Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

A few comments about the Atlas:

In the original article, Stereophile managed to get the SRA photos mixed up. Stereophile put someone other than Michael in charge of matching the photos to the captions, and they dropped the ball. I believe that Stereophile published a correction in a later issue.

Despite the impression which you may now have, there is no industry standard for SRA. None. There is more of a standard for VTA (originally decided as 15 degrees, which is the origin of Shure's "V-15" name, and later gradually revised upwards until it reached 20 degrees) than there is for SRA. The only documentation for the 92-degree SRA that I have been able to find in any language is the John Risch article, and that never became part of any industry standard.

I have written more about SRA on the "What's Best" forum, on a thread called "The Importance of VTA, SRA and Azimuth".

From page 13 and on:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?536-The-importance-of-VTA-SRA-and-Azimuth-pics/page13

hth, jonathan carr

Jonathan,
Thank you for weighing in, and clarifying the Atlas issue. I was not aware of the correction. I know Lyra is known for the high quality of their cartridges, and I myself am a very happy owner of a Delos, so it's good to hear it was a mistake.

Your linked posts were very informative on the issue of the RTA and SRA as well, but perhaps also disheartening to those, like me, who do like the idea of an industry standard that would allow an optimal setting for most records, rather than having to adjust for every record in one's collection.

To me, the fact thefirst two copies were bad means the item is worthless.
Agree if a company cannot get the most expensive item it makes to be correct for EVERY buyer, then it is not possible to recommend.
Fremer tells the reader to 'own a microscope to check these things" yeah right.

If I were sending a cartridge to Michael Fremer for review I would have it triple checked by the guy who designed it, the guy who makes it, and the head quality control guy.

I would make sure it was burned in and listened to by the best ears in the company until everyone was sure it sounded as good as it possibly could. I would then have it hand delivered to Michael and I would check with him regularly to see if he was having any problems or had any questions. I guess that's why I'm not rich.

If it takes them 3 tries to get it right for Michael Fremer, you can guess how much care they take in making the one they sell you.

Digital keeps sounding better all the time.

Thanks for the info Jonathan.

It is disturbing that a reviewer has to go through 3 samples to get a good one.

There may be no official standard for SRA but somewhere around 92 degrees has worked best for the carts and records that I own. Using ones ears is obviously required to dial it in after that. It is important to pay attention to SRA and not just expect that the SRA is in the ball park when the arm is level IME.