Thank you Tang. I'm not talking about "true to source" per se. To me that would mean that a system presents exactly what is on the recording. I agree that that is difficult or imposible to verify. My comments were referring to the listener perspective as presented by each of these cartridges. I think that that is highly dependant on the mic position and then on the intent of the recording engineers and then on how the cartridge is designed and how it performs in a given system and room. You have clarified for me a characteristic of these cartridges, namely how up close or distant they present the music that is on the recording in your setting. The Atlas, in your system and room, seems to present smaller image sizes and a more distant listening perspective than the other two cartridges. That is new information for me which I have not read before.
I also don't like to sit too close to live jazz musicians. It is too loud. And I can't stand when everything in amplified in a small jazz club. I do like to sit fairly close in a live chamber setting and in about the 10-20th row in a good symphony hall. If a recording is close mic'd, I don't really want the system to present a distant listening perspective. That implies to me that something about the system is altering the way the information on the recording. If the recording is up close, I want to experience that. If it is more distant, then I would prefer that. I feel differently about other sonic characteristics of recordings like dynamics and tone.
I do enjoy hearing differences between recordings, but I also want the music to sound natural in general, so it is a matter of finding balance that meets my preferences. If I wanted only what is on the recording, my component choices would be slightly different. I might not have Pass electronics or two way speakers with limited frequency range, for instance. But I do adjust my VTA for different LPs which does get me closer to what is on a particular LP. I strongly believe that those who choose not to adjust VTA are getting a more blended, less specific to each LP sound, but that is a discussion for another day.
I can't answer your question about tape being "true to source." I don't own a tape player or tapes. I have heard a few tape set ups and have not actually preferred them to LP in the same system. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I do have some amazing Direct to Disk LPs which may arguably be truer recordings of the actual event. It also depends on what you mean by "source". Some people refer to the recording as the source, some the live event, some the original tape. Some think of it as the idea in the imagination of the composer, and that is surely corrupted many times before we even hear it live, let alone in our listening rooms.
