Should I buy a VDH Colibri or Black Beauty?

Lutenist and Lewm,

Lewm, I too am a bit disappointed when someone doesn't respond to the original poster's actual question and certainly that wasn't my intention. Let me explain a few things further and maybe this will help Lutenist.

First, I am that dreaded life form, a reviewer, so I choose, for reasons that aren't important here, not to list my system on Audiogon. That said, I had my BB mounted a VPI TNT V with a JMW 12 arm at that time. The BB was, as has been pointed out, an overall fine performer. On that table, it had great speed and resolution and yet was still balanced with excellent midrange and bass extension.

My first Colibri was mounted on my current SME 30 (with an SME IV.vi arm) and the table is on the massive and overbuilt Silent Running Audio CRAZ Rack which sits on a concrete slab (I mention this for the tracking description below). I've set up many cartridges and I set this one up using a full compliment of Wally tools custom made for the arm and using his Analog Shop. On certain LPs the Colibri was breathtaking. I doubt you'll find a faster cartridge on the planet. Yet as good as it was at times, it also diappointed even more because it was sibilant on many LPs and a HORRIBLE tracker! Since VDH's usually track at very low VTF's I tried every adjustment I could all to no avail.

I sent it back to the distributor who claimed it was defective and he allegedly sent me a new one. Same result. Then, I tried another one and this one was the same.

You can blame it my table or my set-up, but you you'd be hard pressed to explain why I haven't had any tracking or sibilance problems with any other cartridges - and this includes a Grasshopper, a Lyra Titan and my current Dynavector XV-1s.

Sure, I have no doubt that others have had no problems with a Colbri due to the differences Raul points out. However, if I am about to spend that much money on a cartridge, I'd hope others who have had issues or encountered tracking or sibilance problems would at least let me know. Then, I can make my own decision based on all of the information gathered and the apparent credibility of the sources.

Finally, I WISH I didn't have this bad experience with the VDH Colibri as I liked the Grasshopper and BB so much when I had them. Unfortunately, I either had horrible luck with my 3 Colibris or it is just a very finicky performer.

Dear Fmpnd: I agree with you on the sibilance " trouble " that I'm nt really sure if it is a real " trouble " due to the extremely Colibri very high resolution on the high frequency range.

Certainly the Colibri is not a " user friendly " cartridge and we have to match in the right tonearm. I never experienced that " HORRIBLE tracker " you mentioned but maybe your recordings area little different from mine and we have to take in count the non-standard cartridge build quality.

Now that you mentioned IMHO I think that Lutenist could be better serve by the XV-1s.

Lutenist, take a look here:
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgcart&1252081217&/Dynavector-Drt-Xv-1s-mc-cartridge

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Fmpnd, Sounds like your (negative) experience was pretty convincing to you. The only explanation that might exonerate the Colibri is that there was some suboptimal interaction between your tonearm and the cartridge, a la Raul's point. My Colibri is supposed to work best with tonearms of 8 to 14gm effective mass. Since my Triplanar is 11gm eff mass, the match should be a good one. Lets hope that I have a better experience than you did. I do know that I don't have to worry about having a bad sample, because I bought my Colibri from an honorable member of A'gon who had used it in his superb system and found no fault.

Re the sibilance question, besides playing with VTF, did you also vary VTA and the load resistor in your phono stage? Either of those settings can also exaggerate any tendency toward sibilance that often is intrinsic to the LP per se.

What is "effective mass"? I use an Adanalog Airbearing arm, the sliding armtube is described as being 25g without weight or cartridge. Would that be a match for the Colibri? (I am particularly interested in this cart in particular owing to an extremely keenly priced example being available. I must say, though, I'm worried by the bad reports it seems to be attracting.

Any more comments on the BB?

Let me post my two cents...

I have experience with many of today's finest cartridges...

Dynavector XV-1s
Lyra Titan I
Air Tight PC-1
Benz Ruby 3
ZYX Universe
Koetsu Onyx Sig
Shelter 90x
VDH Colibri

This list is not for bragging rights. I am only trying to convey my experience. I have owned all of these and have bought and sold many of them on this site. I have had some twice and 3 times. Along with other lower end models in the 2000 dollar range. such as the Frogs, Rosewoods, helicons, airy, ah hell Ive bought everything I could get my hands on at one time or another. If the price is right and I can resell it if its not my cup of tea without loosing money, why not?

I find the Colibri to be with out a doubt one of the finest cartridges available today. I also find VDH to offer the best customer support by charging very little to maintenance your cartridge. Whether its a tune up or a complete rebuild, AJ is the most reasonable manufacture in the business.

Now all that being said, I can not recommend the Colibri for a one and only cartridge. This cartridge is not the same as say a Dynavector XV-1s or a ZYX Universe. Those cartridges I can recommend absolutely to someone who is looking for one cartridge only, a well rounded top of the line cartridge. I can also recommend Universe and XV-1s to a novice who has the money and simply wants one of the best. Cartridges like the PC-1, XV-1s, and Universe are user, recording, and equipment friendly. They are well rounded performers and its really tough to make them sound bad. They might not be sounding their best, it does take experience to get the most out of any cartridge. But most will be happy with them even if not set up properly.

The Colibri is for the connoisseur. He is so involved in analog and his system that, 1) he wants to hears everything, {to make sure he isn’t missing something} 2) He already owns a few very good cartridges 3) He probably has more than one tone arm mounted on his table. {because he already realized that tone arms are just as important as the cartridge and the matching or mating of the two is a ceremony in itself.}

What the Colibri offers is......(drum roll)....something completely different from the herd. The Colibri is so fast, so neutral, so extended it is in a league of its own. It has tremendous separation. It never gets homogenized. It never breaks up or falls apart, it will consume anything you throw at it. It does not sound like analog or digital, its something in between or to the left or right. I cant put my finger on it. It presents the music like no other device in audio does. Its clear, without any grain, its high’s are so surreal and elegant, it has enormous air as if it creates an entire atmosphere around the instruments and voices. And its color? It is the most colorful presenter. Meaning it sheds no shade or hue of its own. I can visualize a color or shade with other cartridges where all the different colors in a recording are slightly affected by it. The colibri has its own presentation but it doesn’t have to do with color. It has more to do with speed, thickness, density, air, space and such. This allows for the color and texture of instruments and voices to shine through…. Its really hard to describe.

When I first listened to a colibri, I was like, what the f-ck is this? At first I sat there with my mouth open....as I continued to try different recordings I was like, I don’t think I like this. Where’s the bloom? Where’s the warmth? Where are the thick solid images? Where’s that mid bass analog bump and jump? Where’s the beeeeeeeef! I ended up taking it out and left it off to the side for a few months. As I continued with my analog journey, trying different tone arms, phono stages, cartridges, turntables, phono cables, I just left the colibri in its box. One day I pulled it out again to listen to it, right before I send it to VDH to see what the hell is wrong with it? This time, I was absolutely amazed by it, as if my ears were more trained, that I could now appreciate the Colibri. Its like a thing that requires developing a taste for, like fine cheese, Beer and Wine.

To try and end this, since I am dragging on a bit and making very little sense, I would have to say that I recommend the Colibri for your second cartridge. Meaning if you already own one of the other top of the line cartridges in the world and you want to own another one, you must buy a Colibri. The Colibri is another view, something different from the rest, a different take. And yes it can be brutal on lesser material, painstakingly revealing of mediocre recordings. The colibri can be unlistenable with recordings that sound ok or even nice with the other cartridges mentioned. The Colibri can also take a recording that is not believable with the other cartridges and make it believable. It can make sense of recording that didnt make sense before. And it also can take a recording that was a bit boring with the other cartridges mentioned, and turn it into something so exciting, that the hair on the back of your neck stands up and your stomach and chest swell with blood.

Cheers
Rudy

Also that talk about miss-tracking and quality control with VDH, I have never experienced. I have had two Colibri’s and both were the finest trackers. More quiet in the grooves then all the rest. And by a large margin.