Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

Thanks Wrm, yes I've tried different tubes in the phono pre,
nearly from the beginning. It uses four 7DJ8s. Of those
tried--Tungsram, Telefunken, Tesla and the stock Ei Yugo--I
consistently return to the Teslas for the nicest and most
even sounding tonal balance.

So I was am not surprised that it came to this. I am guessing that the Delos will keep getting more enjoyable. I went through this same experience where the Delos was almost intollerable. I fiddled around for 6 weeks with loading, tubes, cartridge / tonearm setup. As the cartridge slowly broke in I undid the soft tubes, the extreme VTA adjustments, and finally the SUT load resisters. It sounds great now. I am listening to Rostaprovich and Ozawa on Erato doing the Dvorak concerto. It is beautiful. I hope it progresses in the same way for you.

I just reread the thread. It was Pani who had problems with the Delos. So my comments are meant for him. Good luck with the Dynavector.

Thanks Ttbolad...and you gotta love that Dvorak Cello Concerto!!!

On western classical music I too enjoy the Delos a lot. The startling dynamics this cartridge brings to the table really helps a lot in reproduction of western classical. Where I find its flaws to be prominent is while listening to classic rock (Led Zep, Knopfler) and more pop-ish recordings. I also find it lacking when playing string instruments, I hear more edge and less body.

I agree with people who say that live music has a very crisp sound but it also has a tremendous body which is very difficult to detach from the leading edge. The edge and the body are one coherent entity, we dont hear the edge separately from the body in a real instrument. It is a one whole thing which is crispy, full bodied and rich at the same time. Trying to hear the same effect at home is great but when one starts hearing the leading edge as a separate entity (due to cartridge, phono or whatever else) then it is no more natural. A reasoning that live instrument is crisp may not be a good one in such a case. Many times one has to choose between leading edge and body, that is when opinions split.