Help,Allaerts or Transfiguration

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.

Larry,don't start to check out different NOS tubes in your phono section!!!It could lead to bankruptcy,and rather quickly!
I have tried 7 different tube families in my stage.Wound up going for my "lungs" with a hyper low noise set of Siemens 6922 CCas.They truly are superior,in my rig.
I very well might sell a kidney,and try out a set of Amperex "pinched waist" 6922's at some future point.
Sadly,like you,I will on occassion recommend a friend get something(only if I know it to be great),so I can hear it.
Don't get me started on the "minutiae" of what changes our set-up sound.I cannot tell you how many times I have demonstrated how literally half of a pinhead of damping fluid changed the sound of my LP playback,with my old Graham 2.2!
Hopefully my Phantom will arrive soon.I am beginning to like my CD player a bit too much!!
Best.

Sir Speedy,

I'm too lazy to do much more than tube swapping. I have experimented with different 12AX7 variants. The "crazy expensive" pair for me was a set of Telefunken ECC 803Ds. As it turned out, I prefer a "free" pair (given to me by a friend) of Telefunken ECC83s.

Good luck with the Phantom. A friend of mine runs an Orpheus on the Phantom (Basis table). That is a very nice sounding combination.

Larry,"laziness" will soon become my moto,as I have done just about everything I can possibly think of to my existing system.Other than installing my Phantom I "HOPE" nothing else intrigues me.See...rationalizing can be a good thing.
Best.

Larryi and Sirspeedy.I'm really enjoying your conversation,although it does make me feel like a voyeur.
So i thought I would jump in.
As you are aware top line tubes have become obscenely expensive.About two years back I was with a friend visiting his father whom happened to be an antique radio collector.Tubes Galore.I had to leave the premises for fear of becoming a Cat Burglar.
On one occasion I also spent most of the night adding and subtracting damping fluid to my 2.5T.The following morning my wife told me my obsession is driving her crazy so to make thing right i sold the tonearm.Guys keep it going,really good stuff