Copyright 1920 by Cheney Talking Machine Company Chicago (form no. 1c)
The urge of a music master’s high ambition to aid his pupils—his desire that they should hear correct interpretations of the masterpieces of music—brought forth The Cheney.
Forest Cheney, violinist and teacher of music, built the reproducing instrument which bears his name, solely for use in his own studio.
He planned a phonograph embodying the principles of acoustics employed in the resonating air chambers of pipe organs, merged into one synchronized series of tone chambers, and with a resonator carved from the pattern of the violin he loved.
Working without thought of reward save that of increasing efficiency of his teaching, he evolved a new principle of music reproduction. The Cheney was created.
Originally planned for his studio alone, the Cheney now has been placed on the market so that all the world can have and enjoy its perfect reproductions. The tonal achievement of the Cheney is unsurpassed. It is, in the broadest sense, the supreme accomplishment in the recreation of music.
The accoustic inventions which have been evolved and perfected in the Cheney are protected by basic patents. In the Cheney alone are they found.
Masters of music have been quick to recognize the musical merit of the Cheney. Its ability to reproduce the work of the world’s artist with absolute fidelity, is a contribution of priceless woth to American music.
Maestro Campanini, for years director of the Chicago Grand Opera Company, said of the Cheney:
“Your remarkable instrument has attracted my attention because, in its true interpretation of the artist’s personality I see great possibilities. The Cheney is a real musical instrument, and I am sure that its musical superiority will win, quickly, public approval.”
Rosa Raisa, Dramatic Soprano of the Chicago Grand Opera Company, says:
“Never before have I heard an instrument which so perfectly reproduces the artist’s voice—and the very timbre of the orchestra.”
Thus, high authorities in the musical world have paid tribute to the musical excellence of the Cheney.
Brings out from records tones heretofore lost, adding to beauty of rendition
It is for the achievement of a particular purpose that the Cheney Reproducer is made to differ both in form and substance from other reproducers. Its diaphragm, unusually sensitive and flexible, receives the mechanical vibrations which constitute the overtones—the real beauty of any production. Heretofore, they have been lost—The Cheney restores them in all of their loveliness.
The Cheney Reproducer is so designed that it mutes needle scratch and mechanical noise. The lightness with which it tracels the grooves in the records and the flexibility of the diaphragm reduce wear on records to a minimum.
The greatest advancement of the Cheney Reproducer, however, is its perfect articulation and the purity of tone which it transmits to the Cheney tone arm.
Equipped with reproducers for vertical and lateral cut records
The music of the world is at the door of The Cheney. All records, whether lateral or vertical cut, surrender all their loveliness to this master instrument. Equipped with two reproducers made from the most resonant material available—cast bronze—The Cheney may be adjusted in a moment’s time to play either type of record.
One reproducer is equipped to receive steel or fibre needles—the other is arranged to receive jewel or steel needles. The charm with which The Cheney plays records of either type is irresistible. Those delicate shadings of voice, faint staccatos of violin, and lovely overtones which give any mastful production its individuality, are brought forth in all their beauty.
Mechanical vibrations, transformed into musical tones, are passed on unimpaired by the resonant Cheney bronze reproducer. Each reproducer is properly voiced so that acoustic interference or “blast” is eliminated and surface noise is reduced to a minimum.
Secured without impairment of tonal quality
When a singer modulates his tones, he does not hold his hand before his mouth, or by other means muffle his voice. Instead, he logically controls the tone volume at the source without impariment of its quality.
Phonographs have used various mechanical appliances to control sound volume, but in so doing invariably have muffled the tones. The Cheney Needle Adjuster and the four sizes of Cheney needles make it possible to procure twelve distinct volumes of tone, ranging from the softest whisper of a lullaby to the crashing ensemble of a band loud enough to fill a large hall.
When reducing tones, The Cheney merely gives the effect of distance as though the player or singer were farther away. In The Cheney, tone is controlled logically by varying the intensity of the vibrations. Every tone, therefore, comes forth, clear and pure.
A simple, efficient Cheney refinement for regulating tone volume
With the Breech loading device it is a very simple matter to adjust Cheney needles to obtain the tone volume desired. The lateral reproducer is equipped with the Cheney Breech Loading device. The reproducer having been placed at rest on the adjuster, shown in the illustration, and at the height desired, the needle is dropped into an aperture provided for it and automatically projects to the proper length, and by a method much easier than the “tucking in” of needles in the ordinary reproducer.
Cheney needles are provided in four different sizes, soft, Ideal, medium and loud. Each may be set in three different lengths, giving a range of twelve volumes of tone in all.
Where tones are scientifically amplified in volume
Tone development and control in The Cheney are accomplished by a series of scientifically designed air chambers in the Tone-Arm, the acoustic throat and orchestral chambers.
As the vibrations of the needle are passed on by the reproducer, they reach a series of octagonal air chambers in the Tone-Arm. The flat walls of the Tone-Arm are perfectly oppsed acoustical mirros or reflecting walls which amplify tone vibration by the action of reflection.
With the original forms of tone vibrations perfectly preserved by these flat surfaces they are increased in volume in passing through each succeeding chamber. Convex or concave surfaces deflect and change the form of tone vibrations just as a curved mirror distorts the reflected image. It is in this series of chambers that Cheney Tones are purified further and needle scratch is muted. Like other Cheney inventions, the Tone-Arm is simple—yet it differs so radically in the acoustic principles employed that it has been granted a basic patent.
Gives The Cheney control over tones and enhances their beauty
A singer gathers, holds and selectively releases tones under perfect and calculated control. The Cheney achieves the same result by passing the tonal vibrations through its Acoustic Throat.
As tones, purified and increased in volume, leave the tone-arm they reach the cubical air chamber of the Cheney Acoutic Throat.
Here they are brouht under perfect control and then released past a palate bar which gives The Cheney that same articulation that a singer achieves through proper control of his mouth, tongue and lips.
It is difficult to describe the accomplishment of the Cheney Acoustic Throat. Its important functions and the results of its application are immediately apparent when you hear the instrument played. Every note comes forth clear perfectly articulated and true.
A scientific method of controlling and developing tones in perfect balance
When Cheney tones leave the tone-arm, and as they pass through the entire acoustic system, they are surrounded by resonant woods. The importance of this fact is immediately apparent. As tones leave the acoustic throat they are projected into a seris of wooden chambers, each successively larger, where the high, medium and low registers of sound are developed in volume and sweetened in quality.
These Cheney Orchestral Chambers are so arranged that the entire range of sound vibrations is equally developed and amplified. Thus the separate parts of a band or orchestra, or a voice or instrumental solo accompanied by an orchestra are preserved in their proper relations.
Each instrument and voice is maintained in perfect balance with every other part of the production. The Cheney Orchestral Chambers are unique, and entirely new application of acoustic principles to tone reproduction.
The rich, resonant strains of the pipe organ gave Forest Cheney an inspiration in the creation of his master instrument. Employing the acoustic principles embodied in the resonating air chambers of the organ pipes, The Cheney has added richness and quality to reproductions while maintaining perfect control over the tones.
Again in the Orchestral Chambers flat reflecting surfaces are used, as in the tone-arm and acoustic throat. Thus, Cheney Tones are reflected always in their original perfection, mellowed and enriched in the vibrant chambers, and amplified in volume.
The Cheney Orchestral Chambers are a rare contribution to the art of tone reproduction—one of those occasional strokes of genius which have for-reaching revolutionary importance.
It adds musical qaulity to Cheney reproductions
The Cheney Resonator supersedes the old megaphonic principle of tone amplification. Carved from violin woods in the likeness of the instruments which the old violin masters deveoped, it not only amplifies tones in The Cheney but adds richness to their musical quality as well.
The Cheney Violin Resonator is suspended free from the walls of the cabinet, enabling its entire area to vibrate with perfect freedom and impart a maximum of resonance. The violin curves which have given the violin its magic qualities are duplicated in this Resonator.
Thus the Cheney Acoustic System is logically completed by a Resonator which adds rare quality and mellowness to the pure, clear tones developed in the earlier processes of reproduction.
A Stradivarius violin was a beautiful instrument when first it was made. In the hands of that old Italian master, violins received more than form—they received matchless quality of tone.
But the Stradivarius of today is far richer and sweeter in tone than when it was made. Mellowed in its own music, it has gained in quality with the years.
So with The Cheney. “The Longer You Play It, The Sweeter It Grows.” The Resonator is carved from seasoned violin wood, in the likeness of that instrument, and mellows with age and use.
Thus The Cheney gains distinction—it alone of all phonographs is endowed with the rare gift of constantly enhancing quality and value. It becomes a prized heirloom to be handed from generation to generation.
A prosaic subject, but an outstanding Cheney feature of paramount importance
Unheralded, unseen, the Cheney Motor is the heart of the instrument. Perfected to a high degree and construtcted of the best materials obtainable, it is a spuerior piece of mechanism, admirably adapted to its purpose.
The Cheney Motor is a compensating-spring motor. Two springs are so adjusted that they collaborate in maintaining the speed with which the turn-table revolves. So long as the driving power is superior or equal to the resistance of the needle on the record, the speed of the turn-table is maintained perfectly, thus preserving a perfect pitch throughout the entire playing time.
The Cheney springs are housed in a one-piece barrel which is leak-proof. Made in floating type, the two springs unwind under even tension, thus preserving unvarying speed.
Special jigs and mechanical testing devices have been invented to eliminate the human equation as far as possible and make The Cheney Motor mechanically perfect.
The measure of merit of the Cheney is best realized when its reproductions are subjected to detailed analysis.
Piano records always have been a most difficult test. There has been something in the quality and the sustaining of piano tones which did not reproduce with fidelity to the original.
But on the Cheney, piano records reproduce with the very timbre of the instrument itself. Sustained tones, the clearness of technique, fullness of bass notes, the pedaling and every other individuality of touch of the artist are brought out with unmistakable realism.
Whether adjusted for loudest, intermediate or softest tones, piano records maintain perfect clearness as in the original production itself. It is a most diffcult and convincing test which clearly demonstrates the superiority of Cheney reproductions.
Period furniture, in vogue for a number of years before the war, is today more popular than ever. Especially have console tables won the favor of many who take great pride in the refinement of their home furnishings.
Accordingly, we have included in our Cheney Models, a number of period styles developed in the spirit of the Console tables, so popular in the Old World a century or two ago.
Each model is the perfect interpretation of the period which it represents, faithful in each detail of design and fashioned by craftsmen as skilled in their art as the famous guild-workers of Europe who have passed their masterpieces to this age to be admired.
There is pleasing versatility in the Cheney Models each copied from some master during the Georgian period. In any setting they are an integral part of the picture—refined, dignified, at home.
The superlative cabinet work of The Cheney is in keeping with its perfection of tone quality. Master craftsmen, the finest in this country, fashioned Cheney cabinets that rival the best productions of Europe.
Each cabinet is distinguished by the faithfulness with which it interprets one of the famous historic periods of Old England. It is not an instrument born of passing fancy, but a musical and architectural creation that will improve with acquaintance, like any masterpiece of art.
Thus we have provided an instrument, superior in its tone quality for those connoiseurs of good music who appreciate the perfection of its reproduction, and enshrined it in cabinets worthy of the most beautiful setting.
It is a genuine satisfaction—the highest degree of musical and artistic satisfaction—to have a Cheney in the home. It brings the melodies of the ages into the quiet of your own domain. It enables you to enjoy and appreciate music as it is not possible to do, even when you hear the artist himself. For The Cheney brings the very personality of the artist to you, and at a time when you are in the mood to appreciate his art.
Beautiful when first it plays, The Cheney enhances in its charms with time, grows mellow in its own melody, and becomes prized as an heirloom as years pass by.
And not only does The Cheney reveal the charms of music perfectly, but it fits with all its loveliness of cabinet into the setting of your home—refined, unassuming, truly a beautiful part of the picture.
