Tonearm + Cart for Classical Music

[advanced101]

The more I get into Classical music the more I would like a dedicated Arm + Cart for that Genre. I love my FR + Koetsu for Jazz and Vocals but it a bit colored IMHO for Classical. I am looking to add a second arm + cart.

Budget would be sort of open but would like to stay <15K. Getting a high bang for the buck arm like the 3012R would leave quite a bit for a cartridge vs. spending half or more on the arm.

Phonostage is the Allnic H3000 for now.

 

[bonzo75]

On FR the Decca works very well For classical, but can eat LPs when not set up right.

SME 3012r with vdh Stradivarius or a linear tracker with red sparrow

 

[advanced101]

Thanks, based off what I have read the Vdh would be a hood contrast to the Koetsu.

 

[bonzo75]

Thanks, based off what I have read the Vdh would be a hood contrast to the Koetsu.

There are a lot of carts which will be a good contrast to the koetsu. But the Stradivarius is special on many arms, including SME V, and at Munich, Schroeder and Schick have been using it on theirs since 2016 and Kevin of vox Olympian used it on kuzma. There are reports of inconsistency where some samples sound awful though so source well

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Ortofon Anna Diamond would be my "$15k budget at street prices" cartridge of choice for classical, leaving budget room for any number of proper arms. i love large scale classical......and the Anna D delivers.

fantastic on piano, violin, cello, voices. does space and scale. separates things in the soundstage in a natural way. textures and colors, but not colored. you don't need to roll the dice on edgy-ness or alignment variances. re-tips/rebuilds reasonable.

if you you blow up your budget i have other thoughts.