Q: The Rhapsody is really quite beautiful, which is not a word usually associated with audio components, and dare I say it, one that I don't think has been uttered in the same sentence as with any previous Cello product. How did the industrial design come about?
A:
I was at a Christmas party a few years ago, at my brother Stephen's house, when
I noticed someone admiring the Wadia CD player on the equipment rack. I walked
over and asked what was it that he found interesting about it. His name is Jerry
Cavallo and he explained that he was the owner of a metal shop, one that he had
taken over from his grandfather upon his recent retirement, and that he found
the metalwork to be quite well done.I told him that I had been involved in the design, and what some of my ideas regarding industrial design (ID) were, and we spent a good part of the evening discussing ID and metal, and eventually some of the ideas that I had for products to be developed by my new company. He invited me to visit his shop and we became good friends and ultimately he became my partner in Matthew James. When our lease expired earlier this year on the Peck Street property in New Haven, where Cello, Ltd. had been located since 1984, we moved Matthew James into the same building where his business is located in Bridgeport, the town where I was born and grew up.
I had the idea that the traditional brushed aluminum look of Cello products, and so many other high end, and not so high end,
audio
products was much more a thing of the 20th century than of the 21st. While wanting
to maintain the clear anodized color of previous Cello products, I somehow wanted
the texture of Cello products from Matthew James to be different. We experimented
with a number of textures and finishes, finally settling on the machined and then
lightly brushed surface that currently adorns the front plates. In order to get
the rounded surface of the faceplates, and to maintain the look of not having
any screws exposed on the front, top or side surfaces, the front plates actually
begin as nearly three inch thick blocks of aluminum which are machined down to
the size and shape that finally becomes part of the product. These aluminum blocks
are extensively machined and routed to form not only the exterior front, but they
also provide the means by which the tops and sides are attached without any screws
being exposed. There is a worker, actually an artist would be a better description,
simply named "Norton" who realized the actual front plates from some renderings
I provided to him. Certainly my drawings did not include the wonderfully complex
work that goes into their final appearance. I wanted the top plates to have ventilation
holes that played upon the theme of the double LLs in the stylized Cello logo,
and Norton realized those with a touch of what I find to be great elegance and
beauty. The huge side plates seemed too big and plain left alone and so we developed
the relief line and machined the top/front section of the sides, which breaks
up the sides' surface, and then further accentuated them by brushing the part
that is not machined away. We then brushed the tops, and glass bead blasted the unfinished portion of the sides and the tops of the sides and the tops of the fronts, further accentuating the different pieces and the delicate lines of the top part of the front plates. We delineated the anodized aluminum by powdercoat painting, in the darkest blue we could find, the center piece which runs up the front of the unit and down the middle of the top. The
back
plate and bottom plate are also painted the same color blue, with the lettering
on the back in a cream color that is warmer and easier on the eye than stark white
or silver. Finally, from a magazine picture that I saw of a wristwatch band, Norton
fashioned the Cello and Rhapsody/Matthew James nameplates, which were machined
from chunks of aluminum, laser engraved, and inserted into holes that are again
machined into the faceplate.I have mostly spoken here about the appearance aspects of the industrial design. Throughout the process we were, of course, principally concerned with just how such design techniques affected the sound of the Rhapsody and tried numerous methods of connecting the various parts together. Experimenting all the while on the thicknesses of each individual side, top and bottom, as well as where and how all components, boards, sub-assemblies and transformers were attached to the chassis. And ultimately, the development of the feet were the last step in the process of creating a component that not only is pleasant on the eyes but is also, as the result of all that experimentation and development, pleasant to the ears as the chassis allows the electronics to perform consistently and reliably in the manner in which we desired and intended all along.
The entire design process began with some ideas I had prior to meeting Jerry at that Christmas party in December 2000, and continued through until past New Year's Day 2003. I wish we had saved in photographs all of the various iterations, mistakes and failed attempts along the way. It would have filled a substantial portfolio, and proved to be an interesting case study.
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Matthew James
84 Long Hill Road Middlefield, Connecticut 06455 USA 860 349-5999 Fax 860 349-0579 Email - jimm@matthew-james.net |