One time Big time as they say
Hey guys, you’ve probably gotten to know me a bit over the years and I do get a bunch of PMs asking me about everything from acoustics to fuses. Lately I’ve been asked a lot about the carts I currently use.
First let me categorically state that I am not an expert. I just happened to like music a hell of a lot and take my listening and gear very seriously. It is an outlet that even my beautiful and loving wife condones because it is the only thing other than perhaps a very good round of golf scoring in the seventies (I don’t remember the last time I did that!) or breaking the 200kph barrier on 2 wheels or 4, that can get me into a good mood. Since doing it on 2 wheels is out of the question and doing it on 4 requires a northern destination, music is simply the most accessible.
The most common queries of late aside from the Von Schweikert stuff has been about the carts I use. So here we go!
Ortofon ConcordeI use “Konks” on my SL-1210 M5Gs. The Sls are my DJ rig and serve as my form of active pressure release. Mixing and sometimes recording the mixes on CDR requires full attention and an altogether reptile compartmentalized mindset. It is most fun with lots of friends over but it is also great for friends to receive copies of these sets to play in their cars or rip into their iPods and such. I used to use Black S styli but have switched to Nightclub E styli as I preferred the sound when I heard them at Tonydog’s and David J’s. The E’s (elliptical) are altogether more refined than the S (spherical although less weighty down below). I also use Sls for more beat up records and records that are poorly recorded.
There is a reason the “Konks” are the world standard for DJ carts replacing the Shures of old. They are durable as hell, track like nothing else, and will sound strong, clean and clear even through a Gazillion watts of Public Address stacks playing in Wembly Stadium. Hot swapping is also a brease because these carts are pre-aligned for SL-1200 arms. Think of them as Ortofon OM-30s on steroids and with no need for any headshell. Sure they don’t have the refinement, deep silences, and timbral prowess of the MC carts I’ll mention later on but then again these aren’t designed to please the audiophile gods. They’re designed to make you wiggle n’ shake your booty. These they do and do well.
Dynavector 20xL - Sold along with the CA Emotion - This is definitely not a budget cart, but still an affordable little do-gooder and a very good value. My 20x lives on my CA Emotion and is bumped up to Line Level with a Dynavector P-75 phonostage. The Emotion is in turn on a Symposium Svelte Shelf which as an aside I must say does wonders for isolation even with DB-99s or VR-1s augmented with VR-S/1s doing House Music.
My Dynavector carts are my Do-It-All cartridges. The 20x has a relaxed character that actually gives up very little in terms of detail or space. It is coloured but only slightly with some burnt orange mid bass warmth and the bass while solid again reminds me of those people on the street not rushing with the flow of the crowd but are content to follow their own personal paces. Fortunately the 20x albeit not a PRAT champ (see the Titanium below) seldom if ever gets left behind. When hooked up to SS or PP amps they are very well balanced performers again not pulling your attention to any particular area of its performance. When the lair’s System 2 is configured for what I call “Rainy Day” duty, using VR-1s with 300B or 2a3 SETs the 20x allows the same mood to shine through.
I chose this cart knowing full well that in the Lair’s small room it is everything but the front ends that will be rolled to achieve different results. The small room is also now the showroom primarily for the VSA line (VR-1 to VR-4jr) so we wanted to provide guests with an equipment list that’s in the same budgetary ballpark. The 20x’s do-it-all performance within the context of its price (and I think can challenge some more expensive carts out there) that had me choose it as the cart for which our speakers can strut their stuff. If that isn’t a strong endorsement I dunno what is. VPI later contracted DV to build a version of the 20 for their Scoutmasters and Aries 3s. Gaya gaya talaga sila
Denizens of Draco’s Lair
This is my sanctuary that also doubles as the show area for the Premium line. In this system we have striven for a mix of neutrality and musicality that we hope allows listeners to fall into the music on both a mental and emotional level. In this system we’ve worked to remove variables through system synergies and as a result all anyone really has to do is roll the front ends. Change the cart and you will almost think you’re listening to a different system altogether. There are 3 carts in the Lair. Swappable via removable armwands on the Graham Phantom equipped VPI TNT-HRX table. Here they are.
Dynavector XV-1sBalanced is as Balanced does. This is the Natural Geographic beauty of a documentary of the bunch. Take the 20x and bump up the performance parameters through the roof. From effortless highs to deep bass, the XV-1s is, I feel, the most natural sounding transducer I have ever heard. What can I say? It sounds real. There is so much detail but none of it is thrust at you. Just as if you were watching a band live and un-amplified you may want to or have to strain to here that little thing the guitarist may be doing with his thumb. Try and you really will hear it. Given good recordings Brass sounds like brass, wood like wood and a person singing like a person singing. It can make great recordings sound great but bad ones will sound bad. I sense, however, that the XV-1s natural nature may forgive more than some other “Hi-res” carts. It does one thing that is something none of the other “super” residents of the Lair can do. The sound is so airy and open up top that it makes my sidewalls disappear. It couples the room tone of the recording with the actual room tone so well that you will be fooled into thinking you were someplace larger (or smaller for that matter). It makes one hell of a strong case to buy speakers that can go up to 40kHz or as is the case with the VR-5 Ses 70kHz. In truth I could live with this and be perfectly content but what can I do? I want more!
Clearaudio TitaniumWant to show off? Welcome the boisterous extrovert of the crew. It is the Hollywood Steven Speilberg Blockbuster albeit more Empire of the Sun than E.T. With mids more similar than different from the XV-1s, the difference lies in range and bombast. The CA Titanium puts you on the stage with the performers instead of in the best seat in the house like the XV-1s does for me. Feel that kickdrum. Splash those cymbals. If you are into Dynamics, the high output Titanium may be the one. If your system needs some life grafted onto it the CA will do the trick. I found the titanium a giant jump upwards from the Stradivari especially in the midrange department. Though still a bit hot up top in direct comparison with the other denizens but silky smooth next to the strad, the much improved midrange resolution coupled with the tight powerful bass makes it my choice for minimally mic-ed classical recordings. Spinning Disco and Dance music is likewise a treat but electric guitars with gobs of pedal work will make me reach for an Advil quicker than you can say “Call 911!”. Then again in all honesty, I only really enjoy heavy rock in Lo-Fi. Meaning I love rock on my iPod, Car Stereo, Boom Box, or in friggin concert. I just do not want to hear INTO it. Just hearing it will do.
It is the type of Cart that will wow you and your guests. On the flipside, when played softly it can be insightful,calm and pure. At low levels it can give you the clearest view into the workings of any musical piece. If you are also a fan of virtuosity aka taking apart performances of your fave artists. It would be hard to beat the Titanium.
Word of advise. Adjust your listening levels. The extremely wide dynamic range and clean presentation will tempt you to crank it up. If you do make this mistake it will sound really hot. Placement of instruments with High Level HF transients within the soundstage will likewise be displaced. We don’t want that. It is exciting enough on its own, it does not need high SPLs to open up.
Koetsu Urushi WajimaThis is the latest addition and most probably the last. This is that dramatic foreign film you saw while switching channels that you were just so glued to that you didn’t even care if you had to read subtitles. Remember when I said “Rainy Day”. I transform System 2 by using SETs. In the Lair, the Usrushi does the trick. With only 4 hours on it I already know that it is so. Screw neutrality and precision. If Gaugin were to design some carts this would be one of them. A lot of people say that the Koetsu bass is loose. Mmmmmm. Nope. I’d call it a plumpness that extends up into the midbass. It is a full round sound just like those Polynesians in the paintings. It is this very roundness that makes the Urushi so romantic and involving. I would say that in a weird way it is actually the Koetsu’s strength. Yeah sure it doesn’t make my walls disappear or make me wanna pee my pants when the cannons go off, but again this is rainy day time. Cocoon time. If the XV-1s is like “being” and the Titanium is like “doing” then the Koetsu is like “succumbing”. Vocals are the forte of the Koetsu. The running joke was how wet the singer sounded. It, through the deep crimson color engineered into it, does that weird butterfly in your tummy feeling when certain notes are hit. With a flair for melodrama the Koetsu lives up to its billing as a true subjectivist’s cart. This is not to say that it lacked in ultimate terms any of the usual audiophile criteria such as dynamics, soundstaging, tone, timbre, PRAT and whatever “eck-eck”. What it has is surpluses. Its emphasis is on timbre and thus musical events tend to pulsate and resonate. The musical envelope seems extended somewhat with sustains and decays that linger as more of a physical memory than as an aural one contributing to the surreal effect. This is the cart for the touchy feely mood and the cart I will probably put on when with the wifey. Ingat lang baka masira yung family planning!
Koetsu Jade Platinum Ok. I'll be frank anyway I'm only speaking for myself and my taste and opinions can be the total polar opposite of many of you who take the time out to read this. Of the three main MC carts posted above I
did have a favorite. The XV-1s has stayed on my table longest. As much as I love the Urushi exactly for what it is (see above) I did find that I almost always missed the XV-1s' virtues of speed and
unforced inner detail. I simply found that my listening habits where I jump from genre to genre (mostly instrumental at that) made me go for the XV-1s more often. I would like to emphasize that the Dynavector was my favorite because it allows me to keep on spinning without distraction and not because I think it closer to the fallacy called "The Absolute Sound". Although I do believe in an absolute sound I do not believe one exists for everybody and that instead it is unique to each and every music lover.
Disclaimers aside my goal had become to find a cart that could be as flexible as the XV-1s yet sound different enough to merit owning it. My goal is to have carts that can stay on my arm indefinitely where the urge to switch would be borne of whimsy and not necessity.
I have found this in the Koetsu Jade Platinum. Yes guys it is a Koetsu and it still sounds like a Koetsu. It still possesses that artistic license of "more is better". It is still an impressionist. Perhaps while the Urushi is akin to Gaugin in Tahiti the Jade Platinum is most definitely Alfred Sisley. Finer brush strokes with vibrancy brought forth with both texture and light as well as a more visually truthful perspective that respects the vanishing points predetermined by the artist. With Koetsus it really is “all about the color”. The Jade is a prism for the music. You simply will not find any white while listening with this cart unless of course you happened to have nasty tweeters or ribbons. This is probably the cartridge equivalent of a really good acid trip. For you guys who grew up in the sixties we can only live vicariously through you.
I wont go on at length about the tonal balance except to say it has excellent treble extension, excellent pace, deep TIGHT bass, and a coherence that matches the XV-1s even as dynamics suffer in comparison only in certain ranges. I’m happy to say that I have found what I was looking for. I just wish I could have justified keeping the alnico based, woody bodied Urushi and the raw emotion it brings to the table. We live in the real world though and we can’t have it all at once.
If the XV-1s lets me see deeper into myself and the connection I make with the music, the Jade affords me to radiate how it makes me feel. It is most definitely a hedonists delight!
I now have favorite
sAdded: Enter the Koetsu Step Up Transformer for use with the Jade Platinum.I've had this SUT for a couple of months now and feel I can now comment properly on it. SUTs are strange beasts prone to external disturbances specifically RFI and EMI. I have seen SUTs placed in the darndest places sometimes in contorted poses like a Cirque acrobat who's just had an aerial accident hanging by the ICs. In my case the hum came in below line frequency. To my ears around 50 Hz and a subsonic at around 35 Hz. I'm no stranger to this at the Lair which is ungrounded and within a stones throw of 3 AM radio stations and DOTC's headquarters across the Golf Course. When I first installed the SUT the ground loop disappeared when I'd hold the ground wire and return when I let it go. I tried to put it everywhere the chords could let it and settled on a spot where it was no longer an intrusion with music playing. A week or so later however Joe3rp upon hearing of my situation, gave me a ground hunter. He made a series of cables terminated with alligator clips so I could see what path to use without having to go through the ordeal every point. In the end clipping some clips together in a cloverleaf flyover fashion pretty much exorcised the hum. Analog mysteries at work. Thanks Joey!!!!
Enough already what did it sound like? Nothing. That's a good thing! I would have been upset if it changed the Jade's character. It just made the Jade Platinum's gain go up an equivalent of a couple of notches. Tonally the Jade stayed it's non-fatiguing prismatic self but the extra gain served to open up the soundstage even at low levels. I'd call this mission accomplished!!!! I know that when the Lair moves to its new home hum will not be a problem at all. Sugano and sons are perfectionists and the synergy between these two products bears proof of their artistry.
Graham Nightingale from Immutable MusicImmutable Music from Japan has always been in the elite circle of cartridge makers by virtue of their Transfiguration sub brand. It was with great curiosity then when Bob Graham maker of my arm commissioned them to build a cartridge for him. The sticker price of the Nighty is less than any of the MC carts in Camp Big Falcon's missile bay. It's half of the Titanium putting it in Stradivari territory. Performance wise I would also put it in that same bracket. This is not to put down the Nighty but to illustrate that Bob is indeed an honorable guy and did not use his brand's cache just to make a buck. His pricing is reflective of the performance.
Having said that while not being in the exotica territory of its stablemates this level is still kicking and suffers only by direct comparison. Thigh nighty deserves its monicker. It is a very sweet cart with lush mids. I've written elsewhere that it has the deepest soundstage of all the carts here unfortunately what it gives in depth it loses in width and height. This makes it a perfect candidate for nearfield listeners who value front to back layering as sitting closer negated this shortcoming when I tried it. On adagios there's the feeling of suspense akin to peering down an unexplored cavern by torchlight as you wait for the next bars to be played. The depth of image is also wonderful as layers begin to build and crash on each other.
I've already ordered another Phantom and this cart will accompany it in the Ambience/all tube Lamm system in the Lair part 2. I definitely enjoy this cart and I know I can squeeze more out of it. To fully enjoy it though I think it best to have some distance between it and its brothers the Titanium, XV, Jade and Airy where its sweet song can be best appreciated.
ZYX Airy S 3 -review added Oct. 10, 2008I read an article somewhere about how what we see affects our assumptions about that which is beheld. In the article two identical pairs of speakers were used as an example. One was finished in wood and one painted red I think. Respondents said the red one sounded faster and the wood one warmer. Gosh I hope I'm getting the details right because I really can't remember where I read this. In any case the basic premise was made clear. So what happens when you add a very descriptive name to boot?
Is this part and parcel of pre-listening brainwashing? Name and form being obvious, It surely isn't subliminal. This particular ZYX model is a trapezoidal little guy in clear acrylic. It is very lightweight and on the small side. Its name is Airy and it is clear and light. Merchandising tactics still too subtle? Add an S for Silver.....or is it Shiny? Clever. It's appearance screams AIRY alright but the proof is in the pudding or as Gov. Palin says "..the puddin' ". Normally mounting a cart is a straightforward process even for sausage fingered, micro-motor skill impaired guys like me. That is until you're confronted with carts with unthreaded bodies. It's enough to make us scream to the heavens or at least call the dealer to ask him to drive over and install it. I was too feeling macho to do that though because Eric really did offer to mount it but I said I could handle it
easily. "sigh". So, I set about mounting the light little ZYX with my Shublig digits with the maid holding a big @$$ flashlight over my right shoulder. Six generations of fruit flies later and I was good to go. Listening time........I was immediately taken in by my initial impressions. I've heard it before but never at the Lair. A quick call to Eric to thank him and tell him that the warnings about initial thinness or shrillness was useless because there wasn't anything of the sort. It must be a case of cart lovin' arm I thought. Synergy at work once again. I also called to promise to give my feedback when I got close to 50 hours on it. So here we are today.
Why Airy is its Name-O. The Zyx's character in the Lair was quite different from what I had heard and therefor what I had expected. It indeed sounded crisp and Airy on Crisdlr's rig as well as at AD. It sounded crisp (fresh crisp as in veggies, not crisp as in crispy pata ) and airy mated with a Graham too but there was something different. Little acrylic body aside it sounds full and rich in the midband. Even more surprising was that percussive impacts are gut wrenching on the GRP Live album. On track 4 Lee Ritenour lets his guitar wail and the cart's smoothness never let the guitar distortions become unpleasant. Smooth top, full middle, solid base. This could be a description of Homer Simpson or of a very good cartridge. Thankfully it's the latter! So much for the Air themed marketing strategy. Then again it might be reverse psychology now couldn't it
On classical music the XV-1s is actually more spacious and more airy. Bows on strings have more bite as well. The XV-1s also has a more stable bass foundation. The Airy was richer on the midband more flattering to vocalists, saxophonists and other reed blowers. Something about it though. The phantom image solidity. As it turns out channel separation is /was the design target from the ZYX people from the get go. No wonder. The snares on the GRP were so realistic I could almost feel the skin and the wires rattling. Further investigation of the manual also stated something different. The Airy's lateral compliance being higher than its vertical compliance could explain why the ZYX had forged such a bond with the B-44, a unipivot with magnetic lateral damping. Its light weight also allowed the counterweight to be really close to the pivot point. I don't know what this is supposed to do so I'll just take it as a "self assurance" bonus.
To sum it all up the Airy, like its stablemates, does not fall short in any category . While they all differ in emphasis I'd put the emphasis of the Airy smack in the center of the midrange and not up top as its name would have us believe. The Jade , in contrast, has its emphasis in the lower midrange and spectral colorations up top. The Airy is a very fun cart and I had a blast playing 12" 45rpm dance records and even Rock which I almost always never listen to. Needless to say I love it a lot. It is very versatile when it comes to genres and even the condition of the Lps themselves. I hereby dub it my party cart.
A caveat however. It is, as I said, a very light cart with unique compliance characteristics. Its overall performance I believe is more dependent on a chosen arm than other cartridges. So choose wisely
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SONA 2010After 9 years I get to watch it on TV
Indeed, we are filled with Hope this day. After all, it is a Bozanian (a VR owner for those of you not in on the reference) delivering the SONA speech
What better way then to spend the remainder of this day than to do a follow up on my favorite thread and what I think holds the distinction of being the widest read review thread in wiredstate.
Here's an expanded review of two of the three carts I've yet to include here. Expanded from my best of 2008-2009 omnibus review of that period. All the carts previously reviewed in THIS thread are more than excellent performers. They were selected because they all do so many things right and so little wrong, if any. Meaning to say that if one were to go by the usual audio checklist each one of them has a heap of everything. The differences in accentuation is what gives them their character hence their suitability for my prevailing mood or even for particular genres and specific recordings within those genres again depending on what musical thread I'd like to give more attention to. In that thread I categorically stated that to date these are on a different level. Here I shall try my best to communicate why I put them there. To do that, I have to veer away from the checklist, the standard lexicon. I'll have to focus on what they can do that the others can't replicate in a level where they could be truly competitive. As such we leave behind such descriptors as the varying degrees of warmth, the usual visual analogies and even textural analogies. I was already hard pressed in using these in my attempt to verbalize the other carts. To accurately describe these two I find I've had to resort to finding a way to describe the new found density of musical information these carts uncover and how they translate this into new ways to appreciate the music. I hope I don't fall flat on my face and disappoint you all. If I do, have mercy. I don't do this for a living!
So here we go!!!
Dynavector DRT XV-1tDV's new flagship, Mr. T is as natural in presentation as the XV-1s. The T is more evolution than revolution where the lineage is clear and the offspring betters its progenitor. The T's twist is that it's smooth and easy going nature is achieved without sacrificing micro detail and microdynamics. The icing on the cake is that even at a medium low output it has the jump factor on tuttis without massing all the voices into an undecipherable blob. The effect is an emotive wave of force as opposed to the musical equivalent of a really loud alarm clock erroneously set to go off at 3AM. The meat is in the midrange however where the XV-1t does have a voice of its own showering soloists with some extra bloom and slightly higher levels that accentuate them by making them ever so slightly larger in relation to the other performers. The soundstage is like watching Avatar in 3D. The soloist is front and center and the rest gradually decay in detail into the farthest corners of the limits of your peripheral vision. This to me adds to natural quality of this cart because like lying on your back looking at the brightest star in the sky the way the stage integrates into my room's own soundscape is the way all the other sars are reduced to tiny blurs, that is unless I refocus on another then that becomes clear crisp and sharp. Keep this description in mind. Try imaginging yourself flat on your back and staring at a clear night sky. There is a reason we can focus on a particular star and in so doing not see the others. We'll get back to that later.
Often enough performances go from good to great because of little tonal inflections. The way Nat King Cole pinches a note between his tongue and the back of his palate, the way Sinatra drones a tremolo when extending his phrasing, the way Ella's lilts and sways, the complexity of Karen Carpenter's or Tracy Thorn's lower registers. These are the little tonal details that make a piece involving and tug at the heart strings. To hear them is to make one feel closer, physically closer to the artist. It makes one feel like being directly sung to as opposed to being just one in a crowd. To date no other cart I have owned or heard has been able to do this as well. Perhaps not even remotely close. This cart allows me to make a distinction between being sung
to as opposed to being sung
at. The latter implies a presentation that is thrust forward while the former implies a presentation that demands loving attention because the silences are just as pregnant with meaning.
To achieve this the cart must be able to first dig up the information from the LP after which it must be able to convert it into an information rich audio signal. This is the density of information I am talking about. The designers have managed to pull out that vision of that night sky and present it in such a way that you could pick out a star (instrument) and follow it move throughout the sky (song). It allows you to do so not just in tune but also their subtle nuances. As for which star slash instrument, the XV-1t seems designed to bring maximum focus at dead center or basically where the soloist usually is. To achieve this requires that so much discreet information must pass through without being masked. The end result is the XV-1t has at least in my system, the uncanny ability to make the soloists more human and less facsimile without resorting to any veneer or added textural overlay. It is the key to it's naturalness as it mimics how we perceive. It brings a humanist approach to design that rewards the listener with a listening experience that requires little or no effort to enjoy the music. I can think of no higher praise than that. While there are things I think it could do better like what the cart below manages to do, like the beauty of a Koetsu, it is the XV-1t's unique character and not its lack of coloration or accentuation that makes it very special.
The T redefined my cart arsenal by creating another class above because of this and it is joined by just one other........so far.
MY Sonic Labs Ultra Eminent BCTo date Matsudaira-San's flagship. Unknown to most Matsudaira-san designed and built the Airtight PC-1. A much awarded and revered cartridge that took cart of the year honors at TAS but one I found suffered from a degree of schizophrenia. The PC-1 could be summed up by breaking down it's performance in the usual highs-mids-bass way, all of which it did unusually and unbelievably well by the way, BUT so pronounced were the band traits that there was a loss of continuity and coherence akin to a loudspeaker with great drivers but a problematic crossover or perhaps a room with multiple suck outs. The Ultra has no such problem. In fact the Ultra's twist is that from top to bottom of the spectrum it is more even handed than any cart in my experience. This translates to a uniformity of scale and size across the soundscape where unlike the XV-1t which artfully embelishes and flatters a soloist or lead, the Ultra anchors the performers and keeps them in relatively closer scale to one another. This is the cart that made me feel the deficiency of my set up most. After break in I instinctively knew the VR-9s needed to be at least 4 feet farther apart to do justice to how well this cart portray's space. A go to cart for large orchestral works or spaced ensembles never lacking in raw power even as it resolves the most minute if decay trails.
In a sense it is the anti-thesis of the XV-1t. Here baby the stars shine bright indeed. With the Ultra you get a panoramic snapshot of the night sky. When listening to a full orchestra you don't get the soloist front and center phenomena. Strictly speaking it may very well be a more accurate recreation of what the microphones as opposed to the recording engineers were hearing
in situ. What it gives up in romance and flair, it replaces with something quite unique. I have to go back to the sense of scale here.
A popular element in comedy is the use of caricatures. What makes a caricature funny is that you know who that is supposed to represent but the proportions of some features are very over or understated. A really bad cart makes caricatures, very good carts have artistically altered the subject somewhat, this cart takes snapshots with an infinity lens. A bit flat and squat in relation to the XV-1t and the other stage champs in stage depth and height, but wider than anything else out there.
What makes it unique is that when performers are presented in proper scale relative to each other, it gives you the ability to follow them individually and instantly contrast them with others in the soundscape literally laterally. That sounded funny honey bunny. Just checking if I haven't bored you to death
Anyhow when you take a full bore orchestral piece or any performance that is meant to be played in a huge venue, the rest of your system doesn't freak out and run for cover. When listening to let's say, Friday Night in San Francisco you get to fully appreciate the conversation between the guitars of the three guitarists. Again this ability makes the Ultra Eminent BC unique enough to be in the next level.
Are there just two?
There's another possible contender but he has been sitting in his box, awaiting the move. We will know soon enough.