Opus,
Hi...
I did not specify in my post but i did mean the newest reynaud offrande supreme. Yes, I am aware of those complaints, the first offrande supreme was considered a bit too "cerebral" except for use in some studio applications where that quality is sought after to dissect and direct a recording. It is the new offrande supreme II that i was thinking about and suggesting, this one is in the sweet spot of ALL the incarnations of the offrande and the pinnacle of j.reynauds work. Clearer than the oldest offrandes which were a few hairs too opaque and not as cerebral as the previous offrande supreme 1. I believe it is his personal favorite and flagship model.
I heard a vpi mark 4 and liked it very much. Musical, neutral and quiet. Really, a get off the merry go round kind of satisfaction is possible with it if you want to stop splitting hairs about this sonic parameter or that sonic parameter.
I have snell civ's too. When i rap on its cab it knock is "high and hollow". The royal virtuosos knuckle rap is "low, dense and short". Interestingly these two speakers exhibit a very similar sonic signature in that they are not romantic or syrupy but neutrally warm and musical. The virtuosos take all the qualities of fine snell speaker and improves on them significantly. Anyways, i hear the differences between these two kinds of cabinets and the degree of success they have in "tuning" the final outcome of the sound the woofer and the rest of the system produce.
The snell cabinets remind me of the distortion i used to hear with a b&W 602 s3 speaker i used to own which had cheaper cabinets too. The damped corian virtuoso cabs exhibit warmth, refinement, clarity and truthfulness of timbres. The cheaper cabs exhibit a coldness, a dirtiness and a mechanical hash. It "fumbles the ball" just before the signal comes out of the speaker. This is in degrees. And anyone reading this should not conclude the snell is not a worthy speaker. That is not what i mean to say. It is in fact at its price point on the used market a steal! for someone who is on a budget.
Anyways opus, as usual i digress a bit. But when i googled your speakers and saw a pic of their cabinets, i wondered if they were similar to my snells cause they look very similar and thought that maybe the reynaud could bring alot of things to the table that you seek. You're not looking for a speaker change. I understand no prob.
I like what Lewm says about cart arm relationship. From what i know and understand there is a chain of energy transfer not only going on between the cart and arm but also between the plinth/armboard and the arm as well. Then there is the relationship between the plinth and platter and record too. I'm not providing any new information we all already dont know, i'm just wanting to say that when i look at the puzzle, i really do see EVERYTHING as being important. Unfortunately, this makes discourse much more difficult. It turns our discussions to some degree to dogma. With that said we can follow general rules and experiment the rest of the way to arrive at a place that floats our sonic boats.
Opus, just as a friendly reminder, make sure you have experimented will with vta and tracking forces, and cartridge bolt tightening torques. That is, after experimenting with this and you feel you have a confidence that you are in fact hearing the table in ideal conditions, you can continue exploring a major change. I say this because i think even many seasoned audiophiles conclusions are amiss about a component simply because of set up.
Me included. Even just this last week, i started "re experimenting" with my allaerts and vta. My God, this cart is so sensative to vta. I was not hearing records like i should have been hearing them.
You know what brought the best results? Well, i currently have a 2mm panzerholz shim between the breuer arm and allaerts cart. Along with adjusting vta by 1/4 turns on the armpost i started fooling around with azimuth. How? by tighting one cart bolt and loosening the other. I must have made 5 seperate incremental changes like this one, re listening each time. The 1st time was a positive change, so i kept going doing the same thing. Each time it got better and better so i just kept going.
I realize that i am probably changing more the resonant relationship between the cart and arm more so than i am vta but all i know is that the focus improved and i got more music out of the grooves.
Just when i think i really understand the importance of proper set up i prove that i dont undertand it because i start looking around for a new component to bring some improvement to the neglect of experimentation. One is work and thinking, the other is the magic pill that will bring nirvana. This is a non negotiable for superb playback. There is too much we dont know about about how resonances will transfer. The only way is to literally spend hours experimenting and listening by ear.
Honestly, i have to laugh at myself as an audiophile. I really do smile and laugh and think it a great joke! I have a 5000 dollar cartridge and a similar priced arm and i'm listening to it in an unideal fashion? And i'm wondering where's the performance? Pretty dumb. Pretty human!
