Nice! What table & arm is it mounted on?
Aidas Durawood Rainbow Cartridge "Review"
I've had the Aidas in my system for just over a month. It replaced a Hana ML which by most accounts is a great cart for the money, and I thought so too.
At $4,350 the Aidas was a bit of a leap of faith considering is isn't exactly top of mind as far high-end carts go. Most of the the reviews I found dated back to when Victor Simakov of Vira USA was claiming he was the manufacturer.
I eventually found Erik @solypsa who is now the official USA distributor. He gently but convincingly encouraged me to give Aidas a try. Aidas Svazas IS the man behind the carts, which are designed and manufactured in Kaunas, Lithuania. https://www.aidascartridges.com/
I don't have any experience with any other carts in this price range, but the detail, clarity and dynamic range is truly astonishing. Channel separation is much better and I guess that is what contributes to much better sound stage imaging. Overall I'd say it sounds warm and VERY easy to listen to.
It catches me off guard sometimes when I hear sounds in a well-known track that are completely new.
Aesthetically it's a work of art and seems to be really well made.
I'm really happy I made the leap, and my guess is the Rainbow is a very serious contender amongst some of the finest machines out there.
Lastly, the pre and post sales support I got from Erik was top notch (and patient), and he has some great set up tips. Also these can be re-tipped and/or re-built by Aidas so that's an added bonus.
10 responses Add your response
Gain -3 dB (62 dB), 470 ohms. I don't mess with the various curves - standard RIAA. Aidas recommends 100-1000 ohm load so I just set it in the middle. I've dabbled with 100 & 1000 but the difference is minimal to my ears. I ran the Hana at -3 and 100 so expected that I'd need to boost the gain for the Aidas but no question 65dB of gain is too much. |
@macg19 Glad you are finding pleasure in its performance :) |
Nice! Fellow Aidas user here (Gala Gold), also on a Clearaudio (Ovation) with Tracer tonearm. It's a great match! The resonant frequency of the Gala on the Tracer is ~8-9 hz, and I suspect your Rainbow is close to that, so pretty good there. Aidas are beautiful cartridges, the Gala Gold being tonally rich, but dynamic and quick. Happy camper here. Thanks Erik @ solypsa for the suggestion. |