AirTight Opus1 and Lyra Atlas SL, a direct comparison

PeterA

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I was very fortunate to be able to directly compare MadFloyd's two new cartridges yesterday. He recently replaced his ZYX top of the line and Ortofon A95 cartridges with the AirTight Opus 1 and the Lyra Atlas SL. I brought four of my reference LPs and we listened to the same sevebn tracks in the same order on both cartridges. Ian used his new SmarTracker cartridge alignment device to set up each cartridge. We adjusted arm height for the Ella and Louis, but the other LPs had the same VTA.

1. J. S. Bach, Partita No. 2 in D minor, Kremer, Philips 6514 297
2. Beethoven, “Appassionata”, Kamiya, RCA RDCE 4 D2D 45RPM
3. Cantate Domino, Proprius Prop 7762
4. The Sheffield Drum Record, Jim Keltner, Sheffield Lab 14
5. Ella and Louis, Verve, Analog Productions 45RPM reissue


We first listened to the Atlas SL. Resolution was extremely high. There was a slight emphasis on the leading edge of notes. The level of transient detail was outrageous. Kremer’s violin had very good string texture and detail. It was spotlit. It was clear, clean, highly resolving, and conveyed Kremer's extremely energetic playing style. However, this came at the slight expense of less “wood” sound to the body of the violin.

Kamiya’s solo piano showed excellent extension of both the high and low notes. It was another very expressive and energetic performance and the right hand high notes stood in stark contrast to the rumble of the Bosendorfer’s lowest notes. The contrast was striking and dramatic because it was so finely articulated. Dynamics were excellent. The individual choral voices in Cantate Domino were very articulate and stood in wonderful contrast to the trumpets and organ. The organ breathed and the trumpets were piercing. The soundstage was large and convincing. Keltner’s drum kit sounded fast, and clean with very accurate cymbals. The leading edge or transient was excellent and extremely detailed. The voices on Ella and Louis sounded good but what really struck me was Armstrong’s trumpet. The sound was so piercing and yet natural sounding. The piano and drums in the background were more a part of the performance than I am used to hearing. Overall, the Atlas SL seemed to have a very even and flat frequency response with no emphasis on a particular range of frequencies. In this sense it was very even handed, but it did emphasize the leading edge of notes which left a slightly less sense of the warmth and weight (color) of the rest of the note.

We then switched cartridges and played the Opus. It did not have quite the emphasis on the leading edge of notes nor quite the level of transient resolution, but it made up for that with a more complete portrayal of the entire note. The attack or leading edge was balanced with the rest of the note. The note’s sustain and decay were beautifully developed and very real sounding. The whole note sounded right, natural. Nothing seemed out of place. Like the Atlas, the Opus seemed to have a flat frequency response but was perhaps not quite as extended at the extremes, but it was a very minor difference. The Opus sounded more balanced. It was more natural and complete sounding and it did not emphasize anything or draw attention to itself. It was just about the music.

Kremer’s violin had more wood sound and the energy seemed to leave the instrument and fill the listening room more completely. You could hear the resonance of the body of the instrument and the balance with the strings was excellent. The strings still had great texture, and the resolution was still very high. The two cartridges made the violin sound like it was made by a different maker. Both sounded convincing, they just had a slightly different tone to them. The high notes on the solo piano did not have quite the lightning fast “tinkle” of the Atlas, but again, the whole range was very realistic sounding. There was great body, warmth, and weight to the instrument. It was very present in the room, and the multiple notes played at the same time were distinct and clean. The resolution was outstanding. The organ in Cantate Domino sounded about the same as with the Atlas, the trumpets were not quite as piercing, but the voices were still extremely articulate, convincing and separate in space. Again, the scene was laid out in front of us and the sound filled the room. There was excellent hall information. On this recording I liked both cartridges very much. The cymbals on Keltner’s drums were not quite as crisp, but the color and tonal shadings of the various drum skins and character in the kit were each more distinct and full of nuance. There was more tonal color and variation with the Opus. Ella and Louis sounded very present in the room with slightly less siblance than with the Atlas. Overall, the Opus conveyed the emotion and the musical message more consistently over a greater variety of music than did the Atlas SL.

To summarize what I heard, both cartridges have extremely high levels of resolution, a flat frequency response, great dynamics, and excellent high and low extension. The Altas SL emphasizes the leading edge of notes while the Opus presents the whole note in a more natural, even or balanced way. The Atlas soundstage did not move forward of the plane of the speakers to fill the room as much as the Opus did. I felt a real sense of immersion within the sound space with the Opus, much as I hear in a good live concert. The Opus presented a more complete, realistic impression of the music and was overall more convincing and real sounding. I can see why people like the Atlas, and with some music in Ian’s system, it could be equally or even more enjoyable but with a different flavor than the Opus. I understand why some may prefer the Atlas in other system contexts or if their tastes are different than mine.

Ian’s system is extremely transparent and resolving. The differences between the cartridges was pretty easy to hear. I so enjoyed the Opus that before I left, I asked Ian to play two more of my favorite LPs just so that I could savor the glorious sound:

1. Holst, The Planets, Mehta, LA Philharmonic, Decca SXL 6529, Speakers Corner
2. Melody Gardot, Worrisome Heart, UJC Music, 45 RPM

I had never heard the Planets sound more immersive and convincing. Everything was in the right place. The sound was big and glorious. The flow of the massed strings to the contrast of the solo violin within the group was utterly real sounding. The brass, wind and percussive instruments had a natural timbre that for brief moments I no longer thought I was listening to reproduced music. The speakers disappeared in the room and I was in a middle seat in the orchestra section. The back of the stage was distant. The sound was grand and full of emotion. I was left with the same overwhelming impression I have when listening to the BSO from the seventh row center: clarity.

Melody Gardot has a hauntingly beautiful voice. The Opus reached deeper into the grooves and presented this familiar recording with more emotional impact. Both the Planets and Gardot sounded similar to what I hear at home, but with more resolution and believability. What a way to end a fantastic listening session.

Postscript: I own the AirTight Supreme and MySonicLab Signature Gold cartridges. I had long suspected that the Opus combines what is great about the Supreme, namely timbral accuracy, natural body and warmth and added a bit more dynamics and extension from the Signature Gold. This is what I heard in Ian system. The Opus is the most complete and real sounding cartridge that I have heard. It is a sublime cartridge.
 

gian60

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Hi Peter,

i own both Atlas sl and Opus 1 and i read very careful your perfect report and i am 100% agree with you.
Also in my system i have 100% of your impression.
 

PeterA

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Hey Peter how would you compare the difference to the ZYX?

Jeffy, That is a tough question to answer. Ian's system has changed a bit since I heard the ZYX in it. I will not venture to describe the difference because I did not directly compare them in his system. I will say that I don't recall Ian's system ever sounding this resolving and natural as it does now with the Opus and Atlas. I did directly compare Ian's ZYX to my cartridges in my system and in comparison, the ZYX sounded less resolving and a bit colored. It did have amazing 3D palpability, but I suspect that I did not spend enough time dialing it in properly.
 

Jeffy

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Peter I use to own the ZYX Univers 2. I then went to the Madake and now I'm using the Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue which is one of the best cartridges I ever heard in my system.
 

lem321

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Feb 7, 2014
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Peter,

What a great description of the differences between the Opus and Atlas SL cartridges! Thanks for that. I'm curious to know what analog setup Ian used (TT, arm and phono stage) in this comparison. Although not the same, I've had similar impressions comparing a Lyra Kleos to a Koetsu Vermillion. The Kleos certainly was more dynamic with greater low end energy but I did not get the overall warmth and naturalness (e.g. with massed strings) I have with the Koetsu.
 

PeterA

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Thanks lem321. You can do a search of Madfloyd's system for the particulars, but here is the vinyl front end: Kronos Pro turntable, Black Beauty tonearm, CH Precision phono. I don't know the cable. We heard profound differences with the slightest change in arm height with all other parameters constant. Ian has a very revealing system and we tended to agree about the differences between the two cartridges. Our tastes are slightly different, so Ian sees a place for each cartridge depending on his mood and the type of music or recording he wants to play. I like the Atlas, but would probably listen to the Opus 90% of the time.
 

PeterA

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Hi Peter,

i own both Atlas sl and Opus 1 and i read very careful your perfect report and i am 100% agree with you.
Also in my system i have 100% of your impression.

Thank you gian60. I am glad to read this from someone who owns both cartridges and has had much more time listening to each of them in a familiar system. Though I am confident about these listening impressions in this system context, they were formed over the course of one afternoon's listening.

Now I wonder what Tang thinks.
 

MadFloyd

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Peter, what a well written and articulate post. I certainly couldn't have said it any better. The only thing I can add is that the Atlas comes across as having a much leaner tonal balance than the Opus-1. I think less energy in the midrange possibly translates to less decay - or perhaps more high frequency energy (which the Atlas has compared to the Opus) leads to the perception of stronger transients/leading edge.

Al M was here today and we listened to Montreux's performance of Petrouchka. My pressing has always come across very detailed but bright and I love it more for the performance than the sonics but the Opus rendered it in such a natural fashion, you'd think it was a different recording. Best I've ever heard it.

When you were over I did prefer the Atlas on a couple recordings (Sheffield Drum Track and Ella/Louis) but otherwise preferred the Opus. I wish I had two tonearms. :)

For orchestral LPs, the Opus rules (at least in my system). I will have to listen to the Etna SL again. Tonally it sits in the middle of the two cartridges and if I could have only one cartridge it may be that one (jury is still out).

lem321: My analog setup is in my signature.
 

Al M.

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Peter, what a well written and articulate post. I certainly couldn't have said it any better. The only thing I can add is that the Atlas comes across as having a much leaner tonal balance than the Opus-1. I think less energy in the midrange possibly translates to less decay - or perhaps more high frequency energy (which the Atlas has compared to the Opus) leads to the perception of stronger transients/leading edge.

Yes, that is plausible. Different tonal balances can lead to all kinds of differences in perception, including dynamics (which I thought were better on the Atlas, but again, see what I just said ;)).

Al M was here today and we listened to Montreux's performance of Petrouchka. My pressing has always come across very detailed but bright and I love it more for the performance than the sonics but the Opus rendered it in such a natural fashion, you'd think it was a different recording. Best I've ever heard it.

Agreed, it was spectacular. Tonal colors and separation of instruments/instrument groups were incredible. Thanks for a great listening session, Ian!

Interestingly, on the orchestral music I did not perceive much difference in transients. Yet on piano I did and you did as well, when we listened to the LP with Pollini playing Beethoven's piano sonata op. 109 (and op. 110). I thought here the Opus sounded wrong and the Atlas right. With the Opus transients were softened as if you would listen in a concert hall from a distance, but the image was close up. So these two things didn't agree. On the Atlas transients were just right, more pronounced, in agreement with the also relatively close-up spatial presentation. The low register on the piano was also tighter, better controlled.

But at this point I don't know if the problem with the Opus on this particular recording could have been fixed with arm height adjustment. That remains to be seen.

On all other recordings today where we compared the two cartridges, the diverse orchestral pieces and the Mozart string quintet KV 174 (Grumiaux Trio and guests), I preferred the fuller sounding Opus, while the Atlas was impressive as well.
 

Tango

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Peter is always excellent in describing sound. What he said is pretty much how the two carts are.

The Opus is easy to impress people because it is very complete and well balanced. Sometimes I even think it is too impressive and question myself if the sound draw a bit too much attention...not attention to specific thing but as a whole. Its sound is more upclose and immersive as Peter said. More so when play with Kronos. Everything is up to one’s preference. I like lesser effect of this when play Opus on 927 and AS. Jazzhead listened to my Kronos/SAT/Opus once and he said it had a show off sound. For now (I really mean for now.) Opus has the best highs I ever heard in my system when play on my AS2000 setup. Better highs with less sibilance than AtlasSL on Axiom/EMT/CMS rack using the same EMT phono. These days I can’t discount the role of any component in the vinyl chain. Even the record weight.

I would like to add that the piano and drum in Ella&Louis are always more there, not because of cart. I had the same experience once..hearing less of piano and drum as part of the music in that album. The same goes when you play Nat King Cole. The instruments that play in the back can be heard with more presence and become more as part of music when you have less EMI/RFI and your cables transmit more..loss less signals. Grounding and cabling choice can give more music to the system.

The woody sound, the decay that Peter described is part of the dimensionality Opus exhibits better than any other carts I had experience with. The Atlas SL can vibrate strings better than Opus but doesn’t give the woody, hollow body or housing of instrument sound as impressive as Opus. And Red Sparrow vibrate strings even better than the Atlas SL but also even more less the woody sound. I am saying to give an idea on degree of each cart.

Ambient, hall sound, drum leather texture, the Opus is superb on this as Peter said. However I don’t miss any of these playing AtlasSL..just different in degree.

@Ian. Don’t get Etna to try to come in between. It is a different level. You can get Atlas closer to the middle point you want over time. Sibilance will stay though.

Kind regards,
Tang
 

MadFloyd

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Thanks for posting, Tang. How does one get the Atlas closer to the middle point over time?
 

Tango

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Thanks for posting, Tang. How does one get the Atlas closer to the middle point over time?

I grow to like the Atlas more and more over time. I find it its tonality very balanced and linear but not beautiful like Opus. Also not as liquid but far from dry and not analytical. It wasn’t exactly this the first few months. In fact I even once said the Atlas was a little flat and slim. Now not flat and no feeling of less meat on the bone. My Etna Mono is instead flat but has more beautiful tone. You will never get the holographic effect of Opus from AtlasSL...or possibly other cart. On Orchestra it will remain more distant to Opus and not immersive. I agree the Opus sounds best on symphony. On jazz and vocal I like the AtlasSL better. The size and scale and tone of Atlas are more realistic to me. Another thing, The Atlas SL definitely has higher output sensitivity than its rating 0.23mV.

Ask Gian. He also thinks his AtlasSL gets better and better over time. I think he also has in his system for about a year like me.

Kind regards,
Tang
 

MadFloyd

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Thank you for clarifying, Tang.
 

Ron Resnick

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Thank you, Peter, very much for this extremely detailed and very understandable report!

As you know I personally have always found the Atlas to be too lean and analytical for me.

It appears that, for you (and Tang) Opus 1 rules!
 

Tango

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As you know I personally have always found the Atlas to be too lean and analytical for me.

It appears that, for you (and Tang) Opus 1 rules!

May be it is system dependent Ron. Right now I have Opus1, AtlasSL and GFS on the same EMT phono.

CA4DD5EF-19C7-4D4A-83C6-EECF044F2DF2.jpg

You won’t find the AtlasSL any lean and analytical comparing to the other two if you are listening with me right now. If you still do it means you like fat chic and not gonna like all these three carts.

For the record. I was listening to AtlasSL a lot more than other carts I owned before the AS2000 arrived. The AtlasSL is still on the 927. Wait til I have it on the AS, I have a feeling it will be even more naturally spectacular.

Btw, now the 927 is playing through EMT phono on Stacore platform instead of going through the CH P1 or Ayon on CMS. The gap between the 927 and AS becomes a lot less. Nonetheless, I can still hear noticeably more clarity, resolution and detail from both GFS/SME and Opus1/SAT on AS2000. The SME is no slouch on details.

Tang:)
 

Ron Resnick

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That is interesting, Tang. And I certainly will not begin to question what you are hearing there right now!

Are you saying that right now the Opus 1 does not sound any bit fuller or richer than the Atlas SL?

But regardless of system and associated components in every cartridge comparison with an Atlas or even an Atlas SL I personally always have preferred the (less lean and less analytical) cartridge being compared.
 

Ron Resnick

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Tang, Christian, David: How do you decide how far to put the motor from the turntable? (How tight should the belt be on the platter?)
 

PeterA

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Peter is always excellent in describing sound. What he said is pretty much how the two carts are.

The Opus is easy to impress people because it is very complete and well balanced. Sometimes I even think it is too impressive and question myself if the sound draw a bit too much attention...not attention to specific thing but as a whole. Its sound is more upclose and immersive as Peter said. More so when play with Kronos. Everything is up to one’s preference. I like lesser effect of this when play Opus on 927 and AS. Jazzhead listened to my Kronos/SAT/Opus once and he said it had a show off sound. For now (I really mean for now.) Opus has the best highs I ever heard in my system when play on my AS2000 setup. Better highs with less sibilance than AtlasSL on Axiom/EMT/CMS rack using the same EMT phono. These days I can’t discount the role of any component in the vinyl chain. Even the record weight.

I would like to add that the piano and drum in Ella&Louis are always more there, not because of cart. I had the same experience once..hearing less of piano and drum as part of the music in that album. The same goes when you play Nat King Cole. The instruments that play in the back can be heard with more presence and become more as part of music when you have less EMI/RFI and your cables transmit more..loss less signals. Grounding and cabling choice can give more music to the system.

The woody sound, the decay that Peter described is part of the dimensionality Opus exhibits better than any other carts I had experience with. The Atlas SL can vibrate strings better than Opus but doesn’t give the woody, hollow body or housing of instrument sound as impressive as Opus. And Red Sparrow vibrate strings even better than the Atlas SL but also even more less the woody sound. I am saying to give an idea on degree of each cart.

Ambient, hall sound, drum leather texture, the Opus is superb on this as Peter said. However I don’t miss any of these playing AtlasSL..just different in degree.

@Ian. Don’t get Etna to try to come in between. It is a different level. You can get Atlas closer to the middle point you want over time. Sibilance will stay though.

Kind regards,
Tang

Tang, now that I have heard these cartridges, albeit in a different system than yours, I understand how you are describing their sound. Now, where does the MSL Signature Platinum fit in all of this? Do you listen to it very much? I ask because the sound of the Opus reminds me more of my MSL Sig Gold than it does of my AirTight Supreme. Is the Sig Platinum between the Atlas and Opus in terms of tonal balance, dynamics, immersive feeling, the way it portrays the notes, etc?
 

Ron Resnick

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Peter, are you able to compare for us in any meaningful way the Opus 1 to the PC-1 Supreme?
 

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