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In Reply to: Re: I agree with Mosin that this is the sleeper cartridge of the century! posted by Ray-o-Stat on September 18, 2006 at 07:00:47:
The Grado beats it on the following levels: More focus meaning a clearer and cleaner background that the music is delivered; More dynamic from quiet to loud passages; Plus I can hear micro detail with the Grado like the shape of a singer's mouth, and the air vibrating the vocal cords.The TRX-2 hints at these, the Grado fleshes it all out and lets you down only in one area. Its high frequency extension is much higher, and on my ribbon tweeters this also contributes to just a little more sibilance.
I love my TRX-2 and I play it as often as I like. I just wish I had your level of equipment to see how good it actually is. My system is only awesome.
My TRX-2 has maybe 25-40 hours on it, so I expect it to continue to open up and sound even better in the upcoming weeks.
Reality is a bitch or so I hear. The Grado Reference Master is the real deal on the Magnepan Unitrac or other very low mass tonearm. Extremely close to my Rosewood Signature but with better bass, and a better high end. The Rosewood is significantly sweeter in the midrange but lacks on the top and bottom.
I would shoot you a comparison CDR of the TRX-2 and GRM but it would only be fair after the ADC has an opportunity to break in some more.
I will ship you my Grado if you want to try it first hand and it should sound great on any arm that complements the ADC.
I want to know how much different the sound is on the TRX-3 vs TRX-2.
Follow Ups:
and I mean no disrespect, but the CD you sent me demonstrated the Grado as having a severe channel balance problem and in fact could have also been out of phase. There was also a significant amount of speed control variation coming through the rather high degree of surface noise on some of the cuts as well. In fact, the "wow" was too severe to even listen to the RLJ cut and the Eagles cut with any amount of seriousness.To be honest, I am not sure how anyone could glean the sonics of a phono cartridge based upon the overall quality of the playback demonstrated on that CD, let alone a comparison of two.
That said, I am not quite sure how to validate your comments with respect to the Grado vs. the ADC.
Don't take this as a slam but as an objective observation wholly based upon the CD you sent me.
Close to the Edge, down by the river....
-Ray
It uses the shaded pole RCA motor and the voltage fluxuations in a 480 unit apartment complex just drags it around. This is my only table currently set up to play the Unitrac arm. It stands out in stark contrast to the excellent speed accuracy of the Technics DD which is equal to Elison's Millenium Sota specifications.I have been spending my money on tables, plinths and cartridges as of late. I should probably break down and buy some parts to build a transformer based line conditioner for the turntables. I would enjoy that emensely.
Even with the attrocious noise floor from the vibration in my apartment complex and the slight idler drive noise you can still clearly hear all the differences I am pointing out. The TRX-2 at this phase of break in is almost exactly in the middle between the two cartridges in terms of detail retrieval, dynamic range, and background clarity.
I am hoping the N-33H will allow me to accomplish both a quieter noise floor and more stable speed accuracy. Getting my Thorens project table up and running was an eye openner as to how quiet a noisefloor I was missing. The Thorens was equal to the Sota Saphire table I heard at Tom Pogues home and this surprised me that my mods were that effective. The Saphire is no slouch when it comes to quiet backgrounds.
I just received my N-33H and I plan to modify it this week for the Unitrac arm. I spun it last night for a side and was impressed even with the ADC QN 38 MI cartridge I bought. I just wanted to see how the QN series sounds. It is more than decent for the 50 bucks I paid.
I should have Mark Kelly outline the schematics for a good transformer based voltage isolator so I can buy some parts to construct one. I had a Triplite model in the past and it was killer for preamps and tables. I could not find it or my Win cartridge and box on my recent trip to Portland. I am completely bummed out about having lost these items due to a divorce.... I told everyone I wanted these items to be returned to me, but obviously they felt otherwise.
Also, I failed to mention that aside from the channel imbalance on the Grado, the channels are also switched.It's always good to review your work before pubishing!
Close to the Edge, down by the river....
-Ray
disengaged the idler, and just spun it by hand ... sounds like you couldn't have done much worst!
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