Finally to report on my new screws -- as mentioned they come nicely presented, two pairs one shorter set and one longer. Each with a small plastic type washer. The shorter pair were an exact swap for the brass screws that had come with my Palladian. One difference is that the Timet screws are allen key mounted while the brass used a screwdriver -- generally the former is to be preferred if for no other reason than minimizing the chance of the screwdriver slipping and causing who knows what damage 😏
The Timet 1100 screws are a little lighter than the brass so VTF needs to be reset (about a .15g change, so quite a lot)
With it all set up on to listening and yes they do make a substantial improvement -- probably the best way to describe it is that there is less smear -- transients are cleaner and more distinct (by which I mean different sorts of things, different metals or metals vs woods, sound more distinct from one another) and the absence of ringing on the decay of things is very striking -- this then uncovers all sorts of extra details (breathwork, hidden backing vocal lines etc) that the ringing and smears had masked
So if I had to guess I'd assume that the Timet material stores less energy than brass or alternatives and this is the reason for the benefit. Note that in my installation this is not a matter of being able to simply tighten the cartridge down more -- as my headshell is some sort of composite material you cannot actually over tighten without deforming it
All in all the new screws are a must have with the Palladian (and I think now ship with it?) -- as to whether they'd offer equal benefits from other cartridges who knows -- maybe I'll take the two longer spares I have and see if I can mount them on my Miyajima Zero Mono on my #2 arm -- will report back on what I find
ps still no spacer, when I get that I will remount my arm, may even be able to eliminate my sub-arm board completely and thus obviate need for spacer but so far teh Palladian sounds great running horizontal
