Reed tonearm w/ Raven One table-how's the match ?

Opus 88 Yes I would say the sound is essenially neutral. Certainly I find the Benz neutral to my ears and yes, I think the Ortofon is a neutral arm I have used the Benz, Koetsu Onyx and Zyx Airy 3 with it and what character the cartridge had, seemed to show through. The Koetsu was'nt a good match and I did'nt happen to like the Zyx. I know others are fans of Zyx, but I found it neutral but lacking some life, dynamics, compared woth the Benz.
Thomas said he felt the Ortofon was within about 5% of the grahams performance, at a bit over 50% of tha latters price, at least in the UK.

David12: I previously owned the Zyx Airy 3 also. My feelings about it were exactly the same as yours, and I ultimately became fatigued with its sound.

Opus 88,

yes, selling both Reed 2P arms.

i have (had) 5 arms on 3 turntables; the 2 Reeds, the Rockport linear tracker, and the Durand Talea 1 and Talea 2.

i made a decision to have one turntable and 2 arms.

a month ago i sold the Rockport. i've put the Beat up for sale and the 2 Reeds up for sale, and the Dobbins Garrard 301 will be up for sale shortly, and i'm keeping the 2 Talea arms and monuting them on the Wave Kinetics NVS turntable that is on the way.

i love the Beat tt, and love the 2 Reed arms. the only shortcoming of the Reeds is that they are not quite as good as the Durand Talea's. i was merrily going along with the Reeds and my friend Joel Durand decided to design and build a tonearm and used my room and system from time to time as a test bed. eventually i had to buy a Talea and then a second one.

i still wanted to keep the Reeds but find i just don't use three turntables and 5 arms, so it was time to cull the herd.

in fairness to the Reeds, the Talea is more money; the Reed is still the best arm i've heard other than the Talea. i strongly recommend the Reed tonearms....and will continue to do so after mine are gone.

Mike: I agree, three tables and five arms---not too practical. Enjoy the Taleas, and best of luck to you.

Hi Opus,

Once you start playing with reed arms and acustic tables you are starting to 'tinker' with some pretty fancy toys! You are now the head chef and connoisseur of sound.

Tonight i was shooting out a tron 7 reference with my audion quattro! The tron going into the linestage of the audion with a zen silver mk2 cable and cardas golden going from quattro to audion elite amp.

This is a good example of 'connoisseurship' wow...two great phonostages! Spitting hairs to find out 'best'. The differences are so fine and you have to really listen carefully. Its interesting to watch my ear develop over the years to be able to discern and pick up whats going on or not.

Then the results are somewhat effected by cabling and synergy its so fine it could go one way or another. I do try each component with a few different cables to try and make sure i am getting to the bottom of a component but there are so many variables that with a different system, who knows how the results would come out. This doesnt bother me , i just find it fascinating.

I mean audion quattro, tron 7 reference, this is pretty big league stuff! These designers are putting their all into these preamps and they are great but you can still hear their frailties.

Opus, did you know that at 40 years of age hearing slowly and naturally begins to drop off? Our ears are a pretty important component in the playback chain!

I guess i mention this because i am aware that i can have the most stellar playback but my ears are slowly starting to say good bye. Its ok with me. I'm just aware of this reality and we should come to terms with the degree of playback possible and come to terms with it and be grateful for what we do get. Tell you something you dont know!

I came close to buying a talea tonearm awhile back but ended up with a breuer 8c mk2.

I see components as colors on a painters palate and you and i are the painter. The talea like the breuer and the reed are great paints to begin to paint with. They're no silver bullet though... These are better than others out there because of the quality of their materials and design but more important than the paints is what the painter can put together. You're the painter! Use the best paints available as a starting point and create something unique and beautiful! The more you paint the better a painter you become. Its highly unlikely your first painting will be a masterpiece but just keep painting. Eventually we'll gain insights and get better. I speak to myself too.

I may be wrong but i believe putting together a system is an art that transcends 'this is better than that' so that good sound sometimes transcends price and hype. Make a system that transcends price, convention or hype!

May you love your sound! Good luck in your quest.

Have a good night. good night.