Lyra Etna and Airtight Opus 1? Is it different enough?

[tima]

Lean is a coloration in this case imposed by the cartridge.

Lean is not a colouration imposed by the Lyra cartridge.

I understand the adjective 'lean' as a lack or absence.
- Lean meat lacks fat, lean years lack bounty.
- A synonym might be 'sparse'.
- An antonym might be 'full' or 'rich'.

To me, then, a lean sounding cartridge is lacking some characteristic that is presumably a positive or desirable. Better to describe that than simply saying "X sounds lean".

Whether to say "a cartridge sounds lean" is to describe a coloration ... I don't know. Presumably "a coloration" is some added characteristic to someone's idea of neutral or uncolored. Neutral only makes sense when relative to something else -- there is no universal neutral.

It's all a big mess, yet we think we are communicating.

The more general a description, the less informative it is.

 

[XV-1]

Ok, I see your point. Thank you. The cartridge is not truly transparent but it does reveal, perhaps ruthlessly, the sound of the rest of the system. And the cartridge is not lean sounding. So, you seem to agree that the cartridge can not be both transparent and lean at the same time as Ron suggested it is. Is this what you are saying?

Well, one's system can be lean and transparent, but probably not the cartridge.

 

[Balle Clorin]

It is mainly the top end that makes the difference between cartridges, Here is the RELATIVE difference to 2M Black.
Not much difference below 3000hz.

Differences can occur below 50-100hz but likely more and arm-cartridge matching issue than the cartridges fault. Very little music content below 40hz on vinyl anyway.