Sirspeedy,
Oh no, I fully realize the context of your statements. I find your comments to be well informed and reasonable.
Phono involves balancing so many variables that is hard to be certain ANY comment on sound quality has some universal "truth." Yes, I do recognize certain characteristics of various cartridges that appear whenever I hear that particular cartridge, but, I am often shocked at how different systems can sound by small changes. I could drive myself crazy, I suppose, just swapping different brands of tubes in my phono stage (three different types are employed) or changing the loading (requires opening up the case and soldering resistors across the input terminal while avoiding a whole bunch of very thin wires).
I end up liking a lot of different gear, even when they can sound dramatically different. I liked the Orpheus when I had it in my system, I like my Lyra, I liked the Phoenix in a Linn/Naim system I head, I liked various Allaerts in the systems I've heard them in, and I was even intrigued by the explosive dynamics of a Colibre (I don't think I want to live with it, but I've tried to convince someone else to buy it just so I can listen to it more).
I have not heard the Soundsmith or the Airtight yet. Both sound intriguing.
Oh no, I fully realize the context of your statements. I find your comments to be well informed and reasonable.
Phono involves balancing so many variables that is hard to be certain ANY comment on sound quality has some universal "truth." Yes, I do recognize certain characteristics of various cartridges that appear whenever I hear that particular cartridge, but, I am often shocked at how different systems can sound by small changes. I could drive myself crazy, I suppose, just swapping different brands of tubes in my phono stage (three different types are employed) or changing the loading (requires opening up the case and soldering resistors across the input terminal while avoiding a whole bunch of very thin wires).
I end up liking a lot of different gear, even when they can sound dramatically different. I liked the Orpheus when I had it in my system, I like my Lyra, I liked the Phoenix in a Linn/Naim system I head, I liked various Allaerts in the systems I've heard them in, and I was even intrigued by the explosive dynamics of a Colibre (I don't think I want to live with it, but I've tried to convince someone else to buy it just so I can listen to it more).
I have not heard the Soundsmith or the Airtight yet. Both sound intriguing.