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Tonearm for TW Acustic and heavier cartridge

I may be looking to get TW Acustic Raven AC in the next 6 months. Right now I am auditioning a Raven One with Raven 10.5 arm in my system with Koetsu Onyx cartridge.
The sound is wonderful on piano, vocal, small jazz band but I find it a bit too mellow, perhaps a bit too sedated on rock/pop and large scale orchestral work. I was going to burrow Raven AC to try after this but friend of a friend snatched it before I could listen it in my home. Anyway, I will have to wait awhile before our local dealer will have a new one in that I can listen to.

Anyhow, I am wondering about arm that I can use. Raven 10.5 arm seems nice enough but there a few quirks that I don't like. VTA on the fly is certainly not as easy to use as some other arms. I am plannng to use either Koetsu Onyx or Air Tight PC-1 supreme with the new table. A friend suggests that I should look at SME V rather than Phantom (which seems to be a popular arm with TW Acustic) for heavier cartridge. Durand Talea looks interesting but a bit too cost prohibitive at this time but might be an interesting choice when I want to add second arm.
Arms that are a bit easier to get here are Graham, SME, TW Raven or I could also get older Micro Seiki arm from a friend. So if I want to mount either 12 or 12.5g cartridge, what would be a good arm for these combinations.
suteetat

Showing 3 responses by suteetat

suteetat OP
435 posts
 
Thanks for the comment so far.
Unfortunately, I am not in the position to make any fair comparison so far. The comment is not specific to Koetsu only but more for cartridges around 12-13g in general (if I am not mistaken , Air Tight is 12g, Koetsu Onyx is 12.5g although with much lower compliance) but looks like Graham or SME should be ok. Any specific comment on difference in sounds? Gathering from various comments around here, people tends to be a bit more negative on SME and Phantom seems to do no wrong. Raven tonearms have many followers but also quite a few distractors. Unfortunately this is going to one of those things that will be difficult to have a proper audition before buying.

Thanks for the comment on Reed and Saec as well and I will look into those.
suteetat OP
435 posts
 
Dgad, thanks for your comment.
Currently, I am using VPI Classic with all the upgrades (SDS, ring clamp, valhalla wire/VTA tower etc). (I know some people will say that Air Tight and Koetsu that I own is way beyond what the Classic can do but let's leave that for another day).
I find Koetsu Rosewood way way too mellow for me on VPI but Onyx seems to strike the right balance. When switched Koetsu to Raven One, things got too mellow again. I have not yet try Air Tight on Raven One but will do so in the next few days.

VTA on the fly on Raven is not bad but I miss the dial on VPI (Graham, Vector also). I find the scale much easier to make things reproducible when I want to do fine adjustment back and forth for comparison. Since installing Soundsmith Counter Intuitive on my VPI, azimuth adjustment is also a breeze and more importantly easily reproducible and VTF is almost as easy as screw in counter weight like Raven. Of course I am not trying to claim that VPI 10.5 is in the same league as Raven tonearm sonic wise (well, there is no way for me to try both arms in the same turntable anyway) but from ergonomic standpoint, VPI seems a bit more user-friendly.

Anyhow, for now, I plan to keep VPI and add a second table which I could find locally and TW Acustic has a lot of things that I like. Currently I have Koetsu Onyx, Air Tight PC-1 Supreme and Dyna XV-1s (don't know why I kept buying more cartridges) but hope to get an ideal turntable set up that I can use all of these cartridges effectively.
suteetat OP
435 posts
 
Thanks for all the comment. I just switched Koetsu out for Air Tight PC-1 supreme that I have been using on my VPI. Looks like it is a much better match than Koetsu. On VPI, I think Koetsu and Air Tight was pretty close to each other in term of level of performance however different their characteristic is and it was a tough choice which cartridge I would use. However, with Raven One/Raven 10.5 arm, Air Tight really outshines Koetsu quite a bit.
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