With regard to the Titan i and it's ability to perform well. I personally think it is one of the most balanced cartridges available. I've listened to this cartridge in many systems and it is definitely a top performer.
With Skala owners mentioning, and reviews reporting, that it is significantly better than the Helikon in terms of how it scales and its refinement. Having listened to many very well regarded cartridges and believing that the Skala tended to be more balanced from top to bottom than many of the others. That's not to say that some of those cartridges did some things better. However, as stated before, the Skala was more balanced overall. Especially in the bass response and it's ability to portray what's on the recording in the low registers.
I mentioned all this to come to my thoughts on the Titan i. The Titan i, from my experience, is above the Skala (which is better than the Helikon IMO) in terms of refinement and detail retrieval. Of all the cartridges I've listened to, it has outpaced the other cartridges I've listened to for overall performance and refinement. However, the cartridge setup is very important with the Titan i. To get the most from this cartridge, there must be a good amount of care in setup. This is no different for any line contact cartridge although some are more forgiving than others. The Titan i is an extremely dynamic cartridge, there is a great deal of detail and refinement from this cartridge as well. IMO, every type of music seams to flow from this cartridge with ease.
Based on Jcarr's posts, my personal observations, and the posts of others above, I believe the Olympos to be I bit sweeter or slightly on the romantic side. This would be very slightly.
From my perspective with experience and knowledge gained I'd classify the Titan i as truthful, revealing, and very refined. I'd classify the Olympos as being the same, only providing a more favorable version of the truth.
In closing, I think it's very easy to not like the truth, or to not prefer the cartridge/arm/phonostage performance and attribute it to one device, or to not like the combination paired with downstream components that don't play well together, or a host of other things. As with any cartridge, the bottom line many be that the cartridge may not be a good match for the system.
Hope this helps,
Dre
With Skala owners mentioning, and reviews reporting, that it is significantly better than the Helikon in terms of how it scales and its refinement. Having listened to many very well regarded cartridges and believing that the Skala tended to be more balanced from top to bottom than many of the others. That's not to say that some of those cartridges did some things better. However, as stated before, the Skala was more balanced overall. Especially in the bass response and it's ability to portray what's on the recording in the low registers.
I mentioned all this to come to my thoughts on the Titan i. The Titan i, from my experience, is above the Skala (which is better than the Helikon IMO) in terms of refinement and detail retrieval. Of all the cartridges I've listened to, it has outpaced the other cartridges I've listened to for overall performance and refinement. However, the cartridge setup is very important with the Titan i. To get the most from this cartridge, there must be a good amount of care in setup. This is no different for any line contact cartridge although some are more forgiving than others. The Titan i is an extremely dynamic cartridge, there is a great deal of detail and refinement from this cartridge as well. IMO, every type of music seams to flow from this cartridge with ease.
Based on Jcarr's posts, my personal observations, and the posts of others above, I believe the Olympos to be I bit sweeter or slightly on the romantic side. This would be very slightly.
From my perspective with experience and knowledge gained I'd classify the Titan i as truthful, revealing, and very refined. I'd classify the Olympos as being the same, only providing a more favorable version of the truth.
In closing, I think it's very easy to not like the truth, or to not prefer the cartridge/arm/phonostage performance and attribute it to one device, or to not like the combination paired with downstream components that don't play well together, or a host of other things. As with any cartridge, the bottom line many be that the cartridge may not be a good match for the system.
Hope this helps,
Dre