Categories: Cymbals

Meinl 19″ Byzance Brilliant Medium Thin Crash Cymbal

The Meinl Byzance series is made in Turkey and finished in Germany.This particular one is a 19″ Brilliant Medium Thin Crash. It sounds quite different than the Byzance Jazz series, but different in a good way.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: Byzance
Type: Crash
Style: Medium Thin
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 19″
Metal Work: Hand Hammered, High Density Deep Hand Lathed, Brilliant Finish
Weight: 3.5 Pounds
MSRP: $520 USA; Street Price $279
Meinl

With some Brilliant finishes, the lathing is smoothed down so much, it is hardly visible. That’s not the case here, probably because the lathing was very deep to begin with. It is hand hammered and lathed, as judged by the irregular distance between lathe lines and hammering placement. It has a very different sound than the Byzance 18″ Jazz Medium Thin Crash, reviewed here.

The frequencies are level between 300 Hz and 8 kHz, and then the spectrum declines to about 50 kHz. It has a large peak at 450 Hz, which gives it a distinct dark tonality.

The peak of the crash occurs at 0.2 seconds, with a slow decay (long sustain). So, it would be a great cymbal to end a song with.

Click HERE to listen to an audio sample, which will include crash (when appropriate), ride, and bell sounds (these are 24 bit, 176.4 kHz wav files, so be sure your sound card is capable of handling these high resolution sound files).

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Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.