Someone, in italy, say that the magic diamond is only a denon 103 with different body and a cone shaped stylus! |
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I confirm that the magic diamond is a denon 103 modified by Mr. Reto Luigi Andreoli (Swiss) with a different body and the stylus is cone shaped like the denon 103 stylus. Indeed Mr. Andreoli think that the cone shaped stylus has the lower distortion and the better frequency response (see his article in german you can download from www.rintelen.ch). He build another cart, more expensive: the name is Tondoise. It is a Spu Ortofon modified. |
terzilaw- I think you need to check your facts. Below is a letter to Positive Feedback Online regarding Mr Andreoli and his work. I have also included a link to Micromagic for you for more details. As the owner of a Magic Diamond Blue AND a Denon 103, I can assure you that it is NOT a modified Denon... Further- The Tondose uses ONLY the housing from the Ortofon SPU Hi David,
I read your comments about the magic diamond cartridge and couldn't agree more... and I had to smile because many people talk about these MCs (many w/o having heard them, but that's the web...) and nobody seems to know more about them... so I figured you might be interested in a little background.
The guy behind these Swiss made cartridges is reto luigi andreoli, a good friend of mine. He studied architecture at the ETH in Zurich (also Albert Einstein's alma mater), but audio has always been his home turf. don't be fooled to think he's a cartridge manufacturer just because his MCs get such rave reviewshe's more of a contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, a true genius if I know one. He was a concert pianist, still occasionally builds houses, plays a wicked guitar and when he wanted to know more about cartridges, he went to the garrot brothers in Australia to learn the trade from them. He worked with them for (iirc) three years. (before committing suicide, they offered him their company, but he declined.)
Anyway, he also builds VERY good amplifiers and loudspeakers. I've added the PDF of an article we published in sound practices about my blue thunder speakers.
He also built my turntable, an EMT 930 with two tonearms. I think you know Lynn Olson; here's what Lynn wrote about my system when he was in Zurich: http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/europe.html. john Atwood also commented on my turntable http://www.clarisonus.com/blog/?p=18#more-18. needless to say that I also use reto Luigi Andreoli's cartridges; my favourite is his top model, the "tondose" which uses the housing of an ortofon SPU (it's the grey headshell on the rear arm in Lynn's article). in 1992 I bought a battery powered line stage from him that to this day is my preferred line amp and I keep returning to the pair of custom push-pull amps he built for me in 1994.... all in all, your description of the magic diamond cartridge (see PFO Issue 23, January/February 2006, at http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue23/proscenium5.htm) pretty much sums up his "trademark sound," if there is such a thing: it has drive, punch, a very solid bottom end, a smooth and yet detailed midrange, a natural top end with no glare; lots of details and air, and at the same time very homogeneous. I'm sorry, but the best way to describe Andreoli's sound is: if I were an LP, that's exactly how I would want to sound. .... ;-)
Did you know that all magic diamond cartridges have spherical styli? I find this especially noteworthy because according to conventional wisdom it should be impossible to have such an extended, smooth top end with a spherical stylus. but what do I tell youyou know how good this cartridge sounds... however, Andreoli is convinced that spherical is the only way to track an LP correctly. And the proof is in the pudding... his explanations are absolutely logical and convincing; it's not black science but simple, straight thinking of what a stylus tip does in the groove. Compared to a spherical stylus, all other styli produce more distortion. This is not only logical, but is backed up by the scientific studies the BBC conducted in the 60s. They also thought that an elliptical stylus should have less distortion than a spherical stylus and were very astonished when their studies showed the opposite.
In the 90s, I published a hifi magazine not unlike PFO (just nowhere near as big and thorough). For this magazine (HiFi Scene Schweiz), Andreoli wrote a two-part article on LP reproduction that has been dubbed "seminal" by people who don't use such a term lightly. The article is in German, but there are many scribbles that illustrate w/o words why cartridges should have a spherical stylus. You can download the article as PDF from my website (which is in English): http://www.rintelen.ch/e/hifi.html; it's the last of the three links on that page. the article caused quite a stir in the German speaking hi-fi world because he put the finger right there where it hurts...
Andreoli is a very low-key person. The owner of the Swiss hi-fi shop "Dietiker-Humbel" is Andreoli's cousin and that's probably the reason why http://www.dietiker-humbel.ch/micromag.htm is to my knowledge the only shop that sells Andreoli's entire product line. He builds most of his stuff in very little seriesand down to the last screw, he builds all by himself. the build quality of his stuff is absolutely incredible, fit & finish are quite simply sensational for one-off products. This kind of quality cannot be cheap, but here in Switzerland, his stuff is not nearly as expensive as in the US or in Asia. And this for a very simple reason: he sells most of his stuff directly or thru one dealer. The price range for his cartridges is between CHF 3000 and 5000 (US$ 2500 - 4200; your magic diamond would be the $2500 cartridge. Just goes to show how distributors add to the cost of living or listening...)
I wrote a portrait of Andreoli in an earlier issue of HiFi Scene Schweiz. It's also in German, but at least with a picture of him. If you're interested, I'll scan the article and mail it to you as PDF file.
That's it for the moment. Pardon my Englishit's not my native language... I hope I hadn't bored you to death with my laudation.
Have fun with your magic diamond!
Best regards,
Christian Rintelen
Switzerland http://www.dietiker-humbel.ch/micromag.htm |
Slipknot,great stuff,as usual.The site you provided was fun to view,as well.I can clearly see the Magic Diamond as a viable product offering,but a cartridge called "VIRUS"????That might scare me off -:)
Best! |
