Lugut nailed it again in his latest post. I heard exactly what he described. Change the case on an outboard motor. Hear a difference. Who knew? That was astonishing.
The Schroeder Model Two is indeed an absolute bargain at its price point. Glorious sound, no significant flaws. Just less resolution than a DPS or Reference, stuff you may never miss unless you hear it.
I don't know if the UNIverse beat the Olympus, but it certainly matched it. The ZYX has two advantages over the Lyra: it's $5,000 cheaper and they're still making it! I've been calling the UNIverse a "bargain". Seems obscene but this was one more bit of evidence that it truly is.
As Lugnut mentioned, cartridge/arm synergy is vital. With UNIverses on the TriPlanar VII and Schroeder Reference we had to A/B the same track 5 or 6 times before anyone would say a word. They were that close. This didn't happen with any other comparisons we made, 30 seconds was often enough. Changing the turntable's motor case was more significant. Changing from a steel/cocobolo clamp to a brass/cocobolo clamp was more significant. This was nearly a dead heat.
To my ears and Paul's the TriPlanar/UNIverse had crisper attacks. The Reference/UNIverse had slightly richer and more extended harmonic trails. That was about it.
Put a Shelter 901 on these two arms and everything changes. The superior resonance control of the Schroeder comes into its own to tame that overly excitable cartridge. The superiority of the Schroeder over the TriPlanar with that cartridge is immediately obvious to all.
The TriPlanar VII is not a bright arm, but neither will it conceal a bright or overly-energetic cartridge. It's a superb match for the three ZYX's we've tried, but less well-damped cartridges may not suit it so well. The Schroeder Reference damps spurious resonances better, maybe better than any arm. That leads me to suspect it would give world class performance with any (reasonable) cartridge. That's one reason I believe it's the world's best pivoting arm.
