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Cartridge and step up / riaa for TW Acustic Raven

Hi!

I hope you all are well :)

If everything gets together I will buy a TW Acustic Raven One with a Graham Phantom II in the new year. The next step is to buy a cartridge and phono amp.

My equipment consist of Wilson Sophias II, Burmester 032 integrated amp, Burmester 061 cd player, Nordost Tyr interconnects and speaker cables, Thor powerdistributor with Nordost Brahma powerlines. In addition to this I have a Revox B77 mk2 reel to reel player.

The Burmester sound is in many ways similar to McIntosh, but slightly more on the ying side. The sound is clear and open, with a wonderful mids. The treble is smooth and detailed. The bottom is dynamic and deep, but more running with the flow than with a slam. The bigger 911 mk3 amp is more detailed in the bottom. But the price level is different too.

So I have to combine a cartridge and phono amp to this. I play all kind of music, since I am both is a talent buyer for rock pop festivals and a consultant for the national arts council regarding music (all kinds). So I listen a lot to music through the week.

I like dynamic open detailed open sound, but I do not like it overly analytical if that means too much forward in its presentation.

I like the sound in my system at the moment. However, I have to do something with my listening room, but thats another story. Its an ongoing process as we know!

My budget at this point will be approx. USD 3,000 for the phono amp and USD 1,500 for the cartridge. Maybe step later on.

The dealer of TW Acustic has reccommended Koetsu and Air Tight.

Thanks for your help!

Cheeers, ToffenG

toffeng
rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
Toffeng, you asked about Aesthetix phono stages and received one comment. I'll add a different perspective. I'm an Aesthetix Io Signature owner so I have a definite bias. With that understanding, I will say that I consistently find both the Aesthetix Io and the Aesthetix Rhea exceptionally well balanced and very natural sounding devices for listening to acoustic music. The Signature versions of both are worth the additional cost, but the basic units are still excellent.

I'm listening to the Io Signature now in my own system after spending the afternoon listening to an Aesthetix Rhea (non-Signature version, stock tubes) in a friend's system. In his system, we kept moving back and forth between the Rhea and another well regarded tube phono stage. The Rhea consistently sounded, to all of us, more true to the timbre of the instruments and delivering more extended and complex harmonic overtones. It simply sounded more natural and more involving.

Good luck in your search.
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downunder
1,329 posts
 
Hi Robyatt

Everything I have said about Miyabe & Shilabe is factual and your implication of anything else is quite disappointing. I do not like my integrity or honesty questioned.

Why would I comment on the sonics of the Shilabe if I had not heard it?.

I had it in my system for over a month. It was used on both Graham Phantom and Ortofon AS-309.

It was the same Shilabe you bought off my audio buddy when he put it on audiogon.

You mention grey market Shilabe's - That is incorrect as well. My buddies bought them from the importer in country.

Audiogon is a global hifi buying and selling tool, so selling any used cartridge that one does not like is fine. There is never any warranty implied so how is this grey market?.
All you seemed to be doing was to stop someone globally from buying the Shilabe and maintaining some sort of illusion that Shilabe's owners are always happy so don't sell them.

So far Shilabe is zero from 5 in Australia.

Given the OP's preferences I could not think of a worse cartridge than the Shilabe.

have a nice day
robyatt's avatar
robyatt
55 posts
 
I was talking about the grey market sales in the USA coming from your region, I sure hope it wasn't you or one of your buddies? We have implemented a serial number system so we can track excellent global sales, including of course Australia and New Zealand. Your buddy of course never mentioned in his AG classified that the cartridge had been used by several people in the description, just that it was a lightly used no longer needed item!! I will have to question him on that, a little naughty don't you think? But that is why we are checking on the grey market source. I assume that "Downunder" things are a little different, and you and your guys, just pass the gear around until the last guy sells it as new.
You have a nice day.
downunder
1,329 posts
 
Robyatt

What the hell are you talking about?

I used my friends cartridge as it sounded so boring and lifeless in his system no matter what tonearm he used it with.

He sent it to me to see if I could get any musical satisfaction from the Shilabe. I was interested in the cartridge from the wonderful review jerry gave it.
I had it for about 5 weeks and probably played it for 5 hours - every album or tonearm combo I tried it with had the same result - lots of ooooh so boring lifeless sound.
My $495 Nagoaka MP-50 sounded in a different musical world it was so much better. I won't even go into how it sounded compared to dynavector XV-1, Koetsu Rosewood,

He tried it again for a short while, then put it up for sale on gon - so yes it would have been very lightly used and no longer needed as it sounded inferior to every cartridge he owned.
Then you came along and bought the Shilabe to maintain the illusion. Lucky him.

My other friend bought the Shilabe and mono and could not live with either and got rid of them.

You sound like the movies Avatar - don't believe the hype as it is a piece of crap.

have a nicer day.
robyatt's avatar
robyatt
55 posts
 
Whatever!
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