Tranfiguration Orpheus description

Mark, I can't seem to remember if you said what your initial impressions were of your V, but everyone including myself was a little surprised/disappointed with their Trannies at first, until after 50 hours or so. And it just happened again with someone else who purchased an O, so I'm not surprised your friend was underwhelmed ;--)
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Actually,right out of the box,I felt the "V" was considerably better,than the "Temper-Suprems"!I have never been a big fan of any cartridge requiring more than about fifty hrs of break-in.
Best!

Anti-skate and azimuth are both very important with the Transfig styli. I have found the Orpheus likes to run a little bit heavier (1,95-2,0g.) than the Tempers, though I agree that 1.87 is exactly where I ended up with them. I would also try 100 ohms loading, as the cartridge is a bit better balanced there.

Bc3,glad you mentioned this.The distributor told my pal to run at 2.0 gms.I felt this should be a bit too high,without checking other weights,but was going to check all forces,starting at 1.8 gms,and moving up,from there.TIME CONSUMING,but mandatory!!The loading interests me,as I DID have my "V" at 60 and 100 for a time,but wound up liking dynamics and freq extremes better at 47!Maybe the "O" will want a different setting.OK by me.
Best!

All,

I've been playing around with an Orpheus lately. It only has about 80 hours on it. I thought it was a lot more but it isn't. Therefore, I believe my observations are on a cartridge that isn't fully broken in.

It certainly sounds extremely clear, transparent, clean and open. This is probably the best way to describe it. In this regard it sounds exceptionally neutral. As a result, it doesn't sound "musical" like maybe a Koetsu or Benz does nor does it have the highest level of natural timbre. I would also say that it has a slight edge and would say that this is likely break-in related. It is getting smoother as time goes on. Therefore, it might become more "musical" or natural to the degree that the Temper is known for with full break-in. I will let you know if that is true.

I did find the cartridge sounds it's best at 47K and with minimal antiskate force of ~0.8g. At 100 ohms it does become smoother but it loses in the high end detail and soundstaging. Although the bass was initially lighter at 47K, raising the VTF and minimizing AS solved that issue. This cartridge has plenty of bass at 47K. It certainly sounds a lot less edgy and smoother, yet still clear and neutral, on the higher end of VTF levels. I'm up to 1.88g and will experiment with the higher values that were suggested here in the near future. At this point, I would also discourage using the recommended value of 1.8g. I haven't experimented with VTA. I have only been playing it with the tonearm parallel to the record surface. However I will give it a try later. With a past cartridge I did notice that the highs can become edgy at higher VTA.

Overall, I would say that it sounds CD like in its detail, clarity, quietness and cleanness. However, some of the magic of Analog is coming through already. I can see how someone might think this cartridge sounds a little on the analytical side. But realize, there is no harshness, glare or dynamic compression here. Nsgarch has postulated that the Tranny's require at least 150 hours of break-in. He also felt the Orpheus could probably require as much as 300 hours due to its lower compliance. In my experience, cartridges loose their edginess with break-in and open up more. Hopefully this will lead to a little more "musicality" and natural timbre as well.

As I said in the beginning, these observations are on a cartridge that is probably only 1/4 to 1/2 broken in. I will have to go back and experiment with loading again and optimize VTF and VTA further.

Andrew