All,
Here are my impressions of the Transfiguration Orpheus and Zyx Universe (copper coil, silver plate) comparison.
Firstly, I would like to thank Doug and Paul for a great evening. They were gracious hosts and I learned a lot about audio from their experience. Conversations, dinner, wine, scotch
.it was all great.
I found their system very revealing. Aided by the Universe, Teres table, Triplanar arm and Nick Doshi preamp their system was very transparent, open, free and dynamic (micro/macro) but yet very relaxed. One could hear very deep into the soundstage and the airiness around instruments was eerie. I had a feeling we would not have any trouble performing the comparison given this level of system performance.
We played classical, ragtime and some pop/rock material on Doug and Pauls system. It had all of the characteristics I mentioned above. Of particular note was how quick and sharp notes appeared and trailed naturally with amazing soundstage, separation of instruments and airiness. Once again, it was evident that the system was both very quick and detailed but yet relaxed and natural.
Doug then installed the Orpheus. Please remember, this cartridge is NOT fully broken in. It only has about 80 hours. More on this later. We let it play for about 45 minutes while we had dinner to settle in a bit. After some further playing, this was later followed by using some tracks on the Cardas test record.
Firstly some comments on Orpheus settings. We quickly settled at around 1.94g VTF. 1.87 was a bit too low and 1.99 was a bit too high. The loading comparisons were very interesting. We tried 200, 1500 and 47K ohms. 200 sounded very nice: natural bottom end and mid-range, relaxed but detailed, more airiness around the highs, and more three-dimensional, however, with less energetic, subdued mids and highs. At 47k, the highs became very strident and with a lot of glare. It lost its tempo, three-dimensionality, relaxed sound and airiness around the highs. Stepping it down to 1500 ohms did improve the issues at 47K, but it still lost some of the virtues we heard at 200ohms. At this point, a setting between 200 and 1500 ohms would have been better. So, the issue we faced was mostly the detail and quickness in the mids and highs. All of us felt that this could be solved as the cartridge breaks in. The highs are an area that do open up and improve with break-in.
Paul felt that the note waveforms were dispersed with the Orpheus causing a smearing and lack of sharpness. He thinks that the energy radiating to and from the cartridge is not being effectively damped and that something like the Schroeder arm might be a better match. Of course, this could possibly be due to the stiff, un-broken in suspension. Doug and Paul can expand on this.
With regard to comparison to the Universe, my opinion is that the Uni sounded quicker, sharper and more extended and three-dimensional in the highs and midrange. Once again, a lot of air around the instruments. The Orpheus sounded great but slightly less dynamic (but never strained), open and sharp in comparison. This could be a break-in issue. Personally, I felt the bass and mid-bass of the Orpheus sounded better than the Universe overall. It was bold, extended further and was more dynamic. I preferred the Orpheus in this regard on the rock cut (Yes-Heart of the Sunrise) and brassy/kettle drum classical tracks (Sonic Fireworks) we played.
The Uni is a neutral cartridge and the Orpheus displayed similar neutrality. It was said, that the Orpheus is more in the league of the Uni neutrality and not close to the euphonic characteristics of Shelters, Koetsus and Benzs. Therefore, I felt that these cartridges were closer in performance than they were different. Listeners with an untrained ear and to those preferring rock and very dynamic material might find these two cartridges close in performance. Although I do like rock music (+ classical), my ears are sensitive enough to tell differences and the Uni is better at this point in the break-in cycle in the areas I mentioned above.
My take away is that the Orpheus, at this infant point in its break-in, has some key strengths in the bass and mid-bass areas and exhibits an inherent neutrality, and lack of strain, that could allow it to evolve into a better performer in the mids and highs with further use. At that point, I would expect the gap between these two cartridges to close considerably and maybe even put the Orpheus further ahead in the bass and mid-bass areas.
Some (or most) of you are probably shaking your heads asking the question, why would you ever go into compare a fully broken-in, optimized Universe to an un-broken in Orpheus. Reasonable question given how these comparisons could sway buyers one way or the other. My answer: for the sake of experimentation and to have made the evening with Doug and Paul even more interesting. I hope people dont try to view this as a shootout with a winner and a loser. This was an exhibition match with the real contest much further away in time. The Tranny camp should not fret (there is a lot of potential here with some already apparent strengths) and the Zyx-Uni camp should not claim a victory prematurely.
Ill keep all of you posted on how the cartridge evolves with break-in and repeat the loading and VTF experiments in my own system. I would also like to take Doug and Paul up on their offer to return for another comparison when the cartridge is fully broken-in.
Lastly, thank you Doug and Paul for your time and generosity. I really enjoyed it. Analytical thinking aside, I had a smile on my face most of the time while we were listening to either cartridge. You have a great system and great music selection! Now I need to find a place to buy Sonic Fireworks!
Andrew
