$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

Hello Chris,
The difference between the armwands - both are CLD, the old one with carbon fiber on the outside, the newer on features Pertinax as the outer "shell" - is directly attributable to the much better inherent damping of Pertinax and the fact that eddycurrent losses(result of wiring running in close proximity to the conductive armwand) have been nearly eliminated. In the newer version, the inner layer consists of a fairly thick walled, small inner diameter teflon tube(dielectric constant close to that of air...).
The slightly "lively" character of the carbon fiber arm tube might suit some tastes or systems better but I´d still say it´s a resonance artefact that I can do without. As usual, ymmv ;-)

Cheers,

Frank

Thomas Scheu has died ! What tragic news!

I was shocked to learn of this very sad event. I send my best wishes and condolences to Scheu's family and friends. He will be missed.

Yes, sad news indeed. I hadn't heard about it until I just read your thread, Artar1.

He was a true innovator, and will be missed.

Atar - still waiting to find out what you finally purchased. Like you, I started with a $3000 budget and have gone over it by about $3000! Now I need to get realistic and find out what I can actually afford - as in, make do with now and upgrade later. Still, the Teres 255 is at the top of my "must have" list.

This thread has been extremely informative. I have so very much to learn....

Yeah Artar! What happened? I have passed out several times holding my breath while waiting for your announcement. Unless yr scared to tell us that you got a twin pack of Technics direct drives and are now MC Artar!

I have been slaving to pay off the Grand Prix Audio rack. I'm still not playing with tweaks on it because everything sounds so right. My only hope for upgrading my digital front end at this point would be selling my preamp(Pass Labs X1 - a very neutral performer) and getting something that could drive the amp directly. I have a Golden Tube Audio pre out to Parts Connexion for modification and when it gets back, somebody's got to go. I'm also getting money put aside for my turntable purchase. I am hoping that Thom from Galibier can get a Schroeder Model 2 from Frank at CES so I can hear it when I go to Colorado but we'll see. Frank's got a long lag time for his arms......I'm definitely leaning towards that arm.

It was sad news about Thomas Scheu, him being sort of the father figure for these tables we're all interested in. It's nice to see that his business partner is going to continue on with some developments they had in the works and keep the company going.

I was just in Detroit visiting family and bought a ton of records there. My budget for analog has subsumed all other purchase thoughts for now. The only thing being that I plan is to upgrade my Sonic Frontiers phono stage by sending it to Parts Connexion next week......

Now if Artar would remove the suspense by the New Year we'll have a happy one........