Tinny sound accompanying cello on recordings ?

I have had the pleasure of hearing Harrell preform the Dvorak live. I sat fairly close to Harrell, probably about 35 ft. My guess is that what you are describing is probably a recording accurately capturing his sound. I would describe it as cello with a bit of bite. I liked the performance very much. I've also heard Truls Mork, Alban Gerhard, and Janos Starker live, and I recall all of them having a somewhat more mellow sound than Harrell. The advice that was given earlier to listen to a live cello is excellent advice. I would add to that to listen to a number of different performers. It is surprising how different one instrument sounds from another.

Dougdeacon...No need to apologize about the "threadjack". Your comments/observations are never less than interesting and insightful. Frequently funny too, and that is certainly welcome. I also just wanted to mention something in response to your remarks about the effects of cleaning lps. I recently compared three copies of the same recording. Notwithstanding wear (though with all three wear was relatively light) and the matter of earlier vs. later stampers, I decided to clean one with a 75/25 mix of very pure, triple de-ionized water/99.9% pure isoprophyl, and another with a highly regarded (at least, here on Audiogon)record cleaning rinse. The third copy was simply left alone, never having been cleaned by me (only the Audioquest record dust brush) since I had purchased it. After listening intently to all three several times, this is what I heard: The sound of the one cleaned with alcohol/water presented considerable detail, top to bottom, but overall seemed just a very slight touch bleached in contrast to the copy cleaned with the commercial solution. In turn, this latter copy seemed to compromise slightly the top end detail of the alcohol/water disc, while giving more presence to the midrange to lower midrange. To my ears, the record left alone seem to have displayed the best balance in sound of both of the aforementioned discs. This was not the first time I have experimented like this, with the results being the same. Unless a record really needs a cleansing, my preference dictates laissez-faire. Does anyone else care to comment on whether they've tried a similar test, and what they found/preferred ? Now I seem to be "threadjacking" myself.

Mental strings versus gut strings are TOTALLY different, as the string players above can attest to. It is always great to sit down and compare are 17th century consort of viols to a modern chamber ensemble playing the same piece

For those interested there is Chris Hogwood's stuff "Academy of ancient music" done on period instruments or reconstructed instruments like what they would have used...I have a fair number of his recordings and like them.

Shadorne,

Hogwood's AAM recordings are our daily fare. Superb stuff, played by the most amazing musicians anywhere. When we want to test a system we always bring an original/authentic instrument LP along. It's very easy for a system to make them sound horrible and unmusical. It took us four years to get ours even close to right.

Opus88,

I dearly wish I could duplicate your results and practice, but our cleaning experiences differ. Your system's not listed so it's difficult to evaluate your results or what they might mean. Also, you didn't mention how or if you vacuumed the fluids off. If that vital step isn't performed properly the whole concept of wet cleaning falls apart, and can easily do as much harm as good.

The only consistent result we've achieved by playing uncleaned LP's is to ruin them, so I'm not eager to repeat the experiment. Unfortunately for my time and budget, our present cleaning regimen (which would drive most people nuts) invariably improves low level detail and subtle dynamics.

Assuming you're vacumming effectively, a final rinse (or two) with some very pure water (better than just 3x deionized) is essential to our cleaning regimen and sonic results. Try repeating your experiment with some MoFi water, if you care to spend the time and money of course.

Hogwood and Savall are staples over here as well!