Trans Temp W, Magic Diamond cartridges - comments

Hi again: This is my current cartridges list:

Installed: Accuphase AC-2, Dynavector XV-1, Goldbug Brier, Ortofon MC 7500, Allaerts MC2 Finish Gold, Van denHul Colibri, Koetsu RSP, Shelter 90X, Ikeda 9REX and Transfiguration W.

Stand by: Audioquest 7000-Fe5, Ortofon MC 2000, Sao Win SMC-10, Supex SDX 2200R, Fidelity Research MC-702, Victor MC-1000, Highphonic MC-A6, Denon DL 1000, Denon S1, Denon 103, Audio Technica At-1000, Audiotechnica AT-37E, Audio technica ATML-180 OCC, Dynavector >Karat 23R, Empire EDR.9, ADC Astrion, Stanton 981 LZS, AKG P 25MD, Micro Acoustics 630 and Fulton.

Others in last 6 months: Clearaudio Insider Gold, Clearaudio Discovery, Sumiko Celebration, Benz Micro LP, Benz Micro Ruby 2, Lira Helikon, Lira Titan, Van denHul Frog, Audio technica At 2000, Audio Technica ART-1.

All the installed cartridges are really good ones and some of the stand by cartridges ( status ) are very good ones too.

Usually I hear the Allaerts, Colibri and XV-1. No, the ZYX do not come close to these ones ( I never own ZYX but I hear it ).

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul,

Thanks for the list. That's very impressive. I'd say about $120,000 alone just for the installed and stand-by cartridges. You must have many interchangeable head shells or arm wands? Do you ever have an interest to sell any of your cartridges?

Raul!!WHEW,did you close a movie deal,or maybe develope a new reality based TV series,in order to afford(even if used)that stable of thoroughbreds??

Nsgarch, I use the Magic Diamond cartridge, and I bought it from Lloyd Walker at his recommendation, and I use it on his turntable. I can't begin to make a ton of comparisons to other cartridges, but the Magic Diamond is very very good and well worth a top tier candidate consideration from anyone willing to consider this level of cost. Of course, I've also found over the years that Lloyd's sonic priorities and listening biases closely match my own.

The Magic Diamond manages to punch all of my sonic priority buttons for listening to classical music (chamber, vocal and large orchestral) and other acoustic music. It also does good justice to the occasional LP side of hard rock that gets played here from time-to-time.

To my ear, the Magic Diamond delivers a superb balancing of resolution, detail, soundstaging and musical naturalness that I find immensely satisfying; it is very neutral without being analytical and it never editorializes. Listening with the Magic Diamond also lets you hear every nuance of what's going on in the recording, and you can clearly hear and follow all the complex musical and vocal lines without blurring, without finessing, it's all simply "there" in the best possible sense.

The Magic Diamond also happens to be a great match to the Walker Audio Proscenium turntable's tonearm where it finds it's home in my system. Other than the turntable, Lloyd's audio system and mine are pretty different one-from-the-other, but we both find great value in what the Magic Diamond does well, and I'm yet to find any negatives in it after many hundreds of hours of playing time.
.

Rushton,

Thanks for your comprehensive description of the MD. It's really the first one I've read. Apparently, you've been listening to it long enough to know what it really sound like; yet you didn't compare it with any "known" cartridges (like vdH, Koetsu, Allaerts, etc.) so I was wondering what you were listening to before you acquired the Magic Diamond?