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In Reply to: RE: Another VPI Classic and SS Zephyr thread posted by dirtyvinyl on August 19, 2014 at 20:14:55
I'm an SS dealer too. In my showroom, I have three carts on display that, to my ears, sound the best in their respective categories. I have a VPI Traveler with a 2M Black, a VPI Classic II with the Classic wand and a SS Zephyr MK II, and then an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze on the Classic III wand. I switch mode and gain on the phono preamp when I swap wands.
I'm breaking in a new pair of B&W 802 Diamonds, and a friend/audiophile/client of mine stopped by after I closed the showroom to help me get the speakers positioned just right and then listen to some music over beers. I played everything on the Zephyr MK II, and it sounds terrific. Mine has about 150 hours on it, so it's a really smooth presentation with great detail. Bass is excellent. It's solid, palpable and tight. We were playing Maria Muldaur- Richland Woman Blues, Stevie Ray Vaughn- Texas Flood, and the recent Mercury Living Presence 1812 Overture reissue. I have not heard a high output cartridge that can touch the Zephyr MK II at the $1200.00 price point, and that's why it's on display.
So, I think it's system dependent. I'm using the Lehmann Audio Decade phono preamp by the way. Interconnects are the Audioquest Leopard from table to phono pre and phono pre to preamp. I find AT carts on the whole to be brighter than what I've heard from SS or Ortofon carts.
"Hope is a good thing. Maybe, the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
Follow Ups:
compare to the Zephyr MK 2? I have a Classic 3 with a Dynavector DV20x2H and was contemplating switching over to the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze and either purchasing the Graham Slee Elevator to go with my Graham Slee Reflex M or selling this set up and going with the new Parasound JC3+.
Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
Great post, thank you Curious. Couple of questions; much difference between the Zephyr Mk I and Mk II? How many hours should I expect before things smooth out with the Mk I? And lastly, the hyper-liveliness I get with tapping on my table I mention in my last post; is it common and something to worry about?
The Zeph II digs more detail out of the grooves, and I'm a detail junky. Tonally they are similar, with the MK I being more polite. The cool thing about the both of them is that they were designed with HW's unipiv's in mind. Take advantage of all adjustment parameters.
I wouldn't worry about the tapping thing. It's kind of funny though, like when you say "Doc, it hurts when I do this", and he says, "well- stop doing that"!.
Most unsuspended tables do that, by the way. There is ample mass with your table, but if you wish to seek out isolation platforms, you should. Just don't overdampen a perfectly awesome table.
By the way, are you using the fluid dampening? If not, you should. If you are, go the other way and take it out. You never know what these changes may do in terms of improvement. Have fun. But yes, you've got a damn good cart- so make the most of it.
"Hope is a good thing. Maybe, the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
Funny, when the new cartridge was on order but had not yet arrived, I was thinking I should experiment with the damping fluid. Somewhere in all the work of installing, aligning (with a Mint LP and I feel less and less adept at seeing the paralax each time I use that thing), Fozgometering, etc. I forgot all about the damping fluid. I will give it a try.
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