@mountainjoe had me over this morning. It was my second time hearing his system, with many changes since the first.
Joe is now running a 250 pound Sp10 mk3 from Artisan Fidelity with a 9" Schroeder CB arm and dark kingwoood wand. Mounted on the arm was a Van Den Hul Master Sig 0.9V with the blackwood body. Joe is now using an Intact Audio silver SUT custom made for the cart and a new silver edition Ypsilon VPS100 phono. This is all sitting on a Critical Mass rack with Center Stage footers under what looked to be everything except the turn table. And all of aforementioned gear was new since my last visit to Joe's. Still in place are the Ypsilon mono block amps and the VSA speakers. Cabling was Masterbuilt Ultra. Whew!
Now, going off audio memory, I told Joe I hear notably more openness and air than previously. Dynamics also seem to pop more and the music really comes to life in a new way. Transparency is certainly increased, and we intentionally cycled through good and bad pressings to assess the system's rendering of what's in the grooves. Certain recordings just absolutely bloom into the room, extending far beyond the spatial boundary of the speakers themselves, while others shrink down to more modest proportion. We heard bright treble in poorly recorded records and well-executed treble on good ones. At this point the system has less character of its own, whether that be bright or warm, punchy or flat, etc. The system excels at passing through what's innate to the source, IMO.
I had a very enjoyable morning with Joe, and as I did last time, I have a few records to go shopping for now. A few observations and then some pics (or it didn't happen):
1. The supposed sibilance of the Master Signature is greatly exaggerated. I intentionally brought a record I know to be silbilant for the test. Did the Master Sig exaggerate or enhance the sibilance compared to any other cart in any system I've ever heard? Simply, no. On the other hand, it certainly didn't do anything to mask it either. And at least in my opinion, a cart should not. If this amount of sibilance were to be masked by the cart itself, then I have no doubt that along with the sibilance we'd be losing too much other musical information and overall system performance would suffer.
2. Center Stage footers work. On one track we did an A/B/A comparison with and without the footers under the VPS100. Without the footers, the sound regressed to a duller more lifeless presentation. Fuzzier might be an apt description. I'd be surprised if (a) anyone on the forum couldn't hear the difference, and (b) if anyone actually preferred the sound without them. Joe sent me home with a set of 1.0s to try under my phono.
Thanks again for the good time, Joe.
Joe is now running a 250 pound Sp10 mk3 from Artisan Fidelity with a 9" Schroeder CB arm and dark kingwoood wand. Mounted on the arm was a Van Den Hul Master Sig 0.9V with the blackwood body. Joe is now using an Intact Audio silver SUT custom made for the cart and a new silver edition Ypsilon VPS100 phono. This is all sitting on a Critical Mass rack with Center Stage footers under what looked to be everything except the turn table. And all of aforementioned gear was new since my last visit to Joe's. Still in place are the Ypsilon mono block amps and the VSA speakers. Cabling was Masterbuilt Ultra. Whew!
Now, going off audio memory, I told Joe I hear notably more openness and air than previously. Dynamics also seem to pop more and the music really comes to life in a new way. Transparency is certainly increased, and we intentionally cycled through good and bad pressings to assess the system's rendering of what's in the grooves. Certain recordings just absolutely bloom into the room, extending far beyond the spatial boundary of the speakers themselves, while others shrink down to more modest proportion. We heard bright treble in poorly recorded records and well-executed treble on good ones. At this point the system has less character of its own, whether that be bright or warm, punchy or flat, etc. The system excels at passing through what's innate to the source, IMO.
I had a very enjoyable morning with Joe, and as I did last time, I have a few records to go shopping for now. A few observations and then some pics (or it didn't happen):
1. The supposed sibilance of the Master Signature is greatly exaggerated. I intentionally brought a record I know to be silbilant for the test. Did the Master Sig exaggerate or enhance the sibilance compared to any other cart in any system I've ever heard? Simply, no. On the other hand, it certainly didn't do anything to mask it either. And at least in my opinion, a cart should not. If this amount of sibilance were to be masked by the cart itself, then I have no doubt that along with the sibilance we'd be losing too much other musical information and overall system performance would suffer.
2. Center Stage footers work. On one track we did an A/B/A comparison with and without the footers under the VPS100. Without the footers, the sound regressed to a duller more lifeless presentation. Fuzzier might be an apt description. I'd be surprised if (a) anyone on the forum couldn't hear the difference, and (b) if anyone actually preferred the sound without them. Joe sent me home with a set of 1.0s to try under my phono.
Thanks again for the good time, Joe.
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