A:
Certainly the owners of Cello products are of interest to us. They have
already demonstrated a commitment to the sonic ideals we are interested in continuing,
and improving upon. During the past 3 years we have provided service, or parts
for service through our distribution network, to more than 500 owners of Cello
products with components that we either purchased along with the other assets
of Cello, Ltd., or by our purchasing of new component parts with which to replace
those that had become defective. In a small number of instances, where complete
boards were destroyed in a catastrophic event, we were not able to replace the
entire board because we did not have any in our possession and the documentation
did not exist for us to manufacture replacements, or the minimum purchase on our
part of raw replacement boards could not be considered financially by us. It is
our hope that with the ultimate manufacture of the products I had mentioned we
intend to reintroduce to the market, that even in those situations where we have
not been able to provide service, we will be able to do so in the future.Q: Might I inquire about future products?
A: It never makes sense to stray too far from the lead when conducting an interview like this. But at the risk of distracting attention from the Rhapsody, here are some of my current thoughts about future products. We have never been shy at Cello about promoting the concept of actually improving the sound of your source material. Not just reproducing, actually, the sound as it was recorded onto the software, but taking that sound and improving it...
Q: With the Audio Palette?
A: Exactly. As the digital distribution of source material further evolves, it is my hope that at a certain cost, we might someday, in the not too distant future, have access to early generation recordings, master tapes, from which we might be able to create a version of a recording carefully tailored to each particular listening room, to the specific equipment within it, and to the preferences of the listener.
I’ve been fascinated with new forms of holding data…large amounts…enough space to hold entire music and film collections of the individual…And with new generations of programmable chips, allowing for a fully configurable home entertainment system to be developed.
However, these sorts of things need time to be developed to a level commensurate with the abilities that our analog electronics have achieved today. This is why we have concentrated our efforts on developing the basic building blocks from which we have designed the Rhapsody amplifier and the Encore v.5 preamp. It is our current assessment that the best way to bring sound into the room, in a way that conveys the important aspects of music, is through analog volume attenuation and high-powered analog amplification. We have developed products, which include these established technologies first, because we believe they are to be with us through any foreseeable changes that are likely to occur in our playback systems. Cello is not likely to be among the first to ever manufacture a particular type of component, but we do intend to always be among the best.
Q: What about new technologies?
A: We have been exploring the new FAST transmission control protocol, which has sustained transfer rates of more than 8,600 megabits per second, 6,000 times faster than the typical broadband link. Using this, it would take under 5 seconds to download a DVD quality movie. We have been working on a fully configurable computer that is completely based on programmable chips. This would allow us to do various audio processing functions: surround decoding, room equalization, software equalization, and video processing simultaneously. We’ve explored a hard drive that uses anti-ferromagnetic coupling which allows 100 gigabits of storage per square inch. We’ve explored hollow core glass fiber cable for low loss transmission. These technologies go way beyond HDMI, which allows uncompressed all digital audio and video to be transferred at 5 gigabits per second, and 1394b which allows transfer at 1.2gbps. These are probably the next generations of widely based consumer protocols. However, Cello system owners are not ever likely to be broadly based, so we are free to explore the limits of what technology and human imagination will allow.
I can imagine a Cello-users group, connected through the World Wide Web, exchanging recordings of all types, with mixes that are improvements upon the originals, and of music that the members of the group might not ever have come across otherwise. I am always interested in learning more about things that I know little about. To be exposed to things that might be of interest but simply not readily available to me in central Connecticut.
Q: One final
question. Where does the name Matthew James come from? Is there someone named
Matthew James?
A: 
The names Matthew and James are both very prominent in my family. One
great grandfather on my mother's side was named Matthew and one great grandfather
on my father's side was named James. These were the men who brought their respective
families from Europe to the United States. I can only begin to understand what
a tremendous undertaking that must have been for those individuals, to embark
upon an odyssey which took them and their families from the safety of the known,
to the uncertainty of the unknown, in a new land, however much full of hope and
promise, across an ocean and in a place where they would have to start from nothing,
to create a new, and hopefully better life. That pioneering spirit is a source
of pride and inspiration to me that I wanted to impart somehow to my new company.
Matthew
James is based upon my notions of what a company in the 21st century should be
about, what type of products it should develop, how they should perform, and what
they should mean to those who represent them throughout the world, as well as
what they should mean to those who own them.
|
Matthew James
84 Long Hill Road Middlefield, Connecticut 06455 USA 860 349-5999 Fax 860 349-0579 Email - jimm@matthew-james.net |