Transfiguration Phoenix

Thanks Tim and Jeff! That's weird about the suspension collapsing on the XV-1s, but I probably never owned my XV-1s long enough for the suspension to collapse. :)

My ZYX UNIverse died too, it took about 5 years, but the eventually the stylus wears and the suspension breaks down and you are left with a very light boat anchor.
I can't see myself ever playing up in that high ticket area again Jeff, especially with toys that wear out like cartridges.

I still remember how close the Airy 3 and 4D came to the performance of the UNIverse. You have to pay a LOT of money to move up just a wee bit. That's not just cartridges though, as I've downsized I've been quite pleasantly surprised at just how good a $20K rig can sound compared to a $100K rig. It's a LOT closer sonically than it is price wise. I'm sure a well assembled $5K system could push mine.

Cheers,
John

"You have to pay a LOT of money to move up just a wee bit. That's not just cartridges though..."

I've discovered this too, John. Not long ago I purchased two Acoustic Zen Tsunami Plus power cords for my amps. Mighty fine sound which I feel surpasses cords costing far more.

Now your wetting my lips for AZ Jeff. I have a pair of AZ Satori Shotgun speaker cables due in, hopefully next week. I actually received them already, but they were damaged on receipt. The seller was kind enough to take care of repairs, AZ has had them all week now. Hopefully I'll get them next week.

I haven't heard the AZ speaker cables, but assume there's some family resemblance. Have been satisfied for quite some time with JPS Superconductor 3.

It has been a pleasant surprise for me while I was checking from google about Transfiguration cartridges that by chance I have seen my original post thay I opened here in 2007. It seems after 5-6 years I got plenty responses :))

Anyway, I used to buy Phoenix in 2007 (I presume the first version) I liked it very much. Phoenix had more focus on its midrange, had plenty of dynamic range while not getting very sparky or muddy hence keeping most of the focus over midrange with beautiful integration of instruments and a great soundstage. In 2008 got Orpheus due to upgrade bug, even though O had better dynamic range, they almost had the same tonality and naturalness. O seemed to be delivering more detail w/o being too analytical, Phoenix was more on the big picture with relatively less detail. I felt if O was an audiophile's reference cartridge to prove what its analog is capable of delivering in most natural way, Phonenix was his cartridge to listen to music for longer with great joy though not having same punch as O. It has been almost 4 years that Phoenix was kept in its box as a backup it was now time come again. While I was re aligning O, I guess I made a mistake such that hurt cantilever, no matter how hard I tried with Graham Phantom via its many settings, on some tones there came audible distortion (like piano) while on some notes cartridge played its part. So it was time to go back old friend Phoenix while taking O to a needle doctor. I realized after 4-5 years with only playing with O, how close these are in terms of naturalness, tonality, seperation, soundstage. Phoneix never made me feel like I need O back. Indeed, it played with great easiness, perhaps a bit more musical compared to O. I am sure new generations of Transfiguration should be considerably better. Also I am not saying original Phoenix is a great cartridge, so many expensive beasts out there for sure that will more likely outperform Phonenix. The point is getting joy and satisfaction. Phoenix made me remember again it is not only the cost, it is not only the newer the better. Instead, it stopped those issues for me, it made me sitting until dusk changing vinyl over vinyl. Is not it great?!