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As I've written previously elsewhere http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1236947666&openmine&zzHalcro&4&5#Halcro....I don't think there is much to be gained by listening to wonderfully recorded tracks of music one loves when comparing cartridges?How many degrees of 'wonderful' can there be?So the torture tests of 'Alabama' and 'Words' from Neil Young's "Harvest" were delivered with a clarity and understanding I had never previously heard.So also for the climax in "Pines of Rome" whilst 'Wah Wah' by George Harrison was actually 'listenable' at volume. A rare occurrence indeed.....The only faults with the Z1 that I could perceive at this early point is a lack of expansive soundstage width (not beyond the speakers) and a suspicion that its euphonic bass and midrange may well conceal the differences between recordings.... with a certain 'sameness' to the sounds of various recordings over long listening sessions...?
While making shit smell better is practical, I hope your evaluation is a little more expansive. It's those great recordings which sound somewhat like live music and played with your best, that give you that basis of comparison for ultimate performance.
This might be a great cart to have for problem records, and most others.
A postscript to the JVC Z1 cartridge.....I swapped the cartridge to another metal headshell (because of cartridge's plastic carrier) and mounted it on the FR-64s arm around the Victor TT101 DD turntable....a more revealing playing unit.The characteristics of the cartridge remained the same....but suddenly I decided to increase the loading to 60K Ohms. Why I hadn't thought to have done this previously I don't know.. ...but what a difference.. All the euphonic colouration in the midrange and lower bass magically disappeared leaving the most crystal pure and delicious sounds enfolding my listening room. With a fair bit of added capacitance (200uF)..there are few cartridges which can extract this amount of detail and information whilst retaining the emotional content of the recorded sounds...At this stage the Z1 is in my top 5 favourite cartridges...and it may rise....
Halcro,Most interesting, good thinking. This is with the SAS ?Added 200uF ? This is a typo right? Assuming you added 200pF, added to what? I'll have to see what I can do with the AHT. I don't have the caps on hand, but maybe I won't need it without SAS ? Think I'll put in an order with Newark. Maybe I can have some parts in a couple of days. neo
Halcro,This is an interesting development. I've been thinking about the X1 and instinctively, it would seem to be too bright with a higher value load resistance. I don't know the capacitance of the Cardas, but with internal arm wire I guess somewhere around 125pF. That would put the total around 325pF ? Back in the day (late '70s on) 225pF became kind of a default standard, so it's right in that ballpark.neo
I've never experienced a cart quite like this.