We have compared 20 of our recordings to what are considered to be the best ever made. You be the judge. We believe that Tonmeister can exceed your highest recording expectations, as evidenced by these juxtaposed musical cuts.

The CD includes two examples for each musical cut:

• The first (odd-numbered) is from a Tonmeister Recording
• The second (even-numbered) is the same passage from the highest-rated commercially available CD

Our demo CD and MP3 samples adhere to the "Fair Use" Section 107 of title 17 of the United States Code, which allows use of short samples of music for evaluation purposes.

The following steps were taken to ensure impartiality:

1. Selections were chosen from those CDs with the highest rating for recording excellence as ranked by the updated version of The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs   the only such comprehensive directory evaluating recording quality of classical CDs.
2. Selections were taken from some of the most popular pieces recorded on major (as well as audiophile) labels.
3. To deliver an exact replica of the original CDs, all selections were directly transferred to the 20/20 Demo CD entirely in the digital domain.
4. Special care was taken to bring each Tonmeister recording to precisely the same loudness as its counterpart. No gain changes nor any kind of DSP were involved on reference cuts.

The CD can be obtained upon email request at no cost.

Here are three examples in the MP3 format (96 kbps). Note: the files are 300-500k in size; if you are not using a high-speed connection, it is recommended to download the files by right-clicking on links, and then to play them locally on your system.

J.S. Bach — Magnificat

• Tonmeister Recording
• Philips 411 458-2 (J. E. Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir)

H. Wieniawski — Polonaise de concert No. 1

• Tonmeister Recording
• EMI 5 66059 2 (I. Perlman, S. Sanders)

J. Haydn — Symphony No. 88

• Tonmeister Recording
• Deutsche Gramophon 413 777-2 (L. Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker)

Obviously, the better the playback equipment, the more subtleties and differences you will be able to hear between the test selections. The differences are still obvious even in an MP3 format.

The session at The National Institute of Arts and Letters in New
York City; location where Wieniawski's Polonaise de Concert No.1 was
recorded.   The particular track from the 20/20 Demo CD is cited above.

Live recording of B. Britten's Requiem
at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington DC.
This is where another track from the 20/20 Demo CD was recorded.