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Hello everyone,

here is my non-judgmental Kaisertuba sound check.

- Miraphone Hagen 497
- Melton 197/2
- Bohland and Fuchs Kaisertuba
- Hirsbrunner 193

Which one do you like best?
Write to me in the comments

Listening over cheap speakers, it's hard to tell much, or to know whether what I hear is accurate.
I can't hear a difference between the first two.
The third one, what I noticed was that the intonation was better in some ways and you weren't pulling any slides.
The last one, the octave above the pedals came through more clearly than it did with the first two, and the pedal octave came through not as well.
And of course you sounded like you on all of them.
If I were you and needed to blast down in that pedal octave, either the Hagen or the Melton would be my choice. For the octave above, based on what I hear, the Hirsbrunner would win. The Fuchs was sort of in the middle for all of it and shows that for many things, a fine tuba is a fine tuba.

Not criticizing the playing in the least, but all we are hearing is those instruments being played quite loudly in the low range. If that's what we are comparing, I guess that's fine.
Maybe, that's mostly what we are asked to do?

Not quite a fair comparison as the Hirsbrunner was getting to flex its sonic muscles in a larger room.

For the first three, the articulation/front to each note got clearer as you went which corresponds with the volume/size of the bells.

Great sound regardless. If I were picking an “optimal” version of a kaisertuben out of the four here it would probably be the 197/2 or the B&F. Knowing B&Fs don’t show up for sale regularly and the 197/2 is a production horn, that kinda makes the decision for most people between these.

Thank you for sharing! A fun little listen.

The last one (Hirsbrunner) sounded markedly different/better, but mostly because you played that one in a larger room with a higher ceiling. Because of that, the sound was able to develop/blossom better than the others.

Room and mic placement are very important for catching tuba sound well.

I could hear minor differences between the other tubas in the smaller room. But the overall effect was almost as if the tubas were put through some guitar effects/distortion pedal while recording them.

In a larger room, more of the presence/body/resonance of sound would come through for those horns like it did moreso for the Hirsbrunner

Does Eastman have a Kaisertuba?

As a side comment, I guess my Miraphone model 98 could pass as a "kaiser" tuba, and maybe technically that's what it is - based on most of it's characteristics, but with a bell that is shaped like a Holton 345 bell, it's honestly more of a hybrid, and it doesn't offer the same type of sound as those (first three) instruments.

The classic kaiser sound is more noble and narrow, for the lack of any sort of adjectives that actually describe musical sounds, whereas bells that are shaped more like my bell are described in America with even more meaningless words such as "jolly" or "Hollywood" (ie. the type of over-amplified tuba sound that you hear in American movie soundtracks)

I honestly think the kaiser bell shape's sound goes a little bit better with trombones, but if someone's playing a contrabass tuba with a kaiser shaped bell, they better damn well be playing in tune. Not accusing anyone of anything in America, but I believe that the wider bell shape can be used to hide behind intonation, if someone needs a hiding place.

Somewhat interesting is that I can hear a difference in those instruments even though I'm listening to them through a speaker that's about the size of a booger.

Thanks for posting, Daniel. Always great to see and hear what you’re up to!

B&F had remarkably good intonation!

jtm wrote: ↑Tue Jul 30, 2024 2:25 pm Does Eastman have a Kaisertuba?

No... unfortunately not

Wessex was cranking out some kaiser B flats for a while, and someone has a used Wessex for sale. Maybe it's on Facebook marketplace...(??)

I play tested one of those once, and it was pretty typical for one of the better in tune Kaiser B Flats, and sported nearly the same quirks as my formerly-owned kaiser baritone. I'm thinking that open D was pretty good, and that D flat and C were saggy. This is specifically to what I refer. Those are issues that can be dealt with.

The Wessex one is quite tall, but not the tallest. I think the earlier Miraphone model (1)90 instruments might win that "tallest" price - at nearly 45 inches tall, but the Wessex one is tall, and that's something to which a player will have to become accustomed, because the sound comes out "way up there", as it were.

As much commented, the Hirsbrunner 193 benefited from a different acoustic environment, but I had a feeling that aside from that we are hearing "one of these things is not like the others." Like it plays a little more like a normal size tuba, and handles this rather forceful style of playing better.

Bohland and Fuchs, please and thank you!

I prefer the Hirsbrunner and liked the Miraphone least. That being said, you could give Daniel 18 feet of garden hose and funnel and he'd sound like a million bucks.

kingrob76 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:33 pm.............you could give Daniel 18 feet of garden hose and funnel and he'd sound like a million bucks.

This. Well done, @Kontrabasstuba .

I think I liked the B&F best of this group, but as others have said, it's hard to tell when they're not all in the same room. Also, I would have included an Alex 164.

kingrob76 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:33 pm.............you could give Daniel 18 feet of garden hose and funnel and he'd sound like a million bucks.

This. Well done, @Kontrabasstuba .

I think I liked the B&F best of this group, but as others have said, it's hard to tell when they're not all in the same room. Also, I would have included an Alex 164 and a Miraphone 190.

I don't enjoy criticizing Miraphone products at all, because I think they're an amazing company run by amazing people and with amazing workers, but there was a short time when there was an overlap between Model 98 still being available new and the 497 being produced. I had already been impressed with the 98, and when I played the 497 I just didn't think it was the instrument that the 98 is. I understand that the 497 is more of a pure kaiser in its design, and that the sound is going to be different, but when you take the "categories" of instruments away (whereas the 497 is a more of a pure hybrid and the 98 is a crossover), I just plain old like the 98 a whole bunch more. There were some people that have some full-time positions who were asking me which of the two they should look at, and I told them about my observations. I think there were only two people like that, and they both still leaned towards trying the 497 first, even though they had played neither, and I understand that when you look at the two models, the 497 is a more handsome and symmetrical looking instrument, and it just looks like it's going to be the better instrument.
I also like the tone production and intonation characteristics of the 98 much more than the Fafner (M-W). It's not just the type of sound that the 98 produces versus a more faithful kaiser design, but it's more things. It's hard to express my pleasure with the model with others, because the 98 is such a rare model that no one has any point of reference and all they can do is read typed words that I post.