Hear my Cartridges....🎶

But you can’t pressure-fit a stylus to boron....
You must use glue.
I meant.....what do you think of the sound in my video?

Just checked the video, i like the 610LX sound! And the music is nice too 

But you can’t pressure-fit a stylus to boron....

Actually SONY did that just like Technics with laser technology (magic trick). Their hollow Boron pipes fitted with Nude Diamonds with almost no glue compared to traditional Boron rods with a drop of glue (like on my 61).

I’m a fan of Beryllium catilevers, you know.

No correction necessary, Halcro. With, of course, the usual caveats that listening this way has important limitations (talk about stating the obvious!) and using different tone arms has to be factored in. Still, one can compare the two different sounds and determine which one is closest to the ultimate benchmark, the sound of live.

Wow, this one is really interesting! A couple of quick listens only so far; will share some impressions later today when I have more time to listen and write. The external mic into the iPhone is a definite improvement over the previous 😉

Glanz - nice open sound, free and loose of damping which give it a dynamic quality. Initially, it almost sounds better than the MC...
Palladian - nice open sound, I can feel that there is more control over the music. Bass is tighter and more delineated, In fact, this is how most of it sounds. Voice and piano are more controlled, more etched and consequently, more musical information is imparted.

First, Rita sounds wonderful.  Very nice performance.

I should probably go back and listen to the other cartridges that have been compared to the Palladian before making this comment, but I think that the Glanz, overall, gives the Palladian the best “run for its money” of all of them.  

The Glanz is excellent and in some ways I like its tonal balance on the sound of the piano a little better than the Palladian which sounds a little “tinkly” at times.  This is a result or the Glanz having a fuller tonal balance which also adds more weight to the bass and a seductive dusky quality to the voice.  While the piano has more realistic weight it also has a less realistic timbre overall; it sounds a little odd in the higher registers and lacking a little natural brilliance. The extra weight in the bass makes the bass sound a little too thick and with less pitch definition than the Palladian.  Listen to the three note ascending bass line at 1:52 and the upward glissando at 1:59.  Less distinct than on the Palladian where one can more clearly hear the individual pitches of the notes.  The voice on the Palladian has a better sense of purity and refinement to my ears even if that dusky quality and extra chestiness one hears with the Glanz can be very appealing.  

The Palladian also seems slightly more dynamically alive.  At 2:20 the vocal finishes a phrase with “am I blue?” and the piano takes over for a solo.  There is a dynamic crescendo that happens from that point forward until the beginning of the new chorus at 2:28.  With the Palladian this increase in intensity sounds more like an arrival at a new musical “event”; as it should.  With the Glanz this musical detail is a little less obvious and one doesn’t hear quite as much increase in intensity.

The Glanz does not track as well as the Palladian.  There are times when the sound gets a little strained and at least two obvious examples of breakup:

1:28 - on the lyric “I” one hears a bit of strain in the vocal sound.
1:50 - very obvious breakup from the low bass note along with the lyric “Lordy”.
2:43 - a bit of breakup on the sharply struck single piano note.

Both are excellent and the differences are certainly not huge.  I can definitely see how the Glanz’ tonal balance might be just the ticket in a particular system with a particular voicing.  I would be curious how the Glanz handles orchestral strings in the tracking department.  As always, I wish I could say that the less expensive cartridge beats the $10K Palladian, but I’m afraid the Palladian is still “the benchmark”.  The Palladian is a kickass cartridge.  

Thanks, Halcro; always interesting and fun.  

BTW, all timings are from the Glanz track which runs about two seconds ahead of the P track.