Joe Lovano Records at Van Gelder Studios For Treble Clef Audio-A Tracking Angle Exclusive!

Would you like to attend a recording session at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs studio featuring saxophone great Joe Lovano? Of course you would! I was lucky enough to attend one-the only invited journalist-last May 19th, four days after returning from Switzerland following High End 2024. Here's the story.
The old audiophile riddle "How do you make $1,000,000 in the audio business? Answer: "start with $2,000,000" didn't concern Danish entrepreneur Ole Siig, who explains early in this video that for years he made his considerable living in the Danish banking industry but now is pursuing his audio dream with loudspeaker company Treble Clef Audio (trebleclefaudio.com).
Siig has designed and is manufacturing a unique "baffle-free" powered loudspeaker that resembles a treble clef, hence the company name. The midrange and tweeter, each enclosed in its own sculpted wooden pod sit on a stalk below which is a larger pod containing a pair of opposing facing woofers terminate in a front firing slot. In this video he provides the details.
To help promote the speakers, Siig hired Joe Lovano to play in a quartet with Danish drummer Kristen Osgood and American keyboardist Sam Yahel. Lovano suggested recording at Van Gelder Studio and Osgood and Siig agreed. The recorded results prove it was a wise decision.
I was given carte blanche access to the recording session and was even allowed to enter the hallowed space of RVG's control room.. This video contains a short studio tour, then footage recorded during the performances, and then the next day's coverage at a New York City apartment-like space where the quickly mixed hour of recorded music was played back on the Treble Clef loudspeakers with Lovano, Osgood and Yahel in attendance along with invited guests, who filled the room. With the air conditioner turned off to improve S/N ratio, things heated up rather quickly but the cool jazz moderated the temperature.
Lovano describes the song selection, that included compositions by Wayne Shorter and Dizzy Gillespie. The three, who had never before met, got together, got Lovano's instructions and off they went!
Hearing Lovato's saxophone live in this hallowed studio space was a thrill not soon or ever to be forgotten. You'll hear it in this video two ways: once live in the room (though picked up by a pair of Røde wireless microphones and then by the same microphones picking up playback through the speakers.
If you want more speaker information and greater detail about what I heard, please read more detailed coverage on the Tracking Angle website.
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[@jbf2858]

OMG what a treat, today is my lucky day! Thanks so much for doing this!!! 👍👍👍

[@joeharley8396]

Beautifully done Michael!

[@robbiedetroitstigermanviny8883]

Mr. Fremer You are an Audio God. Thank You So Much Sir!!!

[@nickadamopoulos6472]

That was amazing, as soon as Lovano started playing OMG!!

[@mcgjohn22]

Thanks for posting this. Has to be really something to just walk into the studio.

[@gadymarcus2362]

Bello/Magnifico.🙏✡️✡️✡️✡️✡️✡️

[@1999zrx1100]

This is great, what treat 🙏

[@clausolsen856]

So very good👍 and that is why trying to judge hi-fi without live reference, is fools play🥴 And this guy (the designer)! What a brillant way to introduce it....what better refence can you get? And the filantropic aspect is not to be overlooked! Thanks Michael😎

[@DSupremeLounge]

Amazing! Thanks Michael

[@petedennis5694]

Og vi elsker dig, kære ven !🐾🇩🇰❤

[@dimebagdave77]

Thanks Mike ✌️

[@sidvicious3129]

This was so good, especially when he said I will have to stop recording music and mixing. Then he talked about the s..t equipment that the music is played back on and how they have to compensate for that. Keep doing what you do Michael Fremer, keep doing it!!! Michael will you be getting a review sample of these speakers sent to you for a review?

[@trackingangle929]

Maybe at some point...

[@SuperMcgenius]

Yes to designed interiors with hifi Not a crappy Bose system or nothing . Also yes to active speakers when done properly, sadly so few are.

[@Tomagotcha]

Great content, thank you.

[@rega1039]

❤👍🏼

[@EddieJazzFan]

I just realized that I've never been to a Goodwill without seeing Ferrante & Teicher Records.

[@carlos2bass]

Those Treble clef speakers look very similar to the Gradient Helsinki 1.5 speakers that where reviewed in Stereophile magazine some years back.

[@markboyle9941]

Thanks for this Mike! Is that Sam Yahel on keyboards? I'm sure I've got (and really enjoyed) a couple of discs he put out on Naxos back in the day.

[@trackingangle929]

his name is mentioned in the video and in the accompanying text

[@Breathless999]

Interesting. Reminds me the LEEDH E2 speakers...

[@Trebleclefaudio]

Keeping a speaker slender, free of flat surfaces and edges, that inevitably causes diffraction attracting subconscious attention to the speaker, is important to achieve a wide sound dispersion pattern uniform with direct sound. Room treatment is often to limit the 'bad' off-axis sound being reflected from side walls. Unfortunately less reflected good sound limits the illusion of a wide and deep soundstage, where instruments etc. are perceived in 3D space locations.

[@Breathless999]

@@Trebleclefaudio Thank you for these clarifications. It's clear that dispensing with a conventional enclosure has a number of advantages (from an acoustic, visual and therefore cognitive point of view). I really like the Nemo/Nautilus aesthetic.

[@REX4340]

Your recording of live instruments sounds better than 90% of digital releases 😅

[@ecyfoto]

Very cool, Michael. Any chance of you getting a pair to review?

[@trackingangle929]

Maybe but not soon..

[@stephenritchings8135]

Do you need two of these for stereo . . . or not ?

[@Trebleclefaudio]

@@stephenritchings8135 - the TCA-M Active Loudspeakers are made to order as a pair for stereo.