Complete Cello Audio System - PRICE NEWLY REDUCED - Excellent Condition

Description

Complete Cello Audio System: Excellent Condition, State-of-the-Art, Single Owner for 30 years: Rare, Beautiful
NEW Price Reduction
List of Components
·
Double Amati Stereo Speakers – 36 AR Drivers - on unique green granite speaker stands
·
Performance II Amplifiers, with separate Power Supplies (Mark II Upgrade,)
·
Palette Preamplifier (Preamplifier and Equalizer)
·
Simon Yorke Zarathustra Phono Turntable Model S-4
·
Pluto Titanium Model 5A Prestige Tonearm
·
Cello Chorale (Hand-crafted Miyabi) Phono Cartridge
·
Cello Phono RMC Moving Coil Preamplifier
·
VPI TNT Two Shelf Turntable Stand
·
VPI Table Top Plate
·
Stereo Squares Custom-Made Clear Acrylic Hinged Dust Cover (Brand New)
·
Cello ‘Strings’ Interconnects, Power & Speaker Cables (See list below)
·
VPI Record Cleaning Machine - Model HW-16.5
·
“Wally Phono Tools” and other Tonearm Cartridge Alignment Accessories
-- - - - - --  Video Components of Home Theater: Also available for purchase separately,
·
Pioneer Blu-Ray Player Model BDP-51FD   (excellent)
·
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 3000 Projector (like new)
·
Elite Projector Screen 8’ 4" diagonal (excellent)
·
-- - - - - - -- Also available for purchase separately, CD Player:
·
HHB CD Player and Recorder (very good)
In
Stereophile
Magazine July 1995, audio engineer Lewis Lipnik wrote:
“…The Cello System rises above any other system I have heard to date…. [it] recreates the energy, the emotion, and the
intent
of the musicians unlike anything else I’ve heard before. Clearly in a class of its’ own, the Cello System redefines the term ‘musical reproduction.’”
“ ...With the Cello System we are far, far past hi-end audio. We are now in a new dimension - somewhere between the previously established boundaries and the absolute.  …  It seemed almost as if one could reach out and touch each musicians’ inner self…for the first time ever …”.
“…What the Cello System does has more to do with the recreation of the metaphysical aspects of music and the emotional interface between performer and listener.  …  [It] represents the most seminal aspect of musical performance: the human element.  It’s the ultimate link between performer and listener illuminating the very soul of the music in a way never before possible.”
“…For me, it’s the end of the road…. It is now a matter of Cello as the messenger of the musical truth.”
- - - - -
This wonderful, complete Cello Ltd. Audio System (Video components  also available, see below) is a rare opportunity to own an extraordinary and rare synergistic audio system – integrated audio components celebrated world-wide as being among the finest ever created. Reference-grade, this Cello System has been owned by the seller, a classical concert pianist, for 30 years. Specially chosen for the seller by Mark Levinson, every component has been given loving care and protection, meticulously maintained, restored and upgraded over the years in a smoke-free music studio and home theater on the Maine Coast. The rare Mark II upgrade of the Cello Performance Amplifiers – the Performance II - were added to the System in 1998.
Over the years an ever-diminishing number of individual Cello audio components have been offered for sale. These are somewhat rare, as many owners of Cello equipment have apparently found – as did Mr. Lipnik of
Stereophile
magazine - that the Cello System turned out to be, for dedicated seekers of the ultimate in life-like audio reproduction, the end of a long road.  It is therefore relatively rare to find a complete Cello Audio System for sale, as is offered here, with all components paired and integrated with dedicated matched Cello Strings interconnecting cables.
Part of the magic of this system is due to the synergy created by the integration of the included specially designed Cello “Strings” audio cables -  interconnects, tri-wired speaker cables and three- and four-wire power cables - where impedance matching was engineered and incorporated to approach as closely as possible a system-wide state of resonance.
This system is being sold because the owners have moved to the West Coast (
en route
to Hawaii) and their new residence does not have an ideal space for its optimum use.
Components
I) -
Cello ‘Double Amati’ Speakers (four Cello Amati Speaker systems, two per channel):
The Cello ‘Double Amati’ Speakers are comprised of two stacked Amati speaker cabinets on each stereo channel, each Double Amati pair is mounted to very rare proprietary Cello Ltd. green granite stands, bolted to wrought iron bars. Only a few such granite stands were produced for Cello. Each stereo channel contains eighteen AR drivers - eight tweeters, eight midrange and two twelve-inch woofers - thirty-six AR drivers in all. Mark Levinson modeled the Cello Amati speaker on the AR company’s LST speaker system, that originally used the same or similar drivers as their AR-3 speaker system. These drivers are the same number and model of AR drivers that Mark Levinson employed in his 7-foot tall flagship Cello Stradivari Grand Master Speaker systems.
The Cello Double Amati speakers offered here were rebuilt and restored in 2010 with four new-old-stock (NOS) 12-inch AR woofers, and sixteen NOS AR midrange drivers that were purchased from Mark Levinson in the early 1990s (by M. Luong), drivers that were intended to be used, if needed, as spares, when Cello began using DynAudio drivers to replace the no longer available US manufactured AR drivers. The sixteen tweeters are matched 2010 Tonegen AR replacements. The four AR woofers have new surrounds professionally installed in 2015.  Four added crossover capacitors, used to fine-tune the tweeter/midrange crossover points, is installed outside the cabinet for easy access for any future changes or further refinement. The cabinets for the Double Amatis are in excellent condition, with only a few superficial marks and blemishes.  The grills are in excellent shape. The granite stands and wrought iron mounting bars are in excellent condition and would only require some stone polish to bring out their full luster and deep rich qualities.
Adapted from Cello Ltd. documentation
: “Elegant in dimension, the thirty-six AR drivers enable the Double Amatis to move a great quantity of air very quickly, achieving not only very low distortion but a staggering 121dB SPL peak capability. Since no single driver is required to overwork, a completely effortless reproduction is evident on even the most demanding musical passages. Four separate crossover boards are installed, one in each nine-driver Amati.  Each crossover provides signals to four midrange, four high, and one low frequency driver.  In this way, each board handles half the power being utilized per stereo channel, thus providing superior performance.”
II) –
Cello Performance II 200-Watt Monoblock Amplifiers with Separate Power Supplies
.
These are the rare upgraded Mark II version of the Performance Amplifiers. Only a few of these upgraded Mark II Performance Amplifiers were made. Each channel is comprised of a monoblock amplifier cabinet, and a separate power supply cabinet, four cabinet units, total.
Adapted from Cello Ltd. documentation
: “The Performance II Amplifier includes many engineering features exclusive to Cello, which together provide unparalleled speed, clarity, impact, natural tone quality and reliability …
These dual chassis pure Class A amplifiers were designed to have the ‘sound of tubes with the power and control of a solid-state amp….
The Performance Amplifier is rated at 200 Watts into 8 Ohms. At clipping, it produces over 350 Watts into 8 Ohms, 700 Watts into 4 Ohms, 1400W into 2 Ohms, and 1300 W into 1 Ohm with ease. In bridge mode, 1.06 Volts is available for 1400 Watts into 8 Ohms, 2800 Watts into 4 Ohms. Each amplifier chassis has a balanced audio input, balanced bridging output, and four sets of barrier strip outputs. Three pin Fischer connectors are used to provide balanced line audio connections of the highest quality. The cost of the Performance II Amplifier reflects Cello's insistence on the most innovative circuitry and premium parts. The Performance II Amplifier offers a combination of sonic purity, power, build quality, freedom from obsolescence, and flexibility that makes a new level of musical integrity and system performance possible.”
III) –
Palette Preamplifier and RMC Phono Preamplifier
The Palette Preamplifier is the central control center of the Cello Audio System. Powered by the external Master Power Supply with its thirty-foot long 4-wire power cable, it is not only a state of the art audio preamplifier, silent, vibrant and powerful, with two independent tape monitor circuits, it also incorporates an extraordinary full spectrum equalizer that allows the listener to adjust the Cello system to virtually neutralize most recorded imbalances and sonic deficiencies in any audio source material, analog or digital.
For extraordinary phono LP playback the Palette Preamplifier incorporates an external state-of the-art moving coil preamplifier – the Cello RMC Preamplifier, powered by a three-wire power connection to the Palette Preamplifier, with two pairs of RCA to RCA Cello Strings interconnects. (See “Design intentions for the Palette Preamplifier” below.)
IV -
Cello Phono LP Turntable System – Simon Yorke ‘Zarathustra’ S-4 Turntable, Pluto (Titanium) 5A ‘Prestige’ Tonearm, Cello ‘Chorale’ (hand-crafted Miyabi) Cartridge
The Cello Phono LP Turntable System as beautiful to see and use as it is to hear.  The system is composed of the Simon Yorke S4 'Zarathustra' LP Turntable with a Pluto Titanium Model 5A 'Prestige' Tonearm and the Cello 'Chorale' Phono Cartridge. This Miyabi cartridge was hand crafted especially for Mark Levinson by Takeda San, the legendary creator of the Miyabi line of phonograph cartridges. The turntable, tonearm and cartridge offered here were originally assembled and aligned by Mark Levinson personally. The turntable system sits on a very solid TNT two-shelf turntable stand (its four hollow legs filled with sand and “BB shot”), and a Formica table stand top, and is covered and protected by a new (in 2016) custom-made Stereo Squares acrylic hinged dust cover.
Simon Yorke designed and built at least three transcription turntables for the US Library of Congress.
" ... It is interesting to consider that a Simon Yorke turntable was chosen by the world's largest sound archive to work with its irreplaceable LP recordings during transfer to tape for archival storage."
(From Pluto Documentation)
“The Pluto (Titanium) Prestige 5A Tonearm is representative of the state-of-the-art in manufacturing and design. Every part is handmade, according to narrow tolerances. As a result, there is a low resonance and an optimal transfer of energy. The construction of these fine mechanical parts is sturdy and will last for a lifetime…”  The Pluto tonearm offered here was manufactured specially
for Mark Levinson and Cello Ltd.
This turntable system includes a trove of accessories to assist the owner in achieving the maximum performance from the Cello cartridge, Pluto tonearm and Zarathustra turntable playback system. These accessories include several “Wally Phono Tools,” devices that received the 2002
Stereophile
'Products of the Year Award' in Joint Accessories.
These tools help achieve the most accurate tonearm cartridge stylus alignment through:
- Correct alignment of stylus/cantilever assembly for optimal Horizontal Tracking Geometry.
- Optimum alignment of stylus/cantilever assembly Vertical Tracking Angle.
- Optimum adjustment of tonearm Anti-Skating.
- Correct adjustment of Vertical Tracking Force. (Electronic scale requires new battery.)
- Also included: two stylus alignment protractors, brass measurement compass, Shure stylus weight gauge. And many others.
V -
Cello ‘Strings’ Audio Cables
Cello Strings Audio Cables. As stated above, “ …
part of the magic of this system is due to the synergy created by the integration of the included specially designed Cello “Strings” audio cables -  component interconnects, tri-wired speaker cables and three- and four-wire power cables - where impedance matching was engineered and incorporated to approach as closely as possible a system-wide state of resonance…”. This creates an Audio System true to the concept, with a depth of richness, sonic range and dynamic power, presented with an astounding range of color and life-like sense of transparency, an ease rarely encountered in an audio system. Capable of a sound dynamic range virtually identical to a live performance, one can seemingly ‘walk around and amongst’ the musicians being heard.
The Cello Strings and power cables included are:
- One Pair 16' Cello Strings with Fischer connectors
- One Pair 3 1/2' Cello String with RCA to RCA
- One Pair 7' Cello Strings with RCA to RCA
- Four Cello String three-wire single end to six-way speaker connectors
- One four-wire power connector cable, Palette Preamp to Master Power Supply
- One three-wire power connector cable, Palette Preamp to RMC Phono Preamp
- One (approx.) thirty-foot flexible power cable from Palette Preamplifier to Master Power Supply.
Also Included:
VPI Record Cleaning Machine - Model HW-16.5 with accessories
Design intentions for the Palette Preamplifier
:
In the recording studio the engineers work to adjust the parameters of the music and surrounding space being recorded to what sounds most real, correct and satisfying – most “like a live performance.” And that can often be achieved – but only in ways that sound best
in the particular situation where the recorded sound is being monitored
– with its specific sound signature; the unique characteristics of the playback studio space – its size, shape and surface coverings, its audio equipment, - playback speakers, and amplifiers.  These components include the all-important recording equalizers that are being used to adjust the colors and contours of the recorded sounds being monitored in real time, while actively adjusting these sounds to
what sounds ‘live’ or ‘real’ on the specific monitoring audio system, and in the specific monitoring studio, being used for playback.
On another sound system, however, with very different components, in another room with often wildly different acoustic characteristics – different reflections and frequency nodes - the same recorded material that sounded so balanced and ‘real’ in the recording and playback studios, can sound problematic, and often seriously so – even unlistenable - in a very different playback environment with completely different audio components and sound characteristics.
What the Palette Preamplifier does is to allow the listener to adjust what is being heard- artfully, mindfully, and with ease - to “tune out” the distortions and imbalances that were actually recorded into the source material by having that material adjusted and modified to fit the “contours” of the particular listening space with the specific characteristics of its studio playback sound system, so that it sounded best during the monitoring of that recording. The Palette Preamplifier allows you to return the recording to the sounds that were actually being produced by the live musicians in the unique spaces where the music was being performed.
And at the same time, it allows the listener to contour the sounds being heard in playback, to what sounds most real or ‘live;’ to what sounds best
in the unique space where the listener now actively experiences the music.
It allows one to adjust, align or ‘correct’ virtually any recording – including those on CD – to sound the most beautiful and humanly expressive as it is possible to achieve.
This Cello Audio System has recently been used with a wonderful Home Theater video projection system – the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 3000, Pioneer Model BDP-51FD Blue-Ray Player, and Elite 8’4” diagonal projector screen.  An HHB CD Player and Recorder is also available. Please contact seller if interested.
Shipping
The Cello System has been professionally dismantled, protectively packed, boxed and/or crated for freight shipping or local pickup.  This packing and handling expense is included within the sale price.  It is stored in the professional shipping facility.
International Buyers Welcome.  The system is ready to be picked up locally, or shipped worldwide.
Buyer is responsible for all shipping costs, customs and duties (if applicable), and/or arranging pickup with the freight company.
Please contact us for any questions or further information.
- - - - -
Dimensions
1.
Two “Double Amati” speakers on heavy granite stands
.
Each speaker system (Left and Right) is Approx. 61”H x 10”D x 27” W.
Each speaker system weighs approx 400 - 450lbs.
Each (L and R) speaker system can be dismantled into three parts - two Amati speaker cabinets and one granite and iron stand
a)- Two Speaker Cabinets:  Size Each: 27" W x , 20" H x , 10" D. Weight: 85 lbs
b)- Granite Stand with Iron Bars: Approx 61" H x , 20" W x  18" D. Stand Weight Approx. 200 - 250lbs.
2.
Four “Performance II” Amplifiers chassis boxes
- consisting of two Power Amplifiers and two Power Supplies.
Dimensions:
17.5" W x 8.5"H x 18.5"D (each of four chassis)
Weight -
Amplifier (Qty. 2) 45 lb –
Power Supply (Qty. 2) 58 lb
Shipping Weight – (In boxes):
Each of two Power Supplies - 72 lbs. -  Each of two Power Amps 60 lbs.
3.
Palette Preamplifier, Phono Preamplifier and Master Power Supply
Preamplifier Dimensions:  -
7.3" H x 19" W x 13" D,
(weight - 28 lbs).
Power Supply Dimensions: 2 - 2"H x 12"D x 4"5 W (weight - 4 lbs).
Phono RMC Preamplifier Dimensions, 4" H x 9.75" W x 13.25" D, Weight: 7 lb.
Turntable System
4 -
Simon Yorke Zarathustra 4A LP turntable system. Pluto Prestige 5A Arm and Cello (Miyabi) Cartridge
Turntable Stand and Other Components
- VPI Turntable table stand – Approx.
30" H x 25" W x 19.5" D,
Weight (Approx.) 150+ (?) lbs.
-Table top is removable.
Table Top Plate, 1" H x 27" W x 21" D, Weight: 20 + lb.
- Turntable power supply -           4"W, 9"D, 3" H Weight - 10lbs
-Turntable motor
(On table top with turntable) - 4”x 4” x 4”
weight 4 lbs
-Acrylic Hinged Cover, 9.25" H x 26" W x 20" D, Weight: 6 lb.
VPI Record Cleaner Model 16.5
Dimensions 9”H x15.5”W x 14 1/4" D
Weight: 28 lbs
Also Available:
HHB CD Recorder and Player (dent on front panel)
5.00
Epson
Power Lite Home Cinema 3000
Video Projector (like New)
0.00
Elite 8’4” diagonal projector screen
$ 85.00
Pioneer Blu-Ray Player Model BDP-51FD  (excellent)
0.00