As in Joel's review of the E100S, I really like how the violin recordings turned out. The recording in Joel's review of the E100S is stunning, and the recording here is tonally similar, thought the violinist could have been a better performer. (No offense intended, I'm sure I'm much worse.) The flautist is obviously very talented. The flute recordings are excellent, but that seems more because of the skill of the flautist than because of the microphone (it's still a very good recording).

The new piano recordings are much better. The placement may be a little too close, perhaps due to overcompensation from the first effort (third time's the charm?). I very much like how the high notes cut through the chords. It might be a little exaggerated for Joel's taste, but I like the effect.

I think the choice of hyper cardioid mics might have been a good idea to keep crowd noise down to a minimum. Even with a hyper cardioid there are some minor distractions, I can imagine how cluttered the recording might have been with an omni.

I'm looking at picking up a CAD E100S myself. It's good to hear samples that were created by someone learning how to use the mic, rather than someone who helped design, test, and refine the mic, and then figure out every DSP trick to get the most out of the recordings... I'm much closer to the former than the latter.

Thanks!

James