I want to express my appreciation to Craig Brougher for his thorough
and objective treatise on the characteristics of the Ampico reproducing
system, http://www.player-care.com/comments.html#ampico 

As the very fortunate owner of a late 1928 Mason and Hamlin model A
Ampico I have always wondered how it rated with the other reproducing
systems.  I have printed the article and put a copy into the piano bench
so that a future owner of this magnificent machine might fully realize
what a treasure they possess.

My piano has undergone two complete and thorough restorations over the
last forty-five years of owning it, with the most recent delivering an
even better result than the first.

It is interesting that Mr. Brougher mentions Adam Carroll's recording
of "Amour Toujour L'Amour", as the man, recently deceased, who has
tuned my piano for many years always played that roll to assess his
result and it always proved to be a moving and rewarding result.

The article to which Mr. Brougher addresses his comments is amusing
and similar to comments I've heard over the past many years.  While
objective comparisons are always interesting and valuable to the
furtherance of our hobby, these tabloid style rants seem so ridiculous
when you consider the arcane nature of our interests which affect such
a miniscule number of our population.  They seem more appropriate for
something really significant like the death of a great pop star.

Whether or not the recordings of the artists are a true record of their
performance is an altogether different subject.  I usually tell someone
listening to the piano for the first time that they should know they
are listening to a "performance" and not to expect the piano to adjust
or compensate for the room in which it is played and their close proximity
to the instrument.  On the other hand, some of the so-called "drawing
board" piano rolls that have been created in the recent years come off
beautifully and as fully expressive as some of the artist-played rolls
-- for example, William Flynt's "Rhapsody on a Theme By Paganini" and
Dave Junchen's "Sonata On the 94th Psalm".  That said, however, it
doesn't get much better than Erwin Nyiregyhazi's recording of Liszt's
"Mezeppa Etude".

Again my thanks to Mr. Brougher for his thoroughly interesting article
and my great fortune to have had so many years of "live" music in my
own living room.

Cecil Dover
Los Angeles, Calif.