Ortofon A90 or Air Tight PC-1

Downunder,

The guys that have played with the A90 are veterans as they have numerous carts they owned and collected. One chap has 10 carts in his stable: Clearaudio Titanium, Airtight PC1 Supreme, Mysonic Labs Hyper eminent, Miyabi 47, Koetsu Blue Lace, Dynavector XV1t, Miyajima Shilabe, and A90.
there set-up is also very well tuned as they have been vinyl addicts for years.
In the same way, when i heard the A90 at my buddy's setup, its the same experience we have heard. It has all the audiophile qualities to be expected in a cart but lacks that musicality, "soul" as some would say.
Nonetheless, its perhaps the synergy, or some other factors that we are getting this particular result.
I myself is very puzzled because the reviews from magazines of the A90 has been nothing but exemplary.

Anyways, since there is a large variable playing when doing analog, I would leave our observations at that until such time we can hear the A90 perform as the way it should perform as indicated by the positive reviews on the net and the magazines.,

Nolitan, I was somewhat tongue in check with my comments. every system is different as well as tastes, so its a wonder we agree on anything at all :-)

If you read the UK reviews ( hifi news & hifi world) they are not all positive. one says too smooth/laid back, another says lean and bright - go figure.

Me, I have enough MSG in my system I guess I don't need anymore :-)
BTW, I have been listening to the A90 for over 10 months, so maybe I am now used to its neutrality.

downunder,

I agree. Am sure if i have the chance to live with the A90 in my system. Tweak it around, am sure there will be some positive attributes in there I would "learn to love".
Someday....

Dear Nolitan: +++++ " It has all the audiophile qualities to be expected in a cart but lacks that musicality, " +++++

" musicality " ?, IMHO that is only a heavy non-accurate coloration. That some people likes that IMHO does not means " musicality " is a live music characteristic but more a wrong audio link performer or whole audio chain system.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

"Musical" (musicality) to me means "sounds like real music, ie, acoustic, unamplified, real instruments in a real space, etc." In other words, it sounds like the real thing - music. I don't get how "musical" became "warm, colored, pleasing distortion" in the audiophile sense. I don't agree with Raul's assertion that it means a "heavy non-accurate coloration". My current system sounds more like what I hear at the Boston Symphony hall from row G center than anything I have previously owned, and if I were to use just one word to describe my sound, I would say "musical". I guess there is not agreement on the definition of these terms.

I did hear from one fellow via email that the SME V arm is highly colored and adds a mid-bass bump to the sound and that therefore, I'm not hearing what the PC-1 is capable of. Does anyone else care to describe what they don't like about the SME V and what might be a better arm for the PC-1 or A90 that would work on my SME 10?

I like what I have, but am open to other suggestions. I do hope to do a direct comparison between the two cartridges and also plan to attend RMAF to hear other table/arm/cartridge combinations.