Top Wing Seiryu arrives at Believe High Fidelity

[Audiophile Bill]

Hey Bill, have a listen to the vid in #307 of the thread and let me know you you think.

Hey - will do later on my headphones. I can hear Shelby Lynne on my iPhone by the sounds of it.

 

[108CY]

I found depending on phono stage and arm combination the loading varies this could be anywhere from 800 to 1100 ohms, I have found which three phono stage designs the Red sparrow to to have a kind of tunnel effect on the presentation anything apart from 900. And I have heard 1000 to be just perfect on others. This is one racing car of a cartridge it needs everything to be sport on the difference that azimuth makes is uncanny imaging can be thrown out more than any cartridge I know, people say the cartridge has no scale, i can get massive amounts by tiny i mean tiny adjustments to overhang. I find unidin mandatory with this cartridge. Sra is a total nightmare it needs real real care any slight variation makes and breaks the whole midrange bloom of the cartridge. I have heard this cartridge sound nice on a few pivots when well set up but not many. The air tangent, vyger and kuzma LT'S tend to help matters and make things a little easier especially the Air Tangent where midrange body is in abundance. This is a fine cartridge its not for the faint hearted it takes a lot of dedication and care to own one. It reminds me of my dear friend aunt jouk van del hull's designs its easy to dismiss them because of sample variation and poor set up but hear a good van den hul set up and it will have you in tears with the emotion it can produce.

 

[bazelio]

I found depending on phono stage and arm combination the loading varies this could be anywhere from 800 to 1100 ohms, I have found which three phono stage designs the Red sparrow to to have a kind of tunnel effect on the presentation anything apart from 900. And I have heard 1000 to be just perfect on others. This is one racing car of a cartridge it needs everything to be sport on the difference that azimuth makes is uncanny imaging can be thrown out more than any cartridge I know, people say the cartridge has no scale, i can get massive amounts by tiny i mean tiny adjustments to overhang. I find unidin mandatory with this cartridge. Sra is a total nightmare it needs real real care any slight variation makes and breaks the whole midrange bloom of the cartridge. I have heard this cartridge sound nice on a few pivots when well set up but not many. The air tangent, vyger and kuzma LT'S tend to help matters and make things a little easier especially the Air Tangent where midrange body is in abundance. This is a fine cartridge its not for the faint hearted it takes a lot of dedication and care to own one. It reminds me of my dear friend aunt jouk van del hull's designs its easy to dismiss them because of sample variation and poor set up but hear a good van den hul set up and it will have you in tears with the emotion it can produce.

I'm afraid there are important variables missing here. For each of the three phono stages you mention here, could you state whether or not a SUT was being used, and if so, what was the DCR for each of them?

 

[audioblazer]

can red sparrow which is high compliance work well with high mass tonearm eg Axiom ?

 

[Tango]

can red sparrow which is high compliance work well with high mass tonearm eg Axiom ?

Let's say it works much better with LT arm. I did have it on the Axiom and some other pivot arms.

 

[christoph]

Let's say it works much better with LT arm. I did have it on the Axiom and some other pivot arms.

Master Tang, you have a Red Sparrow now as well?

 

[bazelio]

can red sparrow which is high compliance work well with high mass tonearm eg Axiom ?

I'd say it's not high compliance. Maybe medium to medium-high. It sounded great on an 18g Kuzma 4 Point at my house. My only "complaint" was it's lack of punchy bass.

 

[audioblazer]

I'd say it's not high compliance. Maybe medium to medium-high. It sounded great on an 18g Kuzma 4 Point at my house. My only "complaint" was it's lack of punchy bass.

Refer to #265

 

[bazelio]

Refer to #265

Kuzma 4 point is moderate mass and since Top Wing isn't a very high compliance cart it should be ok.

In my experience, it was fine with 18g. What's the mass of Axiom?

 

[audioblazer]

Pretty high . From acoustical system, “ tunable effective moving mass – from 22 gr to 42 gr effective moving massin fixed mounting version “

 

[bazelio]

That's nice that it's tunable, but yeah, I'd be concerned too.

 

[shakti]

22g is not too far away from the 4point 18g.
Or do you have the exchangeable headshell Version of the Axiom?

 

[audioblazer]

 

[Tango]

Master Tang, you have a Red Sparrow now as well?

Yes, I had it since first came out. Have one nib too.

 

[christoph]

Yes, I had it since first came out. Have one nib too.

It doesn't show in your signature and I don't remember you writing about it, so I had to ask...

 

[shakti]

View attachment 71800

This is the fixed Headshell Version, which will start from 22g effective mass.
You should give it a try?

 

[audioblazer]

This is the fixed Headshell Version, which will start from 22g effective mass.
You should give it a try?

Sounded pretty good

 

[gabriel@naim]

Well, consider me skeptical of the LT correlation there. I strongly suspect it's not the LT aspect of what the Brits are doing that makes the big difference, but rather the loading and the matching to the SUT. For example, we tried the Ypsilon SUT (not well matched to the cart impedance) and the Intact Audio SUT (perfectly matched to the cart impedance), and the less expensive silver Intact SUT was a clear winner. The Ypsilon SUT noticeably dulled the sound and flattened the presentation. But with a proper electrical match, the cart sings. On the other hand, I don't hear any noticeable difference at the Lofgren null points where the arm tracks tangentially vs the middle of the record.

Hi,
May i know what are the loading or impedance should i mentioned to Intact Audio? I just got the Red sparrow and my phono was FM 122 MK1, and the sound is weird and very thin.

Regards
Gabriel

 

[bazelio]

Hi,
May i know what are the loading or impedance should i mentioned to Intact Audio? I just got the Red sparrow and my phono was FM 122 MK1, and the sound is weird and very thin.

Regards
Gabriel

I'm guessing that's an alignment issue. I'll look up the info and let you know though.