Mike, I saw your 0.38mv Colibri on the market. You made an interesting comment about Jazz...maybe for the less initiated you could elaborate on what a Benz LPS kinda guy is.. Aren't they both on the warm side ( LPS and VDH) and both have the same engine wound by Van Den Hul himself? Different body design. LPS vs. VDH Colibri...your thoughts on the differences
The Colibri “Master Signature”
- Thread starter Tango
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Mike, I saw your 0.38mv Colibri on the market. You made an interesting comment about Jazz...maybe for the less initiated you could elaborate on what a Benz LPS kinda guy is.. Aren't they both on the warm side ( LPS and VDH) and both have the same engine wound by Van Den Hul himself? Different body design. LPS vs. VDH Colibri...your thoughts on the differences
hopefully Jazdoc will chime in here. until he does i would say that the occasional edge that the vdH displays has more significance to some of us than others. for me i really love the energy and space of the vdH and play lots of large orchestral music where that takes me places i value, Jazdoc does high energy stuff too,, but not so much large scale. so the downsides of the occasional edge are not sufficiently balanced by the positives like me.
the LPS is a very balanced and well behaved cartridge. it's not warm and gooey like Koetsu wood bodies, but stays in the lane. not hanging out there. it plays to the music Jazdoc likes. i'm oversimplifying, as the nuance of his views are deeper than that.
Thanks for that.
I too would be interested in what Jazzdoc thinks..
BTW, PM sent.
maybe it was Myles who reviewed both of those. i'm running off to work now and will research that more later.
IMO, this is about personal preferences, not a question of good and bad. The van den Hul and LPS are both very good cartridges. I preferred the vdH Mike loaned me but for one caveat: the tendency to more high frequency energy. That was a deal breaker for me. In all other respects, I thought the vdH bettered my LPS. I spent close to 20 hours with the cartridge trying to adjust set up to ameliorate the high frequency energy with little success. BTW, the vdH bass extension is extraordinary and the midrange presentation excellent. FWIW, I heard the same sonic signature in Mike's system.
Jazzdoc, thanks for that. I think the sibilance issue will be an issue for me.. I’m very sensitive to high frequency anomalies.
I do wonder if the more current Crimson Strad has the same issues. The older regular Colibri was known for this problem...luckily some people are less bothered by it than others. Seems like you and I are in the same camp.
I do wonder if the more current Crimson Strad has the same issues. The older regular Colibri was known for this problem...luckily some people are less bothered by it than others. Seems like you and I are in the same camp.
Dean Martin's Dream with Dean. Ella & Louis are obvious.
Both recordings have intrinsic spots for sibilances in them. If ones didnt find sibilances in Dean's or Louis's voice then there were problems with the system.
However when I mentioned of the issue. I didnt mean just sibilances. I meant degree of sibilances. You know all my equipments were the same. Same SME arms on the AS. Only differences were carts. Least to most in term of degree were AtlasSL => Opus1&ZYX => Master Sig.
Your Master Sig might have less of this character than mine Micro. Your system down the chain might also be less sensitive or less prone to sibilances than mine. I don't like to point finger at just the usual suspect.
Kind regards,
Tang
Thanks for your clarification - it is now clear we point in the same direction - reproduction of sibilance existing in the recording and to what degree they show. Voice sibilance usually shows in the 5-10 kHz band and can be enhanced by the recording process.
I have not listened to the recordings you refer with my vdH - probabbly I will do it sometime next week.
Andre Jennings
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...arius-and-colibri-xgw-signature-stradivarius/
Myles Astor
https://positive-feedback.com/revie...libri-xgw-stradivarius-moving-coil-cartridge/
Interview w/ AJ van den Hul
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.hifi.nl/artikel/26569/Luisterbezoek-Van-den-Hul-en-BHC-van-Music2.html
No reviews yet of Master Signature that i know of.
Couldn’t agree more. Yes, the Colibri is prone to highlighting sibilance relative to other carts that I have but only on some passages/music, not all. And yes it does lean on to the higher frequency side of the spectrum as compared to my zyx and the Benz LPS. This is consistent with the observation made by others on this thread. Notwithstanding this, I unequivocally love the Colibri and prefer it to my other two carts, especially on classical, as a generalization. I’m unabashedly happy that I have carts that are so different in character and suit different music.i wouldn’t want a situation where my carts all sound similar.
Cheers
Sujay
Mr.Jennings was using the Basis one arm turntable in evaluation.
Anyone that can compare same brand of carts in such delicate details with only one arm on the table each time will always get my bow.
Tang
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Where can I find that comparative review by Dre, I have only found Crimson vs Colibri?
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One thing about Van den Hul cartridges....their naming nomenclature sure leads to much confusion. I would think it also leads to much mis-information as well. For example, I listened yesterday to a VDH KOA Colibri Stradivarius... not a VDH KOA Colibri Stradivarius Signature!! This cartridge was built before the change of the motor to the current motor by VDH and has less output, but the same KOA body. The problem with sibilance wasn't noticeable to me....although the speakers in use may have had something to do with that! The speakers were the new Maggie 3.7s---with the ribbon tweet ( excellent speaker..for the money). Instead, I noticed that I heard less impact and resolution in the bass and less resolution in the extreme highs---than a number of different cartridges that I have heard on this system. If this same finding would hold for the Crimson Strad..or the Colibri Strad Signature...or the Colibri Master Sig...I have no idea. Apparently, the model I heard yesterday ( and I'm not sure if VDH is still making this model, although he was up until the beginning of this year) has exactly the same motor as the Colibri of decades ago! With the exception that the body is lacquered differently ( which accounts for the name Stradivarius-- BIG deal IMHO--- and of course, a much higher asking price!
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I have the Colibri XGW Master Signature Stradivarius (1,1 mV) in African Black Wood Grennadille (yes, the nomenclature of the names should be more easy), it should be around 80/100 hours and I haven't heard any sibilance at all.
With the "regular" Colibri in my setup yes I've heard some sibilance (one of the reasons I've sold it), however in a friends place it was tamed and no sibilance at all. It's system dependent and if properly adjusted it can play without sibilance.
YMMV.
With the "regular" Colibri in my setup yes I've heard some sibilance (one of the reasons I've sold it), however in a friends place it was tamed and no sibilance at all. It's system dependent and if properly adjusted it can play without sibilance.
YMMV.
Hi Bluedoor, I am about to pull the trigger on the XGW MSS 1.1mv African Black Wood, upgrading my current Colibri XGW 0.38mv. What are your preferred phono settings in terms of gain and load impedance?
Thanks
Sujay
I prefer 400ohm Impedance and 65 db gain with my 0,9v Master Signature and the Boulder 2008 Phonopre
I think I have 300 ohm and the high setting, who adds some more dbs on the Nagra VPS.
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