Is a Koetsu Rosewood Sig Overkill for my JMW 9Sig?

Optomized, to me, is the cartridge or any component reaching its' full potential. In the case of the JMW-9 cartridges such as the Dynavector 20XH, Benz Glider, and Lyra Helikon sound very nice. IMO a better tonearm are will not extract much more from them than the 9.

However, with serious audiophile cartridges such as the UNIverse, Ruby 2H, Dynavector XV-1, etc. the 9 isn't a good match. However, the 9 is not alone in that regard. I would add the Rega 250, 300, and some of the Origin Live arms into that group among others.

Yes the Vector 3 is a superlative piece. Dead quiet as you say. It is built better than the Tri-Planar and IMO a better tonearm overall.

Private email me for more.

Thanks for your explaination Bill.
FWIW, I would say that overall I agree with you.

However, I do not regret the year I spent with a ZYX UNIverse on a JMW 10.5 arm. I would say that the it was immediately obvious how good the ZYX was upon installation on the 10.5.
I will also say that I am hearing even more now with it mounted on my Vector 3 arm.
So IMHO, the VPI arms are good enough to hear the differences between top shelf cartridges, and I would not be ashamed to put any cartridge on one.
However, there are other arms out there that are capable of better showcasing what a top shelf cartridge is truely capable of.

John

If Harry from VPI can recommend a dyna XV-1 on his scoutmaster, I am sure the Koetsu will do just fine and sound great.

Let me know how the Koetsu sounds, as i just may buy one for my HRX

cheers

Audiofeil -

Do you feel that VPI's 10 inch arms (10.5i) are in the same category of arms as the 9 series? ie. not optimized for top shelf cartridges with lower compliances like the Shelter, zyx, xv1s etc?

Do you feel the same way about all unipivots?

Goat,
I sent you a private email but to capsulize:

I like the 10.5 better than the 9. Is it the best match for the UNIverse and/or XV-1? No, but better than the 9.

I have nothing against unipivots. Actually I sell a line of unipivots.

Look, I've posted my opinions based on my experiences. If you find them similiar to your own, fine. That's great. If you don't and disagree, that's fine, too.

I don't care.