Hear my Cartridges....🎶

Dover, I just noticed that there´s a new kid in town: the Karat 17DX
Interesting review here:
https://totallywired.nz/analogue/the-dynavector-karat-dv17dx-moving-coil-cartridge/
"A ruler flat frequency from 100 Hz to 30 kHz under +/- 0.5 dB" and right up to 100 kHz, and that very short and extremely rigid cantilever.
From solely a technical point of view the latest Karat 17D is a very interesting cartridge design indeed... and quite a tempting one ...

The inevitable 'Shootout'.......
The music and performer may be 'corny' to some, but the recording on this album does some extraordinary things in my Living Room which the video comes nowhere near conveying...☹️
The sound has incredible depth and height seeming to 'bend' around the room and enveloping the space like 4-Channel tried to...

GRACE LEVEL II/Ruby

AS PALLADIAN LOMC

Unabashed ear-candy. Problem is that there is too much artificial flavoring and not enough real fruit juice in this candy. For me, this music is less “corny” than it is bad sounding. Early digital all the way. Spatially it probably sounds incredible on your system; it is very impressive over my Stax in that respect. But, the ubiquitous (for the time) weird high frequency artifacts that seemed to accompany the upper mids and highs of early digital recording/mastering are very obvious; like a strange halo that rides above the vocals and high frequency sounds. Classic ‘80s LA studio recording sonic aesthetic.

Having said all that and “reading (hearing) between the lines” there are differences heard between the two cartridges that make, for me and once again, the Palladian the clear winner. At first, the Grace may seem to be even more impressive in the spatial/soundstaging department. I think that at least some of that is due to the fact that the Grace is more generous in the bass to lower mid range and adds body to the sound. However, this range sounds “plummy”; a little too thick. The Palladian’s bass is leaner but better controlled and the suggestion is there that it probably goes a bit lower than the Grace. The Palladian sounds leaner overall, but the sound seems better organized if on a somewhat smaller or less voluminous scale.

Probably less so than most MMs (not the Victors) compared so far the Grace’s midrange still has what I hear as a slightly bleached out tonal character. A little gray sounding with a subtle quality that I would describe as a soft graininess. The Palladian’s sound in this range sounds more lucid and complete. Imagine looking at a picture in a newspaper; one can see the dots in the images. With the Grace one can see (hear) dots in the mids and highs. The Palladian seems to pack more dots into the same space (time) for a more complete sense of timbre and texture.  The advantage of this is that the sound of instruments is more complete and recognized more easily. When the brass first plays, not only did I first have to process whether it was really the sound of brass and not a synth, but I could not hear as clearly that it wasn’t only trumpets, but trombones as well.  The Palladian made all this immediately more obvious.

On the other hand, the Grace sounds bigger, more robust and more powerful in the bass for a potentially more “impressive” sonic image. This may appeal to some listeners more and may also be a more suitable match in certain systems. Both sound great and considering the price difference the Grace is pretty amazing. However, this recording is so heavily processed that I’m not sure what any of this proves as far as ranking one as “better” than the other. Personally, I would love to hear the two cartridges playing something like the Stravinsky “Firebird”.

Thanks for the comparison, Halcro.

Edit:

With the Grace, “when the brass first plays, not only did I first have to process whether it was really the sound of brass and not a synth, but I could not hear as clearly that it wasn’t only trumpets, but trombones as well.  The Palladian made all this immediately more obvious. “

Unabashed ear-candy

Haha....soooo right 🥳
Thanks again for the wonderfully detailed commentary Frogman.
I won't comment until you hear a 'proper' test...🧐

Personally, I would love to hear the two cartridges playing something like the Stravinsky “Firebird”.

Rather than repeating an album....I think I might have your 'number' Frogman, when it comes to musical tastes......🤞

GRACE LEVEL II/Ruby 

AS PALLADIAN LOMC