TW-Acustic Raven 10.5 or DaVinci Grandezza??


Seems like a crazy question!
I am getting a Raven one but will have a choice of the Raven 10.5 or DaVinci Grandezza for just $2000 more! Which should I go for? Well I am not sure if Raven one is a good match to this super arm but the 10.5 have got great reviews. Please give soem advice.
luna
Dear DT, After all the times I wrote my contrary opinion and all the times you seemed to agree with me, are you saying once again that you can tell by visual inspection of a cartridge that it will have "perfect" azimuth, i.e., that 90 degrees of azimuth will extract the best crosstalk results? Because I still think that notion is dead wrong. It certainly is a good thing if the stylus and cantilever appear perfectly aligned, but it tells you nothing about the alignment of the coils with the magnet structure, the major determinant of variation in crosstalk. If you can tell me why I am incorrect, I am willing to learn something.

I would love to see an EM photo of a cartridge stylus. With any decent EM set to its lowest magnification, the surface of a stylus tip would look like a vast plain such as we have here east of the Rocky Mts. However, it seems to me one would be too close (the magnification would be too high) to tell much about stylus shape and degree of wear, kind of like identifying an elephant by feeling its tail while blindfolded.
Dear Wrm57, no, anti-skating is necessary - depending on the cartridge, stylus shape, compliance and VTF, geometry of tonearm and effective length of tonearm and thus resulting off-set.
There are tonearm/cartridge combinations where anti-skating in mandatory and there are certain tonearm/cartridge combinations where anti-skting compensation is obsolete.
It depends - such I have incorporated an anti-skating compensation.
An unique one.
Dear Lewm, these shots aren't digitalised yet, but I will try my best and send you a few shots by PM in a few days.
And - oh, yes ... you will clearly see disproportional wear on one of the stylus.
BTW - due to "azimuth adjustment" ......

No, I can't tell by mere eyesight whether a stylus is 90° dead vertical.
And I haven't stated in this thread that I can.
That's why I conducted a survey.
In general - in general ... - it no longer a problem today in NEW cartridges.
But get a cartridge from "demo" or used and you will find a hell of a lot with displaced/disorientated cantilever due to erratic applied anti-skating and/or disproportional worn stylus.

Hey Dertonarm, do not get it so seriously - just a joke.

I'm not surprised. If the probleme again is in the reading, it is not there. Apparently the problem is in the writing.

I'm not in any "fan-groups" (unlike somebody here)!!

I have absolutely no interest in azimuth - no matter with or without fine calibrated scale !!

So, to return to the Lunas question - TW-Acustic Raven 10.5 or DaVinci Grandezza?

Your answer is: "The DaVinci will be a future classic - for design and performance and is THE single component which has put DaVinci on the map."

My two cents - Yes, but this future classic single super component has very short life - it is out of production !!

Best regards,
Lyubo
Dertonam,

Just a quick note to say thank you for your input. Whilst we all may have differing views, your posts above raising the questions on coil output, electrical behaviour and stylus alignment vs asymuth are thought provoking and add significantly more to the discussion than comments such as "blah blah blah" and he said/she said type arguments.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain your views, some of us appreciate that.