Dmgrant1,
I have a Moerch DP-6 with two 12" arms (6gr and 13.1gr), a VPI 12.5 with two arm wands, and a Schroeder Reference with 9" 12gr arm. I have the VPI and Moerch set up on the same turntable right now with identical cartridges (that particular TT (Garrard 401) has three arm pods and I have three AT OC9/II cartridges from the same lot). I have also done back to back comparisons between the Moerch and the Schroeder, though not with identical cartridges. That comparison comes as soon as I stop working seven days a week.
To my ears and in my system, the Moerch gives tremendous bang for the buck. It is really a good arm. I will be interested to hear how it sounds versus the Schroeder when I move it from its current TT (Nak TX-1000) back to the TT with the Moerch and VPI. My educated guess is that the Schroeder will have slightly more detail, be smoother, more refined in sound, and will move me closer to the music.
I like the VPI because I can do cartridge swaps in less than 30 seconds which is what you need when doing A-B cartridge tests. Swapping armwands on the Moerch takes time as you have to set VTF and VTA and possibly azimuth. On the other hand the Moerch is nice because it has different weight armwands. Thus, I play high compliance cartridges on the 6gr arm and low compliance cartridges on the 13.1gr arm. Of course, if you don't swap cartridges frequently, this won't relevant to you.
Hope this info helps.
I have a Moerch DP-6 with two 12" arms (6gr and 13.1gr), a VPI 12.5 with two arm wands, and a Schroeder Reference with 9" 12gr arm. I have the VPI and Moerch set up on the same turntable right now with identical cartridges (that particular TT (Garrard 401) has three arm pods and I have three AT OC9/II cartridges from the same lot). I have also done back to back comparisons between the Moerch and the Schroeder, though not with identical cartridges. That comparison comes as soon as I stop working seven days a week.
To my ears and in my system, the Moerch gives tremendous bang for the buck. It is really a good arm. I will be interested to hear how it sounds versus the Schroeder when I move it from its current TT (Nak TX-1000) back to the TT with the Moerch and VPI. My educated guess is that the Schroeder will have slightly more detail, be smoother, more refined in sound, and will move me closer to the music.
I like the VPI because I can do cartridge swaps in less than 30 seconds which is what you need when doing A-B cartridge tests. Swapping armwands on the Moerch takes time as you have to set VTF and VTA and possibly azimuth. On the other hand the Moerch is nice because it has different weight armwands. Thus, I play high compliance cartridges on the 6gr arm and low compliance cartridges on the 13.1gr arm. Of course, if you don't swap cartridges frequently, this won't relevant to you.
Hope this info helps.