A Story about a Defective Signature Platinum

@mijostyn

Sorry to hear about your issues with the MSL. It seems that the MSLs were once the flavor of the day MC.

I can certainly attest to the sonic merits of the Soundsmith Hyperion. It is easy to set up (mounted on SME V), has a recommended minimum loading of 470 ohms, and tracks without any hiccups. These are traits one would want of any cartridge, especially ones reaching higher into the stratosphere price-wise. I have yet to setup the Airtight Opus 1 on the Transrotor TRA-9 Gold arm.

The system is mostly assembled after nearly a year in storage due to our move into our new home. I posted a while back that I would conduct a comparative analysis between the Hyperion and the Opus 1.

I only had about a few months of play time with the Air Tight before I started packing things up. However, I distinctly recall that the Hyperion hits way above its pay band compared to other uber price MCs. It just does what we want, plays musical in the most beautiful and articulate means possible. The noise floor seems as if it is also quieter with the Hyperion. The Air Tight which costs a lot more, seemed to need lots of special attention to dial in.

I suppose at that level, one would expect some extra detailed measurements. It is finicky to setup. Whereas, the Hyperion was a simple install. I used the Wally tools glass protractor to assist in setup.

I truly believe people should look at the Hyperion as it is probably a sleeper giant killer compared to others above its pay band. Good luck.

PS. Now I am going to look in my library to find some Lawrence Welk. Have not listened in years:)

I have made it known previously of my interest in the MSL Platinum and Gold.

I have also made it known where these can be seen offered for sale at quite a different price to what has been paid for the Platinum Model in this Thread.

I do promote and encourage demo's in advance to achieve an experience.

To date with most owned MC Cart's I have achieved a experience in advance of making a decision. With a MC Cart' rebuild I have not had the safeguard of the pre-purchase experience, even though I was familiarised with Cart's containing a selection of parts I was looking to have used. The Hana SL was a Blind Buy and it has never endeared itself to me, remaining unused for a long period of time with minimal usage hours on it.

There are not many Cart's I have encountered that hit a home run when I am in a room with them, not too many have created during a demo' the experience where I wanted to know more, the want to know more has been limited to a few Cart's only and Ortofon is a Brand that gets through to my psyche.

I have the MSL Gold and Silver, Ortofon Verismo and Hana Umami Blue on a shortlist to be demo'd.

The Verismo has once been offered up for a demo, for myself to visit a home approx' 2 Hours from mine, where it is in use on the home system.

I see the Blue as a Cart' that will be reasonably easy to find for a Demo', the price alone makes it a Cart' many will aspire to have a use of.  

The MSL's are going to be a harder search, I nearly weakened over holiday period. I found a used sale Gold with a short usage life. The Cart' was shown to be immaculately clean in the sales ad photos. At a asking price of £2200 I was getting a little of from my usual restraint and cool composure, I was having the odd twitch, swivel along with a bit of insomnia whilst refraining from the want to purchase. 

Fortunately/Unfortunately it is seemingly on route to another buyer.   

@audioquest4life 

The Hyperion will probably be my next cartridge. I had a Voice and it was wonderful.

The MSL has been in duty for the last two months and is working fine. MoFi made sure I was paid back the cost of the repair, so all is fine in Hobbit Land.

@pindac 

I have an MC Diamond and the Verismo is essentially the same cartridge. As long as you have a quiet phono stage with 68 dB of gain or more, IMHO, knowing the system you have, I can not imagine that you would not like the Verismo best of those choices. It is more detailed and dynamic than the others. If a system is inherently sibilant it will make that worse, but if your system is smooth through 4 kHz I cannot imagine you liking another cartridge better. Systems like these never advertise the volume they are playing at. You don't realize how loud they are going until you try to talk. You also never get the feeling that you have to turn them down, only up:-)

In relation to the Verismo, Ortofon made quite a clear statement in the earliest of the info supplied for the Cart', that the Cart' is using a State of the Art Dual Damper materials for the WRD on the Verismo.

I have familiarised myself with Ortofon WRD systems for quite some time, so the Verismo has my attention for this reason, as well as the Aucurum windings.

The other reason and one that is conjecture, is that I believe the Verismo may be the Tech' that is the one to be trickled down from to produce the Cadenza Ranges Successor. 

The individual who has kindly made the offer of the Verismo Demo' also has the Anna or Diamond (Tomartoes-Tomaytoes). The Anna/Diamond is using a Copper Wire Col but it is not described as Aucurum, it is claimed to be ultra pure, maybe it is PC Triple C 😎.   

Most who know myself through a forum, will recollect I don't get too bogged down in the math in a public arena, it is generally my experiences only or encouraging experiences that I am a advocate of.   

@pindac 

I do not know for sure, but I was told that when the Anna name changed to Diamond the new version incorporated all of the improvements made in the Verismo. The only thing I know for sure is the Verismo is going to require a very heavy arm to produce good bass. It has the same compliance as the MC Diamond, 11 um/mN but weights 9.5 gm vs the Diamonds 16 gm. I just get the Diamond down to 8 hz with the heaviest brass mounting plate supplied with the Schroder CB arm. I do not see what the coil wire type is with the Verismo, but the Diamond uses oxygen free copper. I would assume that if they found a wire type that made the Verismo better they would use it in their flagship also. Stanger things have happened.