ZYX Universe and Lyra Titan

gmorris please forgive my error. I meant to write Teres/Schroeder/Zyx combination. The purpose of these comments is clear, and has been stated plainly a number of times already. It is simply impossible to determine that the Zyx cartridge is the ONE item in the entire chain that caused the poor quality sound in that room. There were many products of questionable quality, the Zyx was not one of them, but even if it was how would you isolate it?

How much time did you spend in that room listening to other cartridges on the Teres table with the Schroeder arm, that you were able to determine the Zyx was to blame???

Gmorris you are right again! I am a shill for Schroeder arms. I sell them out of my trunk, or the saddlebags of my bike!!!

Actually I had never seen or heard a Schroeder arm before attending the RMAF, and knew nothing about the arms or Herr Schroeder.

To the best of my knowledge (do I sound like Clinton???) I have never spoken a negetive word about the Graham 2.2, or another other Graham arm. My comments were based on what I heard, and the salacious attack on the componants in the room under discussion.

My statements are based on the obvious facts in evidence in the room, that were available to anyone with two ears and an unbiased opinion.

I have no motivation to speak good or ill of Mr Schroeder, Mehran, or Chris Brady. To which one of them am I trying to ingraciate myself?

I own a Zyx cartridge, not the UniVerse since I cannot afford it, I just bought a Sota Cosmos, and a TriPlanar arm. I have no intention of buying a Schroeder arm, or anything else shown in that room.

My intention with my comments was to reveal your unsubstantiated bias against a product about which you know nothing! Am I being clear enough about my intention?!?

George,I will tell you one thing,for sure.If I ever run for any elected office,and must debate you,I will absolutely drop out of the race.Your language command,and tenacity are too much for me!BTW--that was an off colored compliment,so have a little humor,this time!

Nrchy---What happened with the Cosmos/arm/cable(PURIST P.C./umbilical) issue?My wine is aging fast,and I want to crack open the bottle already!

A call for peace and an opportunity to learn from each other ...

Like many of you, I grow tired of touchy personality issues on web forums. I'd love to see a fresh start with the slate being wiped clean. Perhaps I'm missing something here, and frankly, I don't have the time to surf back to trace this "pattern of abuse" which Raul has been accused of in this and other threads.

If individuals consider Raul's transgressions to be intolerable, then my comments are meaningless. Never mind ... OTOH, we can learn much from each other.

I'd love to focus on Raul's approach to system building. If you look at his system, you'll find an eclectic mix of gear which quite obviously did not come about by accident.

Raul is coming from a technical space that might be strange to some of you here, but it constitutes viable approach to reproducing music. I have not heard much in the solid-state realm that appeals to me on a long-term basis, but recently, I heard an effort by a denizen of Portland by the name of Gary Pimm (http://www.pacifier.net/~gpimm/) that turned my head around.

Gary brought an amplifier to the Rocky Mountain Audiofest that was in effect a tube amplifier with solid state devices plugged in where the tubes would normally be. The amplifier has interstage coupling transformers along with output transformers! After an audition with Robert Bastanis, the amplifier took center stage in his main room with his Apollo speakers.

If you look at the gear on Raul's system page, the only conclusion to be drawn is that Raul worked long and hard to get a sound he likes. I would expect it to be likely extremely musical, dynamic, and to scale extraordinarily well.

The best audio system I have ever heard was assembled by a local Denver area manic named Orey Block - a fellow who Ron Welborne lovingly calls "Danger Audio". Frank Schröder had the "Orey experience" while in Denver, but I won't ask him to comment ... he needs to build some tonearms for me :-)))

If you look at the voltages Orey typically works with, you'll understand the "Danger Audio" moniker - 2KV to 4KV is typical for him. Orey has designed and built amplifiers around rare transmitting tubes like the 450 TL, and is currently powering Raul's speaker of choice (ADS L 2030) with a push-pull pair of 150 TL's. Orey turns write around and throws a garden variety 6SN7 into the mix ...

Orey's system does it all ... It goes well beyond the normal categorizations of horn/electrostat/closed box, single-ended/push-pull /OTL and such. His system is the standard by which all of us in Colorado judge our systems. You don't buy this kind of stuff, but it's still instructive - even for those who don't know or care which end of a soldering iron to hold.

Back to Raul, systems in general, and analog in particular ...

I realize that this is an analog (turntable) based list, and will refrain from further comments about downstream components, other than to note that looking at Raul's rig with the above perspective will give you a good idea about his listening biases. I think that it's important to consider the whole (system), in order to better understand the person behind the post.

That Raul owns a very fine Micro Seiki turntable is further corroborative evidence of what he's about.

Let's not all be lawyers about this ... having to parse our words so carefully that we don't have the energy to get our message across. Sometimes, casualy thinking out loud can be productive - stimulating conversation and creative discourse.

We don't have to eat our young.

Peace,
Thom @ Galibier

Frankly I think we should all give ourselves collectively a big thank you that LP's and TT's are still being made and available. Does not matter what brand of TT, arm or cartridge we own.
The reality is that the BIG electronic/hifi companies would prefer vinyl no longer existed, but due to our luv of music and the way all turntables play music we all collectively (consumers and manufacturers) have a format that will surely outlast CD and give us many many more decades of pleasure.
If analogue did not sound better why would we go thru all the hassle of setting up and playing records. I would just burn all my LP's to CD and sell off my records and TT.

kind of makes our petty arguing about what sounds better seemingly pointless in the larger scale.
Still good fun arguing thou :)

cheers

I think it's time for a group hug ...

Some interesting statistics: this year, sales of new vinyl exceeded the combined sales of SACD and DVA.

Did anyone attend the seminar at this year's Rocky Mountain Audiofest on the future of analog? I'd be interested in the condensed summary.

Unfortunately for me, when I exhibit at shows, I don't get to attend any of the seminars. Heck! If I didn't have a second turntable located in the Artemis Labs room, I wouldn't have even left my floor.

Apparently, in the follow-up seminar moderated by Robert Harley, the future of high definition digital was discussed. I understand that Harley was dismissive of analog ... poor soul.

Blows against the empire ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier