18 months I had the opportunity to listen to the Kondo M7 and the SFz in my system with a Kondo Io-m. I also had a Tron Ultimate phonostage with a MC and MM input. Using the SFz into the Tron comared to the M7 was very instructive The M7 diplayed the typical Kondo sound that Shakti mentions; it had a wonderful ability to render female vocals with all their textures and nuances, small scale ensembles were magical, especially in the body of the notes. Choral works were highly coherent and with good scale. However, there is always a however, it did not have the dynamic contrasts that did justice to large orchestral peices or capture the power of brass in jazz combos. Here the Tron was significantly more accomplished and had a tighter control over the lower notes. I did put my Dynavector X1-vs through the Ksl and there was just too much gain, but only just. The outcome was that I got Graham Tricker to build me a TronGT MM phonostage for my Io-m and Io-j.
It would appear that gain matching between the cart and the phonostage might be more critical than loading (Aka J Carr). Given the dialogue on the forum, people demand increasing flexibility regarding functionality in their phonostages . Whereas some manufacturers support the view that the simpler and most direct the better.
Peter
