Best Cartridge for Kuzma Airline

hi

I have a Kuzma 4pt with a ref XL, single motor. I have used - in this order- benzLp ebony, colibri, airtight PC3, shelter harmony and now Atlas.
I would avoid the benz and colibri. All the others are excellent. My most recent cart (atlas) is superior to all the others - fast, powerful, wide stage, depth and detail, very good bass definition. Never heard such convincing piano reproduction. The shelter is also very fine sounding.

The colibri (in my system)is rather lean sounding, gives very good spatial information and is nicely detailed but can emphasise sibilance especially.
with female vocal.

the benz sounds rather dull compared to all the others.

Kuzma CAR-50. Magic when set up carefully.

Hi, Breezer: I contributed to this thread in its original incarnation, and at the
time, used a Lyra Titan i (the Atlas was not available then). I also used an
Airtight and currently run the Airtight Supreme, which I like. You may want to
look at Albert Porter's thread where he compares the Atlas and Airtight,
albeit on SME arms, but still a good explanation of the differences in the
sound of the cartridges.
I still like the Airline after all these years- and am now in the process of
replacing the air compressor with an oversized one to reduce duty cycles.
FWIW, I owned the Kuzma Reference table before I bought the XL- the
Reference was great, very easy to set up and no problems with isolation,
given its design.

Dctom- I see that you replaced your XL with the new model employing the
DC motor. I haven't seen much about this new model- happened on it
recently when I went to the Kuzma website. Care to explain the differences,
either here or on your own page? (sorry if you did that and I missed it).
best to all,
bill hart

Hi Bill

The new single motor enables the XL to retrieve more detail. I guess it must lower the noise floor.

It has v good speed stability, all the XL strengths are there - powerful dynamics and bass etc - however depth and spatial aspects are improved. Details in the background of an orchestra, for instance, are more obvious, greater bass texture is another plus. There is more information generally available from the recording and so instruments sound that bit more real.

I think it is a very worthwhile improvement over the 4 motors I had previously and is a neater set-up.

hope that helps.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I wonder if it is the same motor that some of the other high-end tables now seem to be using: that recent VPI, as well as the Kronos.
Enjoy it- I was almost in your neck of the woods last month, but the trip got cancelled for reasons not worth explaining. I'm going to try to hook up my new monster-sized compressor to the Airline arm later today- just need somebody to help me get it up two flights of stairs. I'll report back.
Appreciate the response. Apologies for the slight derail of thread, but since this one came back from the dead anyway....
best,