....have you ever gone to a concert before the music starts and as you walk into the auditorium itself, notice the sound of the hall itself that is so "alive" that the ambience hits you in the face with its presence? It's all around you and has a specific feeling of "realness", of "being there". When the music starts, that characteristic becomes the context you hear the music in. It's the environment the music is in. Sometimes it is in a way recorded in the grooves and the FR-66s allows you to hear it. A lot of carts have some unique abilities but the FR-1Mk3F has something which is like a hit in the face in the very first second: It opens a room between the speakers in a way which is very hard to describe, so deep, so wide... in a way, the listeners looks into the recording session (when you listen to older records which were done with a few microphones).
The FR-1Mk3F has an uncanny ability to illuminate subtle dynamic information. Listening to Paul Paray conduct Chabrier's, Espana (Mercury Living Presence, SR-90212), I was amazed how much new information I heard in the opening section, instruments appearing with a clarity and placement that I have obviously been missing. The opening section is among the most amazing ones ever recorded, the image clarity, full-range harmonic expansion, and tonal purity are unique. Overall dynamics were unrestrained, easily reproducing the natural, and often elusive details of a live performance. I can confidently report that the tonearm presents a fulfilled and vivid sonic image that sounds like music. A combination of balance, stability, and neutrality allows the music to flow with what you might call an effortless grace. This effortlessness, as if the harmonic and dynamic range have no boundaries, is one of the FR-66s most enchanting characteristics.
The first qualities you notice are the extremely wide-reaching dynamics and dead silent background. But aside from its high resolution, the FR-1Mk3F has among the fastest, cleanest transient response of any cartridge I've heard at any price. Metal sounds like metal, yet there was nothing intrinsically bright about the FR-1Mk3F sound, which was full-bodied, deep, extremely well defined, and as fast on bottom as on top. The midrange was full but not excessively so, resulting in superbly coherent transient and harmonic performance from top to bottom. The FR-1Mk3F has the slam and fullness preferred by moving-magnet devotees, but with the resolution and speed of a top moving-coil. The cartridge produces a stability of the Instruments within the soundstage, as well as an independently stable soundstage itself. This affords the music the ability to exist even in a small listeners room. It was a long time comparison with Lyra Olympos, Titan i, Delos, Kleos, Atlas, several Koetsu Stones with/without Diamond cantilever, Benz, Transfiguration, Air Tights, Zyx and a lot more I forgot and did use them side by side with most modern Arms and SME 3012R / V, Kuzma, Well Tempered, several Graham Arms and FR-64s / 66s Arms witch each of them. Same with my former Denon 103, 103R etc. I was a slow learner, thought at the beginning, newer, more expensive has to be better, but more and more I got the result, these FR Arms are superior to any other Arms with their ability, to track signals like radar, to amplify them with a unique physical tonal force and their ability, to take every cartridge and shows its best. With all cartridges named above. You hear more from what is in the groove. More believable…And also fascinating: This combo show how good these old, floppy, cheap 5$ vinyls really are, all the dynamic, the musical flow, the tonal balance … most reissues are pale/lifeless in comparision… guess it has to do with pressing knowledge which is gone forever when CD started. Anyway, they open the doors for other types of music and I don't have a break in the time jump back...
But, best is, go out, listen to different units and do your own learning. It is all brain and part of the designers ability. Some are better than others…..
Some lines to records:
Print-through starts self-erasing the tape signal from the high frequencies on down, so the high frequencies are the first to deteriorate, and will always suffer more than the midrange or bass frequencies. With reissues, in most cases the engineer will need to boost the highs to bring back something close to the original tonal balance, but boosting can compensate for a loss of signal amplitude but it cannot compensate for a loss of signal information. Some designers try to compensate it in their designs, sometimes successful, mostly not. they don't pass the test of time, they become boring after a while, their sonic fingerprint is audible in every reproduction. That coloration can disturb, the owners want to get rid of it and roll the investment dice again and again. That cartridge needs knowledge from the Listener, someone who wants a tool and knows what to do with it to get the best out of it.
The Divinity
On Joan Baez The first 10 Years, there was a sense of Joan standing in front of you in three dimensions you can see her, and the outline of her guitar, and you felt as if you were listening from the other side of the microphone. The energy just kept coming, as it would if you heard Joan live. The boundary line between her head and the expanse of airy, empty stage behind her was revealed with uncanny precision. You could hear the very weak echo of her voice bouncing off the stage's side wall and you could feel the air circulating on the stage behind her.
London CS 6006 Espana
From the very first moment you can hear a Performance which is spectacular with the Titan i, with stunning mid and low bass. There is a clarity and impact which is outstanding. Imaging is unusually good, the soundstage is wide linked with appropriate depth.
London CS 6046 Nights in the Garden of Spain
The better the units are the more you can hear the subtle interplay between guitar and orchestra. The Solist is not wrapped into the orchestra, his playing has its own volume and strength.
Clarity, warmth, dynamics are keywords for these records
London CS 6205
short description: SOUNDSTAGE / AMBIENCE / PRESENCE
Lyrita SRCS 109 Arnold - English Dances
Very problematic record, with Phono- / Linestages which miss the sonic target by a mile it is simply awful, really horrible, when the System is really done right, it is a killer Performance. The first time when my cup of tea went cold while listening was with a Lamm chain (LL2.1, LP2, M1.2R) and the Cadence / Coherence II pass with flying colors...
RCA LSC 2400 - Ballet Music from the Opera
The Verdi selections continue with the Triumphal March, also from Aida. It receives a spectacular performance that almost convinces me of its musical worth. The antiphonal trumpets are recorded very well, especially their boulevard-wide vibrato. Its flavour is magnificent in its gaudiness and emphasizes the grand nature of the opera. The string tone is vibrant, the tactile sense of bow on string sounding rich and very sensual. Macro and micro dynamics are represented truthfully, with percussion instruments adding to the wonderful overall effect. Placement of instruments is pinpoint within the large soundstage, and unison woodwinds and upper strings are separated easily by space and timbre.
Mercury SR 90212 Chabrier Espana
That was the first session in their new recording hall in Detroit. The abilities from Paray shine here at his best. There is an „easy going“ through the complex Performance which is very hard to find. The first notes of Espana, the opening, is among the most impressive moments you can get from a record. When we talk about the Golden Era of Analog, that one is a part of it.
The Royal Ballet Gala Performances LDS 6065
1. Series Classic Records 180gr, 1993, very, very well done, better than the following ones.
Soundstage, Dynamics, Details ...it doesn't get better than this. A milestone.
...and that one
Black Gold from the former time ... unsurpassed in Performance