Magic Diamond vs Airtight PC1?

The Magic Diamond is supposedly and excellent cartridge and uses the conventional MC design employed by some other fine cartridges such as vdH and Allaerts. Lloyd Walker (the TT guy) sells them at a (slight)discount, and if you call him, he will be happy to talk to you about it. Also, email Rushton (a member) about his.

The Air Tight doesn't seem to have much press so far. It has the same specs as the new Transfiguration Orpheus, which is getting great reviews (I have a Temper W which is very similar) The Orpheus uses a Neodymium ring magnet which comletely envelopes the coils, and a high mu armature like the PC1.

I use the Magic Diamond Blue with the Walker Audio Proscenium Gold TT in a vinyl only playback system. From a technical perspective, it is a medium output MC (0.38mV) of medium compliance. The body is milled from a solid chunk of metal and the stylus/canteleiver assembly is potted to the body in such a way as to make it non-replacable should it break (trust me on this - as I just snapped the canteleiver off mine, and am awaiting the arrival of a new cart).

The Magic Diamond has no real sonic signature of it's own. It is a very neutral cartridge. It is a cart that requires some patience during breakin as it is likely to change from day to day over the first 100 hours or so. But once it settles in you notice the speed and attack of leading edge transients and it's uncanny ability to deliver a focused sense of the music across the frequency spectrum without any emphasis in one range at the expense of another. When used in concert with the Proscenium Gold TT (my only experience with the MD), music leaps from a velvety, ultra black background. Good recordings sound good - and bad recodings sound bad. It digs into the grooves of the LP and fleshes out whatever is in there. It is detailed - but detailed in such a way that lets you listen with ease through the cart and into the music.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with the Airtight and can only relate what I hear in my room on my system.

Not sure what you mean by much press but Jonathan Valin has written at length about the Airtight and Mikey mentioned it in one of his recent reviews as well. I heard from another dealer who compared the Orpheus to the Airtight that the latter was the one to beat (for more money). Arm synergy, of course, is the wild card here.