Hear It Yourself.

[bonzo75]

Hey Tang. I am your first subscriber on Youtube!! My daughter loves your speakers but says your carpet is ugly - LOL.

We both have the same camera - Samsung S8 - it does take great videos as I have some really good live concert videos - yours looks great on my 75 inch 4K Sony. The AS2000 is HUGE.

The VDH and GFS are certainly more forward than either Atlas or Opus. You seemed to be shuffling papers more when Atlas was playing

View attachment 43938

Lol brilliant observation about the papers

 

[Tango]

Lol brilliant observation about the papers

You people catched every little details except the differences between carts. lol. Did you hear my dog was licking water?
I was checking sales report at the same time.

Tang

 

[bonzo75]

You people catched every little details except the differences between carts. lol. Did you hear my dog was licking water?
I was checking sales report at the same time.

Tang

Like I said, tang. Please do sales properly and meet targets and get big bonus so that we can see more videos of other carts

 

[XV-1]

You people catched every little details except the differences between carts. lol. Did you hear my dog was licking water?
I was checking sales report at the same time.

Tang

LOL. very funny Tan

What was the cartridge where it was raining and you could hear the thunder?

 

[Tango]

LOL. very funny Tan

What was the cartridge where it was raining and you could hear the thunder?

The Opus. I shouldnot have played while there was a thunder storm.. blew the fuses of my amps once already. My room is quiet. If you hear some constant background noise. It is the air conditioning. Other small sounds are mostly from my dogs fidgeting. Some video I took had a funny squeakin sound from my leather seat that sound like I was farting.

Tang

 

[bazelio]

Boy, I think an hour just flew by listening to these clips through my DAC in my main rig. I keep coming back to the Master Signature. It has gorgeous tone and detail. It seems extended and delicate. In some ways it seems a combination of things I like about Opus1 and Atlas SL. Opus1 seems a bit too smooth and creamy (?) for my preference while Atlas might (?) be a juuuust a tad lean or maybe it's just a bit tipped up? Master Signature seems to do it all. The only thing I'm debating is if it's just a bit dark?

Am I way off base here?

EDIT: Back on AtlasSL now, and "lean" isn't the right word. The main difference I'm hearing with it and Master Signature is in tone. Where AtlasSL makes the Master Signature sound a touch richer and darker. The MasterSig might have a bit more bloom (?), and the Atlas SL brings the piano in to light a bit more. This is tough! Now I think I'm back to preferring Atlas SL again. And at this point, the DAC itself is certainly coming in to play.

EDIT: Back to the Opus1, and the piano seems to lack foundation for me in comparison to the other two. Agree/disagree?

 

[Tango]

Boy, I think an hour just flew by listening to these clips through my DAC in my main rig. I keep coming back to the Master Signature. It has gorgeous tone and detail. It seems extended and delicate. In some ways it seems a combination of things I like about Opus1 and Atlas SL. Opus1 seems a bit too smooth and creamy (?) for my preference while Atlas might (?) be a juuuust a tad lean or maybe it's just a bit tipped up? Master Signature seems to do it all. The only thing I'm debating is if it's just a bit dark?

Am I way off base here?

EDIT: Back on AtlasSL now, and "lean" isn't the right word. The main difference I'm hearing with it and Master Signature is in tone. Where AtlasSL makes the Master Signature sound a touch richer and darker.

Wow. You spoke like you heard them in my room Brian. Now I am happy that someone can really get a feel of these carts from listening carefully to these videos. It is a Hear It Yourself thread so I dont want to make any lead to people hearing. But the Master Sig is truly exceptional in tone imo richer and darker than the AtlasSL as you said. These two words people sometime interpret them negatively so I use the word "vivid" instead. Too bad the video can never give you the sense of actual staging and musical involvement some of these carts can bring.

Tang

 

[MadFloyd]

I also agree with Brian. In my system the Opus1 sounds beautiful but has too much body - making it sound a little dark (and fat). The Atlas is leaner but may have just a tad of a metallic character. From the videos I also get the impression the Master Signature has the beauty of the Opus but with more proper weight.

 

[bazelio]

I've realized a few things in listening to these clips repeatedly. I have this LP. And though it's recorded through a phone and compressed into files, I can hear how your system renders the piano compared to mine. Yours is surely superior in terms of detail. After reading all the VTA threads, and listening to the foundation in your system vs mine... I adjusted my VTA downward fairly significantly (after trial and errors) and replayed. Now I've got the foundation, things actually have come in to better focus as well, and I have not lost too much upper end extension. But I think I still get the impression that you've got better detail and a more realistic sound overall. As you should, comparing your equipment to mine.

Now I'm thinking phono stage is likely a weak link in my system, followed probably by cart. I'm using Transfiguration Proteus, and I wonder how much improvement there is to be had with the Proteus D. Atlas SL would probably be my choice right now, though. I have a few ideas for future phono auditions as well. Will see how it goes. This has been very useful in many ways. I think we need to pitch in and buy Tang a very nice mic for Christmas along with a Tascam. I actually like hearing the in-room recording vs strict needle drop.

EDIT: Tang, which geometry are your carts aligned to? Thanks!

 

[awsmone]

Great set of videos Tang,

Thanks for the trouble, thunderstorms and scratching dog not withstanding

YES the qualities of the carts comes across

Violin and piano are difficult tests for vinyl replay

I actually use to fine tune my cartridges

Getting the body while maintaining the harmonics and extension with brilliance without irritation is a challenge...

 

[Tango]

I've realized a few things in listening to these clips repeatedly. I have this LP. And though it's recorded through a phone and compressed into files, I can hear how your system renders the piano compared to mine. Yours is surely superior in terms of detail. After reading all the VTA threads, and listening to the foundation in your system vs mine... I adjusted my VTA downward fairly significantly (after trial and errors) and replayed. Now I've got the foundation, things actually have come in to better focus as well, and I have not lost too much upper end extension. But I think I still get the impression that you've got better detail and a more realistic sound overall. As you should, comparing your equipment to mine.

Now I'm thinking phono stage is likely a weak link in my system, followed probably by cart. I'm using Transfiguration Proteus, and I wonder how much improvement there is to be had with the Proteus D. Atlas SL would probably be my choice right now, though. I have a few ideas for future phono auditions as well. Will see how it goes. This has been very useful in many ways. I think we need to pitch in and buy Tang a very nice mic for Christmas along with a Tascam. I actually like hearing the in-room recording vs strict needle drop.

EDIT: Tang, which geometry are your carts aligned to? Thanks!

Again you hit the right button addressing the sound of piano from these videos. Each cart presents the piano sound very differently. If you check out Awsmone's video on this song you will also hear the piano sounds and stages differently. His video totally give different kind of presentation to this recorfing than mine imo. His actually has more sense of ambient and boundary of recording venue.

I dont quite get what you mean on question regarding geometry of my cart.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

[Tango]

Getting the body while maintaining the harmonics and extension with brilliance without irritation is a challenge...

Totally agreed sir!

Tang

 

[Tango]

On another thread , I see some people close their ears to sound from videos. I think if you dont block your imagination you can make great use of even compressed youtube video. My videos are done with the same equipments only variables are carts. The compression doesnt obscure most differences. And if they were so compressed, they were on the same basis and you can imagine how much more you would hear in the real room. Just dont go around comparing whose system sound better from different videos from different recorders. That is without wisdom.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

[tima]

By 'geometry' I suspect Bazelio means which alignment curve does your set-up guy use when aligning a cartridge. This relates to the location of the null points on the arc traveled by a pivoting tonearm. There are two points in an arc where the stylus is tangential to the groove. Different curves offer different null points. It's a quesiton of where do you want your non-tangential distortion, if I may call it that. Common ones include Baewald, Löfgren "B", Stephenson, and Herr Brakemeir's UNI-Din. If a protractor is used by your set-up person, it may have one or more of these curves available. Fremer article here.

Wrt topic at hand, for me it is more a function of my puny desktop audio that somewhat homegenizes the sound from your videos. I played the HH album last night on my system with Fuuga cartridge and heard so much more from areas I thought were weaknesses in the videos as rendered on my desktop. This is not you but the medium and reproduction at hand. For example, the piano was rather undistinquished with small differentiation on my desktop, where as it was a rich percussion instrument with pedal action and reflection off its lid in my audio room. Nonethelss - as I said earlier, I appreciate your posting the videos and enjoy listening to their differences even if there are multiple magnitudes of difference between they on tiny desk speakers and a hi-end system. I don't do digital so no 'DAC in my big rig.'

 

[Tango]

Each of my arms came with a protractor of its own. I dont bother checking what type of curve each is using. On SME I use the DB protractor that David said in the 3012R thread. I believe it is Baewald.

Tang

 

[Audiophile Bill]

I've realized a few things in listening to these clips repeatedly. I have this LP. And though it's recorded through a phone and compressed into files, I can hear how your system renders the piano compared to mine. Yours is surely superior in terms of detail. After reading all the VTA threads, and listening to the foundation in your system vs mine... I adjusted my VTA downward fairly significantly (after trial and errors) and replayed. Now I've got the foundation, things actually have come in to better focus as well, and I have not lost too much upper end extension. But I think I still get the impression that you've got better detail and a more realistic sound overall. As you should, comparing your equipment to mine.

Now I'm thinking phono stage is likely a weak link in my system, followed probably by cart. I'm using Transfiguration Proteus, and I wonder how much improvement there is to be had with the Proteus D. Atlas SL would probably be my choice right now, though. I have a few ideas for future phono auditions as well. Will see how it goes. This has been very useful in many ways. I think we need to pitch in and buy Tang a very nice mic for Christmas along with a Tascam. I actually like hearing the in-room recording vs strict needle drop.

EDIT: Tang, which geometry are your carts aligned to? Thanks!

Hey Bazelio,

Funnily enough I was thinking the same on the mic thing. If we could get a bunch of the WBF crew to all buy same mic / AD it would be fascinating.

 

[morricab]

Hey Bazelio,

Funnily enough I was thinking the same on the mic thing. If we could get a bunch of the WBF crew to all buy same mic / AD it would be fascinating.

I vote for the TASCAM DR-100MKIII...I just bought one and it sounds really transparent and can record up to 24/192.

 

[bazelio]

I vote for the TASCAM DR-100MKIII...I just bought one and it sounds really transparent and can record up to 24/192.

Oh, haha! I just responded to the other thread saying we should put together a WBF group buy for that Tascam mic and start a thread. I'm in.

 

[Tango]

Here is my new reference. Vdh Colibri Master Signature.

VdH Master Signature

Opus

GFS

AtlasSL

Tang

Newly added. The ZYX Universe Premium X / SB2.

 

[Tango]

This one is for bazelio. He recommended me to try. The record is actually pretty decent not so hard or dry like you thought comparing to the Damien Rice O.

I find human voice is the best sound one can use to tune a system to have a fool you real kind of presence. Many seem to think creating a system to have a great sound on girl/boy with guitar is easy to do. This is true if one wants only a great sound. But phenomenal sound is a whole different ball game. Only when one hear a phenomenal voice then he may think of his system differently.

Tang