Allnic Puritas vs. Koetsu Stone Body

@Lew, I take your comments about the etiology of sibilance and do indeed agree with them. They are also bold comments and hint at a certain set of assumptions and invite me to erect a defense concerning my own abilites to understand, setup and debug a problematic turntable setup. I will spare you justificatory tedium though and just state very clearly that my comments and findings still firmly stand.

Apart from anything else, I am not the only one to have experienced unfixable sibilance issues with 3p 10.5" and 12". Hammertone also have 4 reed tonearms on site I believe but it does not even feature on their top recommended arms for the Puritas. As I said before, the Kuzma is out in front by some margin but then its a very very good arm with extremely good bearings which the Puritas likes, so hardly surprising. Down the cheaper end, Stefano also gets a very good result with the Schick (I have one on order):

http://twogoodears.blogspot.ca/search?q=allnic

None of this is speculation by the way and you may well get a good result with a Reed as it does seem to vary from person to speron (maybe the armboard/turntable is a factor). Note that I am not denouncing the Reed. It's a lovely arm and I use one myself. Just trying to be helpful.

@Suteetat, Thomas does not like Koetsus full stop (SPU Royal N is his cup of tea) and they do not work well in his 10.5 raven arm. AFAIK Jess C feels the same way. As far as I know though, there is no reason not to run with with a more suitable arm on a Raven deck.

Dear Przemek: Could you list your system?, it could help to all of us to know which is your current cartridge/tonearm and phono stage. I don't know if you still use Jadis electronics or Thiel SS2 but to know where that new cartridge and how will be surrounded IMHO helps a lot to each one advise.

Allnic and Koetsu are only two of several cartridge alternatives, there are cartridges that beats or could be beated by them but depends how those cartridges are surrounded and obviously your music sound priorities.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Hello!

Yes, please:
I still use Jadis JP80MC 25th Anniversary preamplifier with build in MC/MM phonostage and dedicated JA80 25th Anniversary power amplifiers.

As for loudspeaker I am using very beloved Franco Serblin Ktema and found them fantastic with Jadis!

After many years of break I am building analog rig from scratches.
So at the moment I just ordered Raven AC turntable with battery supply and feet sourced from Black Night.

At the moment no arm and no cartridge :-)
Good point - I can choose whatever I want.

At the moment I would like to utilize MC phono section of Jadis preamp - but it will work for cartridges >0.3mV or MM section with SUT.

I found that Jadis preamp works better rather with SUT and MM input.

I like tonearms with ebony armwand so I searched Artemis Labs, Schroeder (too long waiting time!), Reed and new interesting Primary Control arm (no reviews yet!).

I am considering ending with two arms and one cartridge suitable more for rock music (Lyra Atlas?) and second one for more euphonic jazz and classical listening (Kondo, Koetsu?)

As I wrote before I appreciate old classic tonearm like FR, but heaving no good source I would prefer current production tonearms.

Any suggestions would be warm welcome.

Dear Lotus, I am not sure what you don't agree with. If you mean to say that you don't agree that the Reed 3P when mated with the Puritas can often result in sibilance, then I of course yield to your superior experience with that combo, of which I have none. If there are real experiential data to support your contention regarding the mating of this particular tonearm with this particular cartridge, a pattern that has repeated itself, so be it.

If you disagree that there are many causes of sibilance, many or most having nothing to do with the choice of tonearm, so long as the tonearm is a "good" one, which was the real point of my post, then that is another matter but not one of earth-shattering importance. We can still occupy the same universe.

Dear Milimetr: Yes, you are right the Jadis performs better through its MM input but in both ways: MC or MM fails/a little short on the bass management.

Even that your lovely speakers can't go lower than 26hz ( I don't know its db deviation at that frequency. ) there is information recorded below that speaker bass spec and certainly the cartridge can retrieval if it's surrounded by the system with that hability. We have to remember that music is formed by notes and harmonics.

As important as is the tonearm to mate any cartridge the phono stage is critical and always makes a difference for the better or worst depends on the phono stage quality level performance.

As a music lover and an audiophile and through my experiences, with " hundred " of different audio systems, IMHO what determine the main differences on quality performance between different audio systems is the audio system owns habilities to play/works in near " perfect " way the bass frequency range, its bass management. Electronics are very important to fulfil that criterion. Of course that speaker/room are important too but speakers can reproduce what the other system links send it to the speakers.

IMHO and due that seems to me that you want a first rate analog performance level you should contemplate as an option a better phonolinepreamp that could make clear justice to your future analog rig.

No one cartridge can shows its " glorious " if through the phono stage this unit is adding and loosing cartridge signal information: I think we need here not only accuracy but neutrality too, to leave the music flow with its natural color and natural " emotions ". Don't you think?

About wood tonearm wand you can choose not only the Schroeder you mentioned but the Talea or Da Vinci to name other options.

Cartridges?, other that the ones you name it exist other top contenders that can fulfil your needs/priorities with different kind of music: Ortofon, VdH, Clearaudio, Da Vinci, Benz Micro, Dynavector, etc, etc.
Btw, price is not the important factor but quality performance level. Not always the more expensive performs better.

Just by curiosity. With those several top graded TT options out there what do you " move " to the Raven's alternative?

Have a good and happy " hunting ".

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.