From Feeling To Fruition
The Burwen Bobcat Story
For centuries, musicians have dedicated their lives to learning to play an instrument, use their voice or compose. This tradition of lifelong commitment to music brought us J.S. Bach, Jascha Heifitz, Ruggerio Ricci, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Ali Akbar Khan, Artur Rubinstein, Segovia, and so many others. Recordings of these artists music have touched our hearts, inspired and uplifted us since recording began around the beginning of the 20th century.
Many of us were happy with a small mono speaker and a 2-Watt amplifier for they served the purpose at hand. Today, a significant number of people have invested in expensive audio equipment but hardly use it. People still love music but an obstacle has arisen, disconnecting them wanting to listen to their favorite recordings. Most people agree that CD s have high frequency harshness that often makes listening disagreeable. Others find CD s fatiguing. Collectors LPs such as one of Nat King Cole from 1953 might fetch hundreds of dollars, while the CD of the same recordings barely sells at all.
I urged my original mentor, Dick Burwen, to find a solution. Dick was working on a computer-based mastering system using some new technology he developed, and as an experiment, made a CD of some music using a special preset from his new mastering system and sent it to me. I was amazed that it sounded so like analog or pure SACD and yet it was an MP3 file, theoretically less hifi than a CD!
This was the beginning of Burwen Bobcat Suite. With further experimentation, we decided to offer a Basic Bobcat setting that can be used without further thought; and a Big Bobcat page that offers a range of user-selectable corrections that make different kinds of recordings more enjoyable to listen to.
My personal favorites in Big Bobcat are Basic 1, because it leaves great sounding recordings alone and just removes the irritants; Basic 3 because it gives the largest stage, maximum vitality, and most open sound; Vocal 2 for screechy vocals and many DVD s; and Classical 1 because it restores the concert hall acoustics that are so often lost in recordings. But each Big Bobcat setting has its application. All 18 were created with Dick Burwen s ears and 60 years of experience recording live music of all kinds. When you have Big Bobcat it's like having Dick Burwen in your room optimizing your recordings.
Of particular importance is the way that Burwen Bobcat Suite brings older recordings to life. Many people gravitate to good sounding or audiophile recordings because of the sonic quality, but miss out on the incredible musicianship of artists who recorded in the 1930 s, 40s, and 50s. These were the golden years for jazz and classical music. With Burwen Bobcat Suite, recordings from all eras come to life so we can enjoy them as never before. The other night I stayed up until 4:30 am downloading and listening to songs by Big Bill Broonzy, Django Reinhardt, and Charlie Parker. What a great experience, especially considering that I normally can t stay in the same room with CDs playing for more than a few minutes at most. And this is MP3!
There is no doubt in my mind that Burwen Bobcat Suite will transform the audio world by giving us true convergence the soul of analog with the convenience of computer music storage and downloading.
Burwen Bobcat Suite is good news to music and multimedia lovers as todays computers are affordable, compact, versatile, and easy to use. Burwen Bobcat Suite and the Daniel Hertz USB DAC are inexpensive by high end audio standards, yet offer sonic quality unavailable at any price from the most expensive CD players and highly rated audio equipment.
I used to use only LPs and pure SACD s to demonstrate my companys equipment. Now I use my notebook with Burwen Bobcat Suite and the Daniel Hertz Model 1 USB DAC, and everyone falls in love with the sound. I am sure you too will fall in love.