Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

If the brain is rejecting something, there must be something artificial about it that one is too sensitive to. No amount of live music listening at any chair can fix that IMO.

Frogman,
Thanks for clarifying. You said it simply and clearly, and without any annoying overshoot/ringing on the leading edge. ;)

Opus88,

I didn't know what halls you frequent, so thanks for clarifying. I haven't been to the Musikverein or Concertgebouw, unfortunately, but like most classical buffs I have many recordings made there. Their renowned "warmth" is quite audible in the rich harmonics and long decays, yet I don't hear any rounding at all, plenty of clean, crisp leading edges. I think we suffered a vocabulary malfunction. :)

As Frogman said, your OP did seem to be seeking a bandaid approach. It was that which I was urging against. By finding the VTA adjustment problem you actutally did what I'd recommended: identifed the source of the problem. Good job!

Doug

P.S. On any arm with a threaded VTA/SRA tower, it's advisable to make adjustments by taking the arm below where you want to end up, then move it back UP to the desired setting. This takes up the backlash in the threads and assures that the arm is actually at the setting you want. This was discussed several years ago on my "TriPlanar Tips" thread but it applies to any arm with a similar design.

Thanks for your suggestion, Doug. In sincerity, you've always been a reliable source for valuable information.

Opus88,

Do you use other sources (CD, SACD, etc), and if so, how do they sound playing classical music? Knowing how the rest of the system sounds would at least help to determine if your issues are isolated to the analogue part of your system.

If the issue IS in the choice of analogue gear, and not a adjustment issue, I think you need to focus on the combination of cartridge and phonostage. A "wrong" combination would be most obviously manifest in handling of upper frequencies. I find that with any given cartridge, a wide range of results can be had with different phonostages and it is not easy to "predict" the outcome based on the reputation of the products.

Thus, at best, I can only offer a rough guess that something like the lower price range Koetsu cartridges might work. Perhaps some non-MC cartridges should also be considered, such as Grado cartridges (somewhat blunted transients).

If you stick with MC cartridges, you might want to look into alternative MC step up transformers (SUT) and to bypass the SUT in the EAR phonostage. I am not personally familiar with your EAR phonostage, but, others have reported that the built in SUT is not as stellar as the active stages. The "wrong" SUT can sound excessively edgy and sibilant. There are MANY different separate SUT on the market and perhaps one would work better than the built-in unit. It is also easier to arrange to audition transformers than it is to audition cartridges.

Great post by Larry, IMO, which per my earlier comments makes perfect sense from a technical standpoint. Particularly given that the EAR phono stage only provides two loading choices for LOMC's, and no choice as to how that loading is allocated between the primary and secondary sides of the transformer.

Best regards,
-- Al