Here's the e-mail I just sent to Mehran @ Sorasound - word for word:
Mehran,
Well, I received the Bloom, got it mounted and aligned - VTA, VTF, azimuth, and anti-skate are all set as exact as can be - the diamond is in the groove as square as I can figure. In my excitement about an initial listening, though, I forgot about break-in...
I was sitting there going, "This sounds like mud - how disappointing! How could my Ortofon VMS-30 MkII better this?!"
So I kept throwing record after record at it and in only about 4 hours I was going, "Oh...my...gosh. I can't believe my ears." It suddenly (literally) opened up, and what I remembered as the best (to my ears, in my system) cartridge I had heard in the past - a Van den Hul MC One Special @ $1750 USD) - was almost instantly bettered by the Bloom.
I honestly (and I realize this is a hasty thing to say) don't know that I could imagine a better sound coming out of my system. I mean, I played everything I could think would throw it off, including an early-60's Archiv pressing of a nuns choir (very angelic) that had challenged every cartridge I've owned with very high frequencies...but it was swayed by nothing. That album, in particular, always had parts that were shrill and distorted. Now it plays as it should - no shrillness, no distortion - just pure music - truly amazing! The old Archiv recordings are incredible, and my albums are incredibly clean, so I always wondered how in the heck I was going to ever hear how they really sounded - it was as if they were cursed. The Bloom played everything as if it were new! I'm dead serious - it made literally all of my albums sound new!! Background noise was virtually eliminated! (Can I use more exclamation points in this e-mail!!) I mean, my live Bill Evans albums were literally just perfect. You could hear everything on the tracks - I was stunned.
I played Michael Hedges' "Live on the Double Planet," Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus," Steely Dan's "Can't Buy a Thrill," Alex Degrassi's "Southern Exposure," Bill Quist's "Piano Solos of Erik Satie," Charles Mingus' "Mingus Ah Um," REM's "Fables of the Reconstruction," Talking Heads' "More Songs About Buildings and Food," Pierre Bensusan's "Spices," Led Zeppelin's "Led Zeppelin III," William Ackerman's "In Search of the Turtle's Navel," Love and Rockets "Love and Rockets," and many many more - they all literally sounded like new. I mean, I sat there with my mouth gaping, trying to find pops, crackles, or sizzles etc., but they have practically been removed altogether. I just don't understand how it's possible...but I'm hearing it first-hand!
The soundstage is quite wide, but more so deep - it's sounds very natural - the live albums gave me the chills, the sound was so "present."
The bass has punch, and not boom - very tight - very refined.
The treble is just enough not to sound contrived - again, one can hear "air," - and that's air - not surface noise or sonic junk - that's 3D sound. I imagine this getting better over time - for now, it's kinda' scary it sounds so nice - how could it get better?
I could go on and on and on, but will not. I will, however, say "Thank you so much for an incredible product." If I ever feel the need to upgrade, I'll be contacting you - though this should keep me happy for quite some time (to say the very very least)!
Have a truly wonderful day, Mehran.
From a stunned and ridiculously satisfied customer,
Mark J. McCracken
