and something usually out of pitch or tune.

The hot ticket right now is going with Platforms and LTR Blocks. Magic Wood is also used a lot, and there are other nice sounding woods to play with, most of them being low mass open pitch as opposed to one note pitch. If the wood is one note your stuck in the same boat with the over built component. If too dense, your going to shift the pitch up. If too much the music will clog or dull.

https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t213-michael-green-s-tuning-blocks

https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t71-mga-platforms-racks-and-amp-stands
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Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Empty
PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitimeWed May 14, 2014 12:42 pm

Hi Guys

Another visit here with Harold Cooper  Very Happy 


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PostSubject: Re: Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants   Harold Cooper of Sound Consultants Icon_minitime

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