Hi Ack,
Like the XV-1t the XV-1s is very flattering with strings. The XV-1 family does "space" extremely well and fill up the top front corners better than any other cart I own. It definitely has good transient snap so they are pretty fast. The niggle is that they are on the low side in terms of output at around .23mV. With a Phono pre with low gain some find them bass shy especially when upper mids tend to draw attention. I think this is a reason behind HP suggesting VTF far higher than the recommended range. I tried it but frankly, I felt the added oomph came at the expense of nuance and fluidity. I owned a Strad V1 and traded up to a Titanium V1. These carts could boogie but the first generation was, shall I say, very teutonic. I had very little success in taming these carts with my then HRX's acrylic platter but found acceptable results with the delrin-aluminum sandwich super platter. The top heavy CAs with their long cantilevers are very sensitive to azimuth and getting this right takes them to a whole new level. I've been told that the V2s are now fuller and warmer sounding. The high output makes for pretty good punch. Since we're talking dynamic contrasts, I would suggest giving the ZYX Airy 3 S a whirl. The copper can be a bit harsh and the gold too laid back, to my ears the silver strikes the perfect balance. The stage isn't very big but what it loses in scale it makes up for in solidity. Quite strange that they named it Airy when they should have named it Solid.
HTH
Jack
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