Schroder sq and the new talea

Dear Mike,

Many thanks for enriching this thread with your detailed contribution - on top of documenting it in your system page. It was not easy and I am appreciative of your effort.

Your post raises a few questions, cardinal amongst them whether similar events could be anything but a 'shootout'.

I believe they can - when they are modelled on the paradigm of a few friends visiting an audiophile's home to evaluate changes on his/her system: strong beliefs still emerge about differences - but that is as far as it goes.

However, my belief system is occasionally tinted by romanticism :-)

Dear Kostas: IMHO I think it could not be in other way, as you say anything but a shootout but even way before the event take action both designers agree that that was not a shootout so I think that no one that attend were waiting for other that to grow up the people frienship.

Lewm put in very good terms that subject when he posted:

+++++ " to their own perceptions of how the two designs SHOULD differ sonically, given the differences in their construction. All I could tell was that I heard two different tonearm/cartridge/phono stage systems that sounded different from each other, " +++++

I think this is what almost all heard in that event and IMHO could not be in other way with two different signal sources and at the same time with two way different signal process phono stages.

Probably next time things could be different. I hope be there this next time.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hi Mikelavigne,

I had exactly the same impressions. And so did two others that I was with in the room. I think the differences were pretty obvious. That being said, I have no idea what was the greatest contributing factor. I am wondering about the Soundsmith cartridge compared to the Dyanvector though. Your comment about the Basie 45-vs-33 comparison was interesting. Could the differences that you heard be a function of the cartridge as opposed to the arm?

Ttbolad,

i've heard the Sussaro 5 or 6 times now and have always liked it and a few times loved it. i consider it to be in the same general performance class as the Ortofon A90 or Dyna XV1s.

i remember last year at RMAF in the Soundsmith room there was a Sussaro on Chris Brady's new arm and and on a VPI arm. the sound was totally different; i loved it on Chris's arm and thought it was just Ok on the VPI; and then there was another Sussaro on the tt in the Lotus Design room which was different in another way. but all three of those Sussaro's were well behaved and solid sounding on those three different arms.

i owned the original Dyna XV-1s for a year; so i'm fairly familiar with it.

i have heard both the Schroeder and Talea with multiple cartridges and i'm use to switching cartridges back and forth among my arms.

still; your question is a good one and no final answer can be found without actually specifically listening to the arms with multiple cartridges.

but my 'opinion' is that i have a good enough feel for these arms and cartridges that i have a pretty good idea of what the arms are doing.

as far as the distortion on the Basie 88; i'm going to assume that Frank would not have choosen the Sussaro if there was an incompatability that would result in that problem. but who knows?

I am really sorry I did not stay long enough to hear the Basie LPs. I am very familiar with that music and that session and might have gotten a better idea about what was going on with the tonearms. Prior to that, and up to the time I retreated to Steve Dobbins' room, none of the musical selections were my "cup of tea", so to speak. Mike, the Beat is fabulous and delicious; I am envious.