Tranfiguration Orpheus description

Neil, I nominate Raul to be the host of a comparison meeting. That way we all get a vacation in Mexico and hear some really great reproduction! (Plus we can spend his money on cartridges. :) )

Perhaps I missed it somewhere in Andrew's posts, but was he also running VTA tail down when the 47K loading sounded good in his system? If that's true it seems to contradict the theory that this VTA setting is the culprit.

"I really can't see how any phono component can be evaluated other than as part of an evaluation of the complete system."

This is a very critical point often overlooked and I wholly-heartedly agree with Larry on this.

I too did listen to a host of top flight carts - Urushi, Allearts MC1B, Dynavector Te Kaitora and XX2, and at the end of the day, the conclusion was similar to Positive Feedback's Roger Gordon, who concluded saying "Each of the three cartridges gives a slightly different view of the music, but all three views are equally valid and equally beautiful. I could easily live with any of them."

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/cartridges.htm

Nsgarch wrote:

Oh really? I wonder what Nakatsuka-san would think of a customer who thought him such a sloppy craftsman as to make a cartridge that had to be raked BACKWARD to achieve proper SRA? (to say nothing of the hurt feelings of the tonearm designer!)

I guess a proper comparison remains in the future . . . .

Heh, more blind and incorrect assumptions, Neil. I haven't checked other TriPlanars, but on this one a slightly tail down arm results in a parallel cartridge and vertical SRA. That has been true with Denons, Shelters, Koetsus, ZYX's and now Trannys. We did not and do not play with negative VTA or SRA.

I guess a post from you based on first hand experience remains in the future...

I agree with the point made by Larryi and cmk that cartridge evaluation is part of the complete system.

However, that does not change the fact that some cartridges are quieter, track better, and retrieve more information than others.

Could most of live with a number of cartridges? Probably. If you could choose only one, what are your criteria? Mine are mentioned previously.

Neil,

I was checking SRA before fine tuning by ear for years before you ever posted about it. Spare us your smarmy "advice".

BTW, Jon Risch published the SRA methodology that some here give you credit for back in 1999, long before you did. While I have mentioned Jon's article repeatedly you have never acknowledged his pioneering work, though you apparently don't mind taking credit for it.

I wonder if SirSpeedy includes plagiarism in his definition of dishonesty? He's our expert on that subject.