Ortofon A90 or Air Tight PC-1

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.

Dear Peter: +++++ " I guess there is not agreement on the definition of these terms. " +++++

yes, I agree. I heard so many times that " musicality " word with audio items that are really bad and through audio systems that were high colored but where their owners speaks about " musicality ".

Yes, the live music is well " musical " and maybe we have to define in precise way what means that real " musical " term to avoid a mix-up like the one I posted.

In a first instance/a priori for me " musical " means: a natural flow of the music notes/harmonics with the natural agresiveness that live music has with non-distorted/inaccurate " sound " other than the instruments it self or player errors where the main colorations comes from the environment where the live event take place.

The " soul " that Nolitan point out IMHO is in each one of us and it is the music and a very specific kind of music/composition what " moves " each one of us it does not matters if we are hearing music in a live event or through a Sonny Walkman.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Peter, I will be at the RMAF all three days. We might exchange on tonearms if you like. The SME V has some good sides, it is a very honest and straight sounding arm in my ears.But also to be very honest maybe you deserve better...