Sublime Sound

[PeterA]

Funny, I've never thought of the Master Sig with the words "extreme information retrieval" - perhaps what I hear from it is a consequence of that.

The first thing I thought with the Opus 1 video from the opening bars, without hearing the Grand Cru was: warm. When I played the GC video my first thought was: vivacity.

Each is a very nice cartridge.

Hello Tim,

Yes, that observation came in part from my exchanges with Mr. van den Hul. When I sent my broken Colibri XPP in for repair he mentioned that he had just developed the then new Master Signature. He described it as "presenting more music from the grooves". So surprised was I with the sound of the repaired XPP compared to my other cartridges, that I decided to buy a Master Signature. When I sent that cartridge in for its 200 hour inspection, he mentioned the Grand Cru and told me that progress was still being made. He again referred to the increased information being found in the grooves.

It is one thing to extract the recorded information from the media, it is yet another to present it with little corruption to the listener. My room had been overly damped and as I began the long process of slowly removing it and listening to the results, I discovered that I was hearing more information. This information improved the sound. It became more natural. Musicians and their instruments became more present. I now firmly believe that it was the re-introduction of this missing information, absorbed and removed by all the treatments, that made my sound seem "hifi". This was a real "aha" moment for me and I began to pay much more attention to the very subtle information that I could now hear, first extracted from the grooves, and then not lost by the gear and room.

I do not understand what people mean by "overly detailed", "analytical", "forensic". They seem to imply "too much" of something. For me, there can never be too much information. The important thing is how it is presented. It must be presented without distortion or artifacts. It must be presented as "natural resolution". This is the key I think toward a believable sound.

These two cartridges do that to a very high degree. The Opus just adds a little bit of emphasis on the lower midrange and is not quite as extended and dynamic, but it is extremely close. Differences will come down to personal preference, but what I like about the Opus is that it too presents an extreme amount of information and it does so in a very natural way.

I like your words to describe the two cartridges, and I am pleased that these two main characteristics come through on the videos as they capture well what I am hearing. As I have now switched and am listening to each in the other arm, these qualities remain and come through, but the arms are making a difference regarding degrees.

Warm: adjective

2. having, showing, or expressive of enthusiasm, affection, or kindness.


Vivacity: noun

1. (especially in a woman) the quality of being attractively lively and animated.
   "he was struck by her vivacity, humor and charm"
   

 

[PeterA]

The Opus1's clarity and dimensionality could approach that of the vdh but never equal. Play around with it a bit it could sound better than what you hear in this video. The pleasant sound could be more exciting sound with the right arm. The energy and high will never equal the vdh... but what does? The low mid is added when comparing to vdh. But if compare to msl, koetsu and most other jap carts you will know how much more colored those carts are. On second video, at dynamic peaks I thought it sounded borderline out of control. At those peaks it lost naturalness.

Tang, these observations about the two cartridges are excellent and match what I am hearing in my own system.

The videos do not perfectly represent what I hear in my system but I include them as additional information to supplement my written impressions. Those dynamic peaks on the video are not quite as out of control in person, so it may be an artifact of the recording but I'm not sure. Perhaps I recorded it too loud. I'll keep things as they are for round two videos and see if you hear the same issues.

 

[PeterA]

I too prefer the VDH video, Peter. In your system the upper mid has a recess with the Opus that makes the violin tone sound less real - it loses some speed and dynamic edge. Please can you send same with your Master Signature.
There is a system gain thing going on too imho - the doubled output of the VDH seems to be driving the Pass phono with more life.

On another note, I think your system sounds really improved based on videos - tone in particular.

Bill, thank you for the kind words. I no longer have a Master Signature. I had two. One was upgraded/modified to a Grand Cru, and the other was replaced by a new 5R Grand Cru. I am using the latter for these comparisons as it now has about 150 hours of playing time on it where as my modified GC just came back from its 200 hour fine tuning. I had the latest damper installed and the output lowered from 1.1mV to 0.75 mV. It only has about 20 hours on it now.

I do find that the Grand Crus do calm down a bit, open up and sound more natural after a good 60 or so hours.

 

[bazelio]

11 Colibri, 60+ Colibri, do I hear 100? For me, 1 VdH in one system was sufficient - my own VdH in my own system. People often talk about taming the Master Sig / GC. There seems to be a few ways to do so, whether it be via extreme toe out, particular electronics, antique cables, etc. None of these appealed to me, however. At this point, my system is where I want it to be in terms of transparency and resolution. And the VdH upper end energy and leaner overall character just didn't play well in that context. But now, the Opus 1 fits like a glove. I agree with ddk's characterization that Opus 1 is relatively low in coloration but not devoid of it. What I hear in the Opus 1 video here is not what I hear in my listening room. And the videos are therefore an interesting window into the coloration introduced by Peter's system. That's not a knock. In fact, these colorations are in line with what I'd felt would be needed to make the VDH work for me as well.

I have spent a fair amount of time listening to and dissecting what I hear in Tang's system videos. It was his videos that led me to the VdH and in fact away from Opus 1 in the first place. They had me concerned that Opus 1 wasn't going to be lively enough for my preferences. But then after first hearing just how far (too far) VdH went in that direction in my own system, it occured to me that Opus might just be what I'd been looking for all along. And I was right. Incidentally, my VdH has found a new home where it too fits like a glove, so win-win. All's well that ends well.

 

[PeterA]

11 Colibri, 60+ Colibri, do I hear 100? For me, 1 VdH in one system was sufficient - my own VdH in my own system. People often talk about taming the Master Sig / GC. There seems to be a few ways to do so, whether it be via extreme toe out, particular electronics, antique cables, etc. None of these appealed to me, however. At this point, my system is where I want it to be in terms of transparency and resolution. And the VdH upper end energy and leaner overall character just didn't play well in that context. But now, the Opus 1 fits like a glove. I agree with ddk's characterization that Opus 1 is relatively low in coloration but not devoid of it. What I hear in the Opus 1 video here is not what I hear in my listening room. And the videos are therefore an interesting window into the coloration introduced by Peter's system. That's not a knock. In fact, these colorations are in line with what I'd felt would be needed to make the VDH work for me as well.

I have spent a fair amount of time listening to and dissecting what I hear in Tang's system videos. It was his videos that led me to the VdH and in fact away from Opus 1 in the first place. They had me concerned that Opus 1 wasn't going to be lively enough for my preferences. But then after first hearing just how far (too far) VdH went in that direction in my own system, it occured to me that Opus might just be what I'd been looking for all along. And I was right. Incidentally, my VdH has found a new home where it too fits like a glove, so win-win. All's well that ends well.

Brian, we will see if your impressions of the sound of the Opus in my colored system tweaked to optimize the sound of the Colibri will remain consistent when I post the new videos in round two with the new cartridge/tonearm combinations. I will look forward to your impressions.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Bill, thank you for the kind words. I no longer have a Master Signature. I had two. One was upgraded/modified to a Grand Cru, and the other was replaced by a new 5R Grand Cru. I am using the latter for these comparisons as it now has about 150 hours of playing time on it where as my modified GC just came back from its 200 hour fine tuning. I had the latest damper installed and the output lowered from 1.1mV to 0.75 mV. It only has about 20 hours on it now.

I do find that the Grand Crus do calm down a bit, open up and sound more natural after a good 60 or so hours.

What interconnects are you using now, Peter? I read that you were using some vintage wire.

Best

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Your post regarding the use "Jap" intrigued me so I did a little investigating. It seems that Americans are a little more sensitive to the word due to our history of mistreating and imprisoning Japanese immigrants.

i certainly was not commenting on any racial aspect to Tang's choice of terms. just the choice to apply the broad brush descriptor. but there is a derogatory use of that term in our culture, no doubt. in today's cancel culture climate, public use of that term would be a career stopper.

 

[KeithR]

I actually didnt think the Opus 1 video sounded very good at all. Without something objective as a baseline such as Analog Magik, when comparing two carts, we can't know if we're actually comparing two different alignments as a (big) variable as well. Additionally, it could be gain like Bill mentions, level matching, and even tonearm mass and resonance. On the bright side, Peter, (no pun intended) you've accomplished something very good sounding with the VdH after all your recent changes to dial it in. Not even comparatively speaking, I think it sounds great outright. And certainly much better than it ever did in my system.

Regarding toe out, definitely personal preference. Aside from not hearing the speaker response as intended, I actually dislike what it does to soundstage. With many records, e.g. hard panned jazz trios, it creates an exaggerated U-shaped stage which just sounds wrong to me. With other material, the edges of the stage sound stretched artificially and scale is inconsistent from the edges to the center.

The VdH had more life and expression, but the Opus top end was more natural.

But evaluating 10k cartridges on 128kb internet streams from iPhones is kind of silly to begin with. If Peter uses a real mike, maybe more interesting.

 

[KeithR]

If you post a video of your Etsuro Gold here, then we could at least do a like to like comparison of how the different cartridges in the different systems sound based on two videos on YouTube. That would at least be a start toward some kind of relevant comparison.

Please don't - this is a colossal waste of time and improper on 10 different levels to begin with.

 

[Al M.]

i certainly was not commenting on any racial aspect to Tang's choice of terms. just the choice to apply the broad brush descriptor. but there is a derogatory use of that term in our culture, no doubt. in today's cancel culture climate, public use of that term would be a career stopper.

Please, this has nothing to do with cancel culture. Bringing up "cancel culture" as an accusation at every turn is its own hypersensitive political correctness. A caricature of "freedom of expression".

 

[ddk]

Well, just in the limited context of the two videos that Peter posted this is how I heard it. Btw., given how many of these VdH carts you have owned and installed, what is the unit to unit variability like? Doesn’t 80+ year old AJ make them all himself still? I have heard you can get a good one and not so good one...

Hi Brad,
One thing that needs to be clarified first, Colibri, Colibri Stradivarius, Colibri Master Signature, Colibri Master Signature Stradivarius, Colibri Master Signature Stradivarius 5R and Colibri Gran Cru are different designst. Some are evolutions of previous models and some like the GC are a completely different design. Add to this all the variations offered of each model plus individual custom spec'd versions and you end with large number of cartridges that look similar but sound different, this is what I believe created the no standard impression in the market. To top it off there are non kosher sources as @Vienna mentioned adding to the confusion. My personal experience is somewhat different, I bought both standard spec Colibris and ordered custom ones with slightly different specs. In the several dozens that I received sample to sample variation of each model was minimal and aside from Ortofons that every sample is exact, the variance was no different from any other high end mc brand and I would even say better than most.

There's another category of Colibris out there, the upgraded versions I've seen passed on as new or as original design. The "upgraded" Master Sigs labeled as GC I received and tested for clients sound distinctly different from production GC cartridges and production Master Sigs, and even from one another in the "upgraded" category. IMO Mr. van den Hul is quite capable and adept at building cartridges but not great at labeling them properly or communicating the design variants with the broader market, for example there's already a new GC variant with a very different balance than GC's I'm used to and it was only mentioned in a private communication otherwise physically it's identical to any other GC I received in the past.

david

 

[Al M.]

The VdH had more life and expression, but the Opus top end was more natural.

But evaluating 10k cartridges on 128kb internet streams from iPhones is kind of silly to begin with. If Peter uses a real mike, maybe more interesting.

Yes, I don't understand how people wax lyrically about those videos. They are instructive about differences heard, but their absolute sound quality does not even come close to capture what I hear in person from Peter's system with this recording. I find the videos very much lacking compared to that.

 

[ddk]

Please don't - this is a colossal waste of time and improper on 10 different levels to begin with.

Since when is posting system videos improper? This coming from someone with an entire thread dedicated to his own system and how things sound is to put it mildly, rich!

david

 

[PeterA]

What interconnects are you using now, Peter? I read that you were using some vintage wire.

Best

The “antique“ speaker cables our new old stock western electric 10 gauge copper wires. The designer used four of those in a proprietary weave with very nice Kimber speaker spades. The interconnect wires are to me an unknown brand from Europe. The designer, an electrical engineer friend of mine, selected wires and the connectors and assemble them for me.

I compared these cables to quite a few other brands in my system and prefer them because they do not seem to add as much sound of their own. They are basic and well constructed.

 

[PeterA]

Please don't - this is a colossal waste of time and improper on 10 different levels to begin with.

Keith, then what is the point of comparing the sound of one’s system live to the sound of someone else’s system through YouTube video recording? Is there any validity in making such comments and comparisons? I am at least suggesting that people compare videos to each other not one live sound versus someone else’s recorded sound as Mike did.

You certainly don’t have to have any interest in system videos, but Mike has a very large number of cartridges tonearms and turntables and I think he would do a great service by sharing some of the comparisons over video so that other people can hear the differences even through the limitations of YouTube videos.

Or not. It’s only a suggestion on my part. Even Brian got some benefit by watching Tang’s videos. He became interested in actually pursued cartridge choices because of them. Are you saying that was useless and a big mistake? I really like Tang’ videos.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

The “antique“ speaker cables our new old stock western electric 10 gauge copper wires. The designer used four of those in a proprietary weave with very nice Kimber speaker spades. The interconnect wires are to me an unknown brand from Europe. The designer, an electrical engineer friend of mine, selected wires and the connectors and assemble them for me.

I compared these cables to quite a few other brands in my system and prefer them because they do not seem to add as much sound of their own. They are basic and well constructed.

I also use 10GA Western Electric speaker cables with a high quality copper spade. Just twisted with no shielding.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I am a video skeptic, but I appreciate that Peter is extremely careful to level match between videos, and to focus on changing only one single component (cartridge), or a related pair of components (tonearm + cartridge) on his videos of his system.

(As a video skeptic I am going to do my best to apply a consistent recording technique, using professional microphones, across audio systems when I conduct video interviews of audiophiles and recordings of their systems.)

 

[morricab]

I also use 10GA Western Electric speaker cables with a high quality copper spade. Just twisted with no shielding.

I would argue you are not getting all you can in the upper frequencies with such cables...

 

[Audiophile Bill]

I would argue you are not getting all you can in the upper frequencies with such cables...

And I would agree, Brad. They most certainly do have a signature.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

And I would agree, Brad. They most certainly do have a signature.

I did mess about with this configuration with a couple of solid silver conductors on top.