Pani ... New ART-9 up and running ...

Pani ...

Even though I loved my Clavis, I agree with the rising top ends of the Lyras.

I recently spent an evening listening to a VERY high end system that most likely retailed for 350-450k.  Three turntables, one of which was sporting the Lyra Etna. Everything about that system was HUGE, including the sound. It was spectacular in every way. However, the slight brightness on the top end was still there. While listening, I attributed the slight brightness to perhaps cartridge setup. I could be dead wrong here, but it sounded like that rising top end again. Personally, I think most audiophiles would really love it. In fact, most do. Its perceived as "transparency," or "detail" in the upper registers. To me, it just doesn't sound correct. 

And by the way ... Robert (Mister Record) was over the other night and made a good point. He said ... Instead of talking about transparency, inner detail, sound stage, black backgrounds, or any of the other descriptive words in the audiophile lexicon, how about we just start using two words: "correct" or "incorrect." Made sense to me.

Frank

Frank- You have me thinking about the Art-9 here. I run an Amadeus GTA. Which WTL table do you use? Cheers -Don

^^^  Don ...

I have the original turntable and arm that they were selling when Well Tempered first hit the market back in the '80's. In fact, the table has one of Bill Firebaugh's very first arms on it. I bought the arm from an aerospace engineer who bought it directly from Bill Firebaugh after attending a demo at the engineer's audio society meeting. When I bought it, it was still new in the  box. Then, I subsequently bought just the table from an audio dealer who was selling the tables at the time.  I guess you could call the table I have "The Classic Well Tempered Turntable." 

 Over the years I've modified it some what:   

1.  The tone arm has been rewired with Cardas pure copper wire.

2.   A heavy brass clamp is bolted around the arm's dampening fluid well. The well is made of thin metal and rings like hell without the brass clamp. Adding the clamp was like installing a huge Herbie's tube dampener on it with the same results.  

3.   I had a specially machined brass counter-weight made to replace the aluminum one that was on the stock arm. 

4.   When I had the brass counter-weight machined, I also had a new brass bolt and nut machined as well. Its what holds the tone arm in place and fits from underneath the table.

5.   I put one layer of heat shrink along the entire length of the arm to reduce any micro vibrations there. I tried two layers but it over-damped the arm and dulled the sound.

6.   The stock belts have been replaced with a custom belt built by originlive in England. Amazing what their belt did to improve the sound.  I  highly recommend an originlive custom belt to any owner of a belt drive turntable. 
 
http://www.originlive.com/turntable-belts-replacement-new.html

7.   I'm using a Von Gaylord "Legend"  IC between the turntable's Cardas junction box and the ARC PH8.  

http://vongaylordaudio.com/beta/cabling/

Ray Leung is the engineer behind all of the Von Gaylord products. He's a genius and his electronics, speakers and cabling reproduce tonally correct reproductions of the actual musical events. I'm a big fan of his cabling. In fact, I'm a big fan of Ray. He's an exceptional gentleman and knows his music and sound. 

So, with all of these mods, some which were inexpensive, and some that were expensive, I think I'm getting the best out of my turntable at this point. I'd sure like to try one of ARC's Reference phono stages though. 

And just one more point ... I have tried a variety of after market platter mats. So far, just the bare acrylic platter sounds best. I'm tempted to try one of Herbie's platter mats though. I think he has a generous return policy if you don't care for the results. 

http://herbiesaudiolab.net/ttmat.htm

If you take the time to wade through Herbie's customer reviews, there are a couple of guys using Herbie's mat on their WTT and claim its a major improvement. I may pop for one soon. 


Take care ...

Frank

Hi Frank- Thanks very much! You have really gone all the way. I have had good experience with Steve's (Herbies) products, so maybe I will try his mat. At the moment, I am using the A23. It was an improvement over the stock mat, which was very susceptible to static. I've never tried going direct on the platter. Cheers -Don

I've got just over 40 hours on the ART9 now and it's beginning to open up as other posters here have mentioned. I liked it right off the bat but I do hear improvements now in the top end especially. Love the open, detailed and relaxed sound. To my ears the cartridge has the same profile that others have already described - concise, detailed and "correct."

Ultimately I plan to do some more detailed comparisons with my other carts but I committed the cardinal sin of changing a few things at once (phono stage, tonearm wire and the ART9.) All of them require between 50 and 100 hours to break in so I'm on a marathon record playing binge at the moment. I'll post more here when everything's burnt in and I have a better basis for commenting. 

Pani - the Zyx is a universe premium. It's amazing but also so expensive (even if you get a deal on it) that it sort of requires you to get another cart as a 'daily driver'. The trouble there (and it's a first world problem if ever there was one) is that my other carts don't measure up after hearing the zyx uni. I'm using a Denon 103r and a Dyna XX2, both soundsmith retips, and an Auditorium 23 transformer with the denon. They are both very very good carts but the ART9 is already way more enjoyable to hear in my system.

So the question is - can the AT ART9 serve as a second cart to the Zyx, that's still relatively inexpensive compared to other contenders from Benz, Lyra, etc? So far so good....