Fairytales, Dumas and Cartridges

[beaur]

This is a teaser for hopefully a longer, more detailed write-up that will follow if I can get my act together.

I logged on here one day in December and noticed I had a PM. Curious, I opened it and was surprised to see an offer to demo a new cartridge from Tedeska, the Torres. I almost passed, as I am pretty satisfied with my Miyajima Kansui daily driver. Long story, short, I am glad I didn't. This cartridge arrived NIB and I was able to put a little less than 100 hours on it during it's time here. Some of the best packaging I have seen and has lots of extras in the box.

The Tedeska Torres is the best cartridge I have had in my system. I almost bought it, but the tuition bills came, and nothing was left!

The Kansui, for me, follows the Goldilocks Principle in that it does everything just right. It's not spectacular in anything but the sum of all the parts adds up to just right for me, especially when you have a matching SUT. Now along comes the swashbuckling Torres, seemingly playing Porthos to the Kansui's Aramis at first glance. After settling in, the Torres managed to tone much of the swashbuckling down and be "just righter."
Silver in an audio system can be a blessing or a curse depending on how much and what type is used. The Torres is an all-silver model and brought the blessings side of silver in spades. By no means have I heard all the "best of" contenders, but for my playing field, this is at or near the top. After a month of listening, I sadly had to pass the cartridge on to the next lucky audiophile. I still miss it.

That brings me to the D'Artagnan of the bunch. Looking for the Miyajima I stumbled upon a box that I had neglected for some time. It was also one sent to me by a distributor to listen to (sorry Phillip) that I hadn't had a chance to get to. I decided to rectify that immediately and I am glad I did. The DYLP Windrunner isn't quite as refined and doesn't have the presence of the preceding contenders but, damn, considering its price point, it's another sword to use in the vinyl tidal wave that has hit my house. It's still breaking in but I'd say this will be one of those 75% of the performance at 1/3 the price deals.

In closing, I'd like to thank Erik at Solypsa AUdio and Phillip at Mockingbird Distribution for trusting my ears enough to let me listen to products they make a living off of. Hopefully I can find the time to put a more detailed description of what I experienced together and post it here in the coming weeks.

Beau

 

[Solypsa]

@beaur I understand the amount of work it takes to properly trial a cartridge and am thankful that you gave the Tedeska Torres such a spin

 

[fbs]

I'm not a professional writer, but as well a Tedeska fan and may share some experiences with this great gear:

Tedeska Torres with Amalfi Headshell
With the DV DRT XV-1t, I got a taste for further looking around with higher-quality cartridges. Unfortunately, I have to admit, that you can fall for their sound, once you get used to it, even if a very good all-rounder like the Kiseki Blue already has a lot to offer. In the AAA forum and individual conversations, I came across the small company Tedeska, with a good reputation from various sides.

Tedeska is a manufactory based in Berlin that builds pickups, mono and stereo systems and offers services for third vendor cartridegs. The owner is Mr. Hyun Lee, a studied musician and guitar player. On the homepage you will find more detailed information about the history and philosophy of Tedeska (www.tedeska.com), very interesting to read! I have been in contact a few times by email, because I found the systems very interesting and also received positive feedback from one or the other co-forists. Unfortunately, there is no German distribution, more reports can be found internationally. In 2022 it worked out at the high-end in Munich with a personal meeting, very competent and sympathetic person, and the demo gave very insightful listening impression! After some further consideration, the insightful email conversation with Mr. Lee and the personal listening pleasure, my decision had been made to order a Torres system. The Tedeska Torres is a half-customs system, Tedeska also offers „Tondosen“. Internally, this is a new special model under the name DST201us with the following specifications:

Body: Tonewood, Brass, Bone, Nacre
Type: Moving Coil / Stereo half inch system
Wiring: Pure Silver
Magnet: SmCo
Cantilever: Boron
Contact pins: Double-hardened pure Silver
Output : 0.3 mV ± 2dB 1KHz/5,6 cm/Sec/45°
Frequency Range: 20Hz to 35kHz
Channel Sep.: a>27db / 1kHz
Impedance: Approx. 8 Ohm
Weight: Approx. 7.5±0.5g
Tracking force: 1,7-1,9g (Recommended1.8g)
Compliance: 12 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 10 Hz

On request, individual adjustments are possible, I had desired a slightly higher output of about 0.4 mV. A system is always made according to customer requirements, a little patience is necessary. I chose the Torres with Amalfi headshell and the SME connection with GUTS head shell cables, which Mr. Lee recommended.

Just in time for the scheduled date, the announcement came that the system is ready to ship, the communication is exemplary! Mr. Lee also gave me some detailed information about the setup and assembly of the system, the packaging included all the necessary parts for assembly and accessories, just perfect!


The Sorane TA-1 as a medium-heavy tonearm should become the right partner for the Torres, with the Amalfi headshell even without additional weight. With the SUT, the question was whether the Silvercore 1:10 is the right match or the DV SUT-200 harmonizes as 1:20 SUT, the latter plays very well together with the DV. The assembly took place very quickly due to the detailed information, with the Amalfi headshell the Torres was already pre-assembled and I just had to adjust the overhang slightly.


First, I connected the Torres to the Silvercore Studio 1:10 to the Valvet PS2 PhonoPre with WSS Premium Line cables. The cartridge immediately liked with a large stage, detailed illustration without dissecting, musicality and energy in the sound image. Compared to the DV, perhaps a little less depth of the stage, but with more directness, the music more present. Here only once highlighted the differences that have become clearer to me with these two top cartridges. Behind other disciplines, I can simply state with peace of mind that they are of course present. After a few listening sessions, I got the impression that the SUT limited the Torres and so I switched to the DV SUP-200 with 1:20 ratio and immediately the Torres played noticeably more freely. With 10 ohms internal resistance, understandable in the setup.

So far, I have listened to many records that simply give a lot of pleasure with the Torres, a very right decision for this great pickup. Mr. Lee offers the customer a great service even after the purchase, thank you very much, the exciting musical journey continues! I have to admit, that I found the right SUT for the Torres in the meantime, so the story goes on…

Andreas