Lucio Cadeddu (L.C.) > Could you please introduce yourself to
our readers? Who you are, what do you do etc.
Dieter Ennemoser (D.E.) > My name is Dieter Ennemoser, I live in Austria (Tirol) and
I am a violin maker and a researcher. But - I must admit – it took a while to
get there.
My first interests were in science (at fourteen), soon followed by
music and sound experiences. While studying mechanical engineering, I spent much
time in building speakers and amplifiers, and I took lessons in playing the piano and the violincello.
At about that time I got that certain and distinct
feeling, that some sounds have great appeal and meaning to us.
Yet there was not
a clue in physics that explained how these sounds could be produced or how they
could be expressed scientifically.
These sounds seemed to exist in voices,
musical instruments and even in some technical devices, like speaker chassis and
tube amps. Any time you would try to measure them, they proved to be 100%
elusive, alas.
I'm not talking about the common fallacies that the musical sound of tubes is
produced mainly by second order distortion or that the frequency response curve
of pickups is the reason for their musicality. For over 30 years everybody has
had the opportunity to simulate the 2nd order harmonics on a synthesizer or a
keyboard, with little results in terms of "musicality".
There are also
instruments without 2nd order harmonics, nevertheless they sound musical. It is
boring to hear the same baseless arguments repeated for years and years, only
because there once existed a "white paper".
The same applies to frequency
response curves. One can bend the frequency response with an equalizer, but you
cannot reproduce certain properties of musical instruments. Boring again hearing
these over-simplified theories repeated and repeated!
So I had to get a job
where I could combine my technical interests and my love for music and sounds.
I
started at a radio station as a sound engineering assistant, three years later I
was a sound engineer at a film company. Still not satisfied, I started an
apprenticeship as a violin maker in Mittenwald and worked under Carl Sandner. At
that time I also studied the violin and singing.
From that time I changed my life completely. My research was practical
and the instruments I made, more than 140 violins, violas and violincellos, were
the object of my acoustical research. Soon I realized that physics, the way it
was taught and understood, was not enough to cope with the acoustical tasks of a
good violin.
I had to prepare my attitude for new challenges and had to be
open minded for new theories.
Instead of accumulating knowledge from outside
sources, I stopped reading scientific articles and audio magazines. And this is
the naked truth: the only things I read for ten years have been Donald Duck and
Clever & Smart (by F.Ibanez) Comics. My companions were the young members of
the orchestra of the Music school of Innsbruck, in which I fortunately am
allowed to play, instead of physicists and degreed scientists.....
L.C. > Would you please briefly summarize what
your C37 theory is all about?
D.E. > What makes a full sound in a violin? After I had
dismantled, altered and rebuilt my first two violins some seventy (!) times
each, I realized what was not attainable in tone quality with classical
mechanics alone.
Of course the laws of classical mechanics play an important
part; the balance of tone and good response are a result of these natural laws,
but the sound character, the tone, the depth and warmth of the sound are determined by other criteria.
I had to make dozens of new violins to realize
that even tiny differences in wood properties made big differences in sound. So
my first goal was to find a reference material to make it easier to choose the
right wood. I eventually found this in human bones!
At that time I had already a lot of practice in knocking and analyzing the
sounds of materials.
So I found after some research showing that carbon is the
decisive element in sound quality. Since sound is also coloured by body
temperature, I chose to call this property the
C37 structure where C =
Carbon and 37 = temperature in centigrade.
This is also the material sound of
the mechanisms of our ear. These material-specific resonances of our ears would
drastically destort perception of sounds, but they are filtered by the brain,
leaving an accurate and apparently objective image of our acoustic
environment.
The brain receives most information from outside when the
outside sound has the same C37 properties as the ear itself has. Therefore
musical instruments have always been developed towards C37 sounds, probably most without
knowing this theory. But who knows really what Stradivari and Guarneri knew?
L.C. > What do you think of the human ear
capabilities? Is it true that ultrasonic frequencies can affect the perceived
sound, even if we humans can't hear anything above, say, 18 kHz?
What's your
opinion on this topic?
D.E. > Very interesting question, although the answer might be
different from what you expect.
My opinion is the very end of our hearing
spectrum is not that important to recognize sound quality and beauty.
Old
recordings on shellac records sometimes show the full beauty of a violin, better
than contemporary high-tech recordings.
Medium wave broadcasts also seem to
sound beneficial to violins, and so do old films with narrow bandwidth optical
sound tracks. I even know people with hearing losses above 2 kHz who are very
sure in judging the sonic quality of a violin and a loudspeaker (I wouldn't take
them for testing tweeters though!).
It seems to me that for these people a
pleasant overall sound quality is even more important than for average people.
Don't misunderstand me. Of course I would not cut off the upper frequencies
intentionally. I only wanted to point out that the secret of musical sound lies
deeper than in the upper limits of frequency response.
This was only half the answer to your question - I didn't refer to digital.
Here something very different happens: the signal is chopped into small parts
with a frequency beyond our hearing.
Strange things seem to disturb our
perception. Depending on the frequency at which the signal is chopped the sound
you hear changes.
In a phone call Ken Ishiwata from Marantz told me that they
experimented with different frequencies up to 500 kHz and each tested frequency
produced its different sound. My own experience is that our subconscious relates
the chopping of frequencies to the C37 frequencies in a way that C37-related
frequencies produce a natural and warm sound to us while frequencies between C37
frequencies sound harsh.
You can test this with the 44,1 kHz frequency of the
CD format, which produces this very typical and unchangeable harsh and grainy
sound which immediately reminds me of a cat hissing with intent to produce
disgust.
On the other hand, the 48 kHz of the DAT, which is almost perfectly
a C37 frequency, does not produce this harsh, cold sound and gives hope to the
DVD standard with 96 kHz. (By the way, a property of the C37 frequencies is that
they can be octaved to higher and lower frequencies).
L.C. > In which way your studies can be
successfully applied to HiFi design?
D.E. > There are various ways. For instance my E-patent for
membrane geometry (licensees welcome!) that enables even large membranes to
produce natural midrange up to 3 kHz. I myself use a 30 inch speaker in a
two-way system up to 3.000 Hz! Have a look at it in my homepage www.ennemoser.com at Technocrats
Horrorshow!
Those who won't believe it are invited to hear it, I live in
Tirol.
Commercially, a friend, Markus Kuhnert (c37.kuhnert@tirol.com)
produces speakers with sophisticaly shaped bronze frames and patented
C37-membranes in 16 and 18 inch sizes.
Another important and successively
growing application of C37 is the C37 Lack (lacquer).
It is composed to have the
acoustic features of our body, therefore the brain cancels out the lacquers'
acoustic properties. The classical cremonese violins had a lacquer of similar
characteristics! Experienced instrument makers know that the quality of a
lacquer stands by itself and is not influenced by the properties of the material
it is put on. For violins, violas and cellos they use successfully the same
lacquer for the belly and the back. I know this fact is not understood by
physicists, but it is the truth.
Manufacturers and DIYers use C37 lacquer on
cones of paper, metal, polypropylene, soft and hard domes, always with the same
good results. Even painting PCB's and components of
CD-players and amplifiers
gives good results.
If you want to order C37 there is an online shop www.c37.net.
The
material, geometry and dimensions of mechanical parts are also very important
factors in the resulting sound quality of speakers and electronic components.
This leads directly to the next question.
L.C. > In some sense many HiFi components are
similar to musical instruments:each part of the design (electronic circuits,
cabinet etc.) contributes to the final result. Still many audiophiles believe
that everything depends on circuits or on speakers only. What's your opinion on
this subject?
D.E. > Each part contributes to the final result, you are right.
Yet what is underrated by most people is the influence of mechanics on
electronic circuits. I did much research on it and get good results by the
following method, which I had developed through many years of training: I knock
on relevant parts, and by listening to the sound of knocking and evaluating its
properties I can identify the influence of this part on the resulting sound of
the component.
An example: Marantz sent me a CD-Player and an amplifier that
I had to improve with my method. The CD-player was only C37-lacquered inside
without mechanical improvements, and the amp was only changed mechanically to
C37, but not lacquered. Both components had been tested in Eindhoven by Marantz
Europe with very positive results, and they sent both components to the Marantz
headquarters in Tokyo. Maybe the engineers over there are still wondering what I
did to their components.
So what's the moral of this story? Mechanics has much influence on how
electronic devices will sound, even if there is no measurable difference! WHY is
this so? Wait a minute....oh no, I feel all the hatred of all degreed
physicists. I better stop now.
L.C. > What is your opinion on the current
state of the art of the musical reproduction by means of HiFi components? What
could we do to get CLOSER to reality?
D.E. > A well known bell maker in Innsbruck, Austria, Peter
Grassmayr (his company has been in business since 1599!) made two church bells,
one bronze, one steel. Although they were designed to have and actually had
exactly the same overtones, they sounded different. Peter Grassmayr said: "The
steel bell was not able to make your heart resonate with the sound!" This is
true literally as well as figuratively.
Literally, the bronze, for its
imitating C37-properties, makes your heart resonate physically. Psychologically, the C37-properties of bronze are what you need to get a deep feeling, even if
only in your subconscious.
Similar things happen with musical instruments,
where science had no influence at all. And HiFi components? I leave the
estimation here to the customers. As for me I try to apply as many C37 features
as possible to enable the best signal transmission inside the ear to create a
deep emotional experience. That's what music is about!
L.C. > Please tell us something about your
future plans and projects.
D.E. > I am not a manufacturer (except of violins, of course, and
C37 lacquer). I am a researcher and inventor.
But there are some people in this
world who appreciate my inventions and my help in developing HiFi equipment.
For
example, Markus Kuhnert (info@c37sound.com) who produces heavy bronze
drivers and with whom I developed the new 2-way Archaeopteryx with 18 inch
woofer-midrange driver and the powerful solid state C37 amp.
R.J. Vance (rvance1@ix.netcom.com) develops HiFi
horns, and I will influence the acoustic construction of these
components.
The mechanics of tubes are another project, and Alesa Vaic (AVVT) might soon
launch his first C37 tubes (2A3 or AV 52).
Not HiFi, yet very interesting, is
the project of the C37 church bell with the Tyrolian bell maker Grassmayr, and
the development and the production of C37 mouthpieces for Saxophones with Charly
Thaler, Neurauthgasse 6, A-6020 Innsbruck.
Another very interesting project
with a well known company is still top secret!
Courtesy Dieter Ennemoser for TNT-Audio.
Copyright © 1998 Lucio Cadeddu
E-Mail: Lucio Cadeddu
