Pradeep,
For the sake of your blood pressure and equanamity, I withdraw my earlier comments. ;-)
We did mount the 901 and the results were as Paul and I hoped and expected. The Talea is now the second arm we've heard tame the 901's sometimes over-energetic upper mids (the Schroeder Reference being the other). On four other arms, including our TriPlanar, the 901 sounded edgy. I think it feeds alot of energy into a tonearm but the Talea handled it beautifully. The 901's no Orpheus, XV-1S or UNIverse, but on the Talea it retained all its big dynamics and also made good music, not hi-fi excitement. Proof once again that a great arm (and table and phono stage) can raise the level of a lesser cartridge.
Of course we couldn't resist slipping our UNIverse onto the Talea for a last quick go before Dan and Anne had to. I played one of our favorites: J.S. Bach/E. Power Biggs. The echoes are still fading, my head's still spinning. :-)
The better the reproduction the more superhuman Bach and Biggs become, and the tension they create in an aware listener grows endlessly. On the one hand there's a near overwhelming urge to respond viscerally to the rhythm (toe tapping, head bobbing, etc.). Yet if one doesn't remain entirely relaxed and focused one instantly loses track of the 3, 4 or 5 lines of counterpoint that only Bach's unimaginable genius could weave, and which Biggs' velvet touch, iron-fingered discipline and fiercely accurate timing recreated like no other organist. Thank you Talea (Joel). I've been listening to that recording for forty years, it's never been better played.
Agree about the Mint.
