Make sure the chair doesn't null the critical bass resonances. My subwoofers make me jiggle and giggle.
Ron's Speaker, Turntable, Power and Room Treatment Upgrades
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Current phono plan:
ZYX UNIverse Premium SB2 on Bergmann Odin
vdH Grand Cru on SME 3012R
Grado Labs Epoch3 on Graham Phantom Elite or Reed 5A or Reed 5T (to be determined after audioquattr explores further the best tonearm for the Epoch3)
ZYX UNIverse Premium SB2 on Bergmann Odin
vdH Grand Cru on SME 3012R
Grado Labs Epoch3 on Graham Phantom Elite or Reed 5A or Reed 5T (to be determined after audioquattr explores further the best tonearm for the Epoch3)
The Io has only two inputs.
The ZYX stays. It will be a cage match between the Epoch3 and the vdH. Only one of those cartridge/tonearm combinations will survive.
Alternatively maybe there is a completely transparent crazy high-end phono input switching box which would allow me to put two combinations into one Io input.
The ZYX stays. It will be a cage match between the Epoch3 and the vdH. Only one of those cartridge/tonearm combinations will survive.
Alternatively maybe there is a completely transparent crazy high-end phono input switching box which would allow me to put two combinations into one Io input.
Last edited:
Mik uses such a thing but was custom made. Not sure who designed it - perhaps from LFD but would need to ask him.
OK, I understand now. Thank you. I would hold off getting the vdH/arm combination until you find something you don't like about the other two combinations or feel you need something more that it might offer. On the other hand, if ddk is going to set it all up for you one time when the turntable is delivered, then you will be best set to judge the contenders and then sell off a combination if you don't like it.
He likes to select before, have his system set up in store and ready to go
Mik also has so many tables and arms set up at the same time and is always switching arms, modified phonos, bespoke dongles, and exotic cables. so his normal view is not to be limited by inputs. and his inputs are ultra modified.
that is not a world most of us live in. i have one of his 'uber' LFD phono cables and i'm afraid to switch it from one arm to another as i don't to hurt something. repairs would be daunting.
the real world wants set and forget. walk in, turn it on, and play music. not always be changing.
Indeed - he does have a heavily modded Aesthetix Io too so could be worth investigating although a hunch says it could be pricey to get one similar.
I
At audioquattr we spent many hours listening to vdH Grand Cru on SME 3012R on TechDAS Air Force 3 Premium. The last couple of weeks have given me a chance to reflect on what I heard during my wonderful three days with audioquattr.
When I wasn't steeling my ears against a worry about sonic edginess, the Grand Cru (and the Master Signature) offered the greatest transparency and the highest resolution I have ever heard from any cartridge. It truly was the common metaphor of wiping the glass squeaky crystal clear clean with Windex.
I would drop the Grand Cru needle as a first choice on rolled-off sounding 1970s pop (e.g., Fleetwood Mac) and vintage jazz and some classical symphony orchestra music. (The vdHs separate instruments more clearly than I have ever heard from any cartridge.) But I don't think I want a cartridge for forensic analysis.
Maybe I change my cartridge plan to:
ZYX UNIverse Premium on SME 3012R
Opus 1 (instead of Grand Cru) on Bergmann Odin
Epoch3 on to-be-determined tonearm (secret research presently on-going)
Last edited:
Ron - it is possibly worth exploring red sparrow on the Bergmann arm because it has a wonderful poise and balance that might appeal. It doesn’t have the steeliness that it can do in some pivoted arms. I have no idea why but this is based on experience of hearing it on quite a few arms now.
I read these paragraphs a couple times and didn't really understand what was being said here until I read Opus 1 instead of Grand Cru. That made the words 'steeling', 'squeaky' and 'forensic analysis' jump out on the third reading. You're not quite saying you don't care for the Grand Cru, but you're definitely not saying that you're smitten by it - or so I read.
I haven't head a Grand Cru, but have heard plenty of the Master Sig and speculate they share similar tendencies based on what @PeterA writes. The Master Sig is well resolving and does a fine job separating instruments, as you say of the GC, more clearly than I have heard from other cartridges. But I don't find the instrument separation as either forensic or analytic. For my ears it is timbre that tells me the cor anglais is on the left shoulder of the oboe. The MS's instrument separation happens not because of black spaces between instruments or performers, or clear physical distinction in space, but rather because the MS gets the timbre very close to right without adding warmth. But that's me - I'm not questioning what you heard.
Do you recall from what music you experienced sonic edginess?
Spot on, Tim. The vdHs are not forensic to my ears. They are simply the most natural sounding cartridges that I have heard in my system. They have a clarity that is unmatched for me.
I think it is because they retrieve more information then any cartridge I’ve heard, and just as importantly they do it without ADDING anything, no subtle emphasis on anything.
That added information is heard as more life and presence and more real timbre.
These are all excellent comments and questions, thank you. Y'all are properly a bit confused, because I am a bit confused.
Forgive me for being cryptic with the word "forensic." I hereby retract that word. What I had in my head at the moment I posted that word was that when I would not naturally want to use the Grand Cru to listen to a track for musical pleasure and enjoyment, still I might think to myself "gee, I wonder what the Grand Cru would do with that track?"
This overstates the point and the analogy is awkward, but if one regularly looks at a antique coin with a magnifying loupe, every once in a while one might want to put the coin under a microscope, just to see what is really there. I feel something in this direction (but not nearly so far) with the Grand Cru. Putting it differently, I want my music listening to be an emotional exercise, but I find the Grand Cru to be an intellectual exercise. Of course I completely understand and respect the fact that for many vdH owners their cartridges afford them a closer emotional connection to their music.
This is nothing like my personal, subjective distaste for the Lyra Atlas, which many people love, including Michael Fremer, Myles Astor, Danny Kaey, and our own MadFloyd, but which I find to be dynamic and resolving, but thin and sonically skeletal in comparison to the cartridges I prefer. I understand the Lyra Atlas, but I don't appreciate it. I appreciate the Grand Cru, but I don't love it.
Tim, not only am I not saying that I do not care for the vdHs (eeesh, a triple negative!), I am saying that they have some of the best sonic attributes I have ever heard from any cartridge (transparency, resolution, and instrumental separation, and dynamics), and I like them and I appreciate them for that. But, on a majority of tracks, I simply cannot relax while I listen to them.
Forgive me for being cryptic with the word "forensic." I hereby retract that word. What I had in my head at the moment I posted that word was that when I would not naturally want to use the Grand Cru to listen to a track for musical pleasure and enjoyment, still I might think to myself "gee, I wonder what the Grand Cru would do with that track?"
This overstates the point and the analogy is awkward, but if one regularly looks at a antique coin with a magnifying loupe, every once in a while one might want to put the coin under a microscope, just to see what is really there. I feel something in this direction (but not nearly so far) with the Grand Cru. Putting it differently, I want my music listening to be an emotional exercise, but I find the Grand Cru to be an intellectual exercise. Of course I completely understand and respect the fact that for many vdH owners their cartridges afford them a closer emotional connection to their music.
This is nothing like my personal, subjective distaste for the Lyra Atlas, which many people love, including Michael Fremer, Myles Astor, Danny Kaey, and our own MadFloyd, but which I find to be dynamic and resolving, but thin and sonically skeletal in comparison to the cartridges I prefer. I understand the Lyra Atlas, but I don't appreciate it. I appreciate the Grand Cru, but I don't love it.
Tim, not only am I not saying that I do not care for the vdHs (eeesh, a triple negative!), I am saying that they have some of the best sonic attributes I have ever heard from any cartridge (transparency, resolution, and instrumental separation, and dynamics), and I like them and I appreciate them for that. But, on a majority of tracks, I simply cannot relax while I listen to them.
Last edited:
Ron in my humble opinion we should all learn to accept that each and every one of us has different preferences and our ideas about our goal sound is different.
Collectively we (myself included) often look to others to validate our opinions before deciding to move forward with a decision. Indeed we can often go as far as to purchase something that deep down we have reservations on yet a small collective online may/may not support.
To quote Tim Gurney on my other thread, I think we are better to embrace the concept of my sound <> your sound and be comfortable in that decision and accept that our vision of the goal will be different from person to person.
Last edited by a moderator:
Ron, part of my analog journey is leading to me reappraising my Soundsmith Straingauge. My system has lost a great degree of fuzz and gauze, and seemingly some lushness. Not on my CDP, but thru my analog. And I do believe my diagnosis of my Straingauge as being a tad on the cool, analytical ("forensic", as you say, actually a pretty useful descriptor) side of the spectrum is right.
Now the truth is likely more complex. Indeed the Straingauge is fantastically warm on a lot of my UK and US first pressings, and Japanese pressings, but takes no prisoners on a fair amount from that time and more recent 80s pressings of 60s and 70s LPs.
Like all things at our level of audio, sort one major series of veils/colorations, in my case preamp noise and speed issues on my old stock motor, seemingly sort out your whole system, and then be aware of a certain extra fussiness that creeps in.
This remains a mixed blessing for me, 90% positive. Some rock LPs that I've never thought about very much, are now sonically quite challenging (most of my 80s pressings Little Feat, eg). The vast majority of my 60s and 70s pressings classical, Philips, Supraphon labels etc, that were a bit grey and gritty before, are hugely transparent. In effect, a new record collection on 95% of my classical that had been gathering dust.
So my Straingauge is more analytical than I gave it credit for, somewhat head scratching on my previous more comfortable sounding classic rock, tremendously enlightening on the music that really benefits most from resolution and transparency.
And very different from the much lusher Red Sparrow and DaVa I've heard at Chez Bill.
Now the truth is likely more complex. Indeed the Straingauge is fantastically warm on a lot of my UK and US first pressings, and Japanese pressings, but takes no prisoners on a fair amount from that time and more recent 80s pressings of 60s and 70s LPs.
Like all things at our level of audio, sort one major series of veils/colorations, in my case preamp noise and speed issues on my old stock motor, seemingly sort out your whole system, and then be aware of a certain extra fussiness that creeps in.
This remains a mixed blessing for me, 90% positive. Some rock LPs that I've never thought about very much, are now sonically quite challenging (most of my 80s pressings Little Feat, eg). The vast majority of my 60s and 70s pressings classical, Philips, Supraphon labels etc, that were a bit grey and gritty before, are hugely transparent. In effect, a new record collection on 95% of my classical that had been gathering dust.
So my Straingauge is more analytical than I gave it credit for, somewhat head scratching on my previous more comfortable sounding classic rock, tremendously enlightening on the music that really benefits most from resolution and transparency.
And very different from the much lusher Red Sparrow and DaVa I've heard at Chez Bill.
I think there are very, very few components in high-end audio about which one hears virtually or literally no criticism. I, personally, have never heard or read a criticism of the Air Tight Opus 1.* Of course it will not be everybody's cup of tea, and it will, of course, not do particular things as well as some other cartridges do those particular things. But, overall, it appears to be one of those rare components that virtually everybody seems to like more or less.
I have heard the Opus 1 several times, three of those times on the Bergmann Galder + Odin. I have never disliked the sound of a system fronted by an Opus 1.
*Shortly after I posted this Peter A published a critique of the Opus 1.
I have heard the Opus 1 several times, three of those times on the Bergmann Galder + Odin. I have never disliked the sound of a system fronted by an Opus 1.
*Shortly after I posted this Peter A published a critique of the Opus 1.
Last edited:
Makes perfect sense to me. No confusion. I think your descriptions make total sense.
To the same effect I've found there are cheap carts can really sing music instead of analytical excursions. They get poo-poo'd for it by many because the others are "better" supposedly.
Hi Marc,
The interesting thing is the Sparrow is often bereft of fullness / meat on the wrong arm. On the SMEV, it is much faster and dynamic with very high levels of insight vs what you heard - you would not recognise it. The DaVa is much more on the lush side even on the V.
I am getting a 2nd tonearm on my Sati. I have ordered the very last The Peak arm from Stefano Bertoncello, which should be ideal with DaVa due to very high effective mass. A big, simple, high mass, 12” arm.
Question is whether you will still want to stick with the leaner presentation you have or change your cart in due course to something a little fuller.
Best
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |