Posted by Leland on July 02, 2000 at 17:14:22:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 4/4, 5/4, Monster! posted by Rick Boring as usual Denney on July 01, 2000 at 16:03:24:
Definitely not material to use for conversation during a first date... well, not usually, anyway...
Could it be possible that it's the impression of fundamental, rather than its actual presence, that can skew how a horn seems to sound? All the harmonics & colors dancing around far above the fundamental pitch can give the impression of a "deeper" or "lower" sound, even if less of the bottom frequency is present. The King sousaphone I used in college had, in truth, less fundamental tone than the school's Olds sousies, but had a definitely larger and deeper-sounding sound.
Intonation issues seem to ignore any technical details that can be listed in a product brochure. My old Zeiss has a huge bore, and still played more in tune than a friend's 186 (even if he played it). Also, two instruments with identical specs from different manufacturers can end up being pretty different -- but we all know that.
In the end -- and this is one reason I rarely post here any more -- I'd say that it still comes down to how the darned thing sounds, not what its numbers are. Numbers are good for... um... comparing sizes... although we all know that what really matters is how it's used. Ahem.
They say, "specifications subject to change without notice", but they neglect to say, "your opinion of these specifications is also subject to change without notice."