Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

Opus,

John's comments on the ZYX line are spot on. With regard to "smoothing":
Gold coils > silver coils
Silver coils > copper coils

It's not unexpected because it has nothing to do with conductivity, it's a function of inertia. Gold is massier than silver and silver is massier than copper. Assuming the same gauge of wire, the low mass copper displaces faster than the higher mass silver and is thus more responsive. Likewise with silver vs. gold.

I happen to hate that sort of smothing but if it's what you're after, a gold- or silver-coiled ZYX would provide it. They're more Koetsu sounding than the ZYX's I prefer so maybe your cup o' tea.

With regard to bass output/macro-dynamics, the 4D (formerly Atmos) has everything the Airy 3 lacked in that respect and more besides. Read the review by my signature for more info.

>>> ...the sounds I most frequently hear at live orchestral concerts rarely display the kind of clean, tight contours quite a few audiophiles prefer...

If your experience of live orchestral music is that leading edges are rounded or that the sound is other than *very* crisp and clear, you need to sit in acoustically better halls (or at least acoustically better seats).

Come sit next to me in the Belding Theater in Harford CT, where the HSO plays (and brilliantly too, under our new Music Director, Carolyn Kuan). We have season tix for two of the four best seats in the house. The sonics are crisp, clear, enormously dynamic and highly revealing... more so than ANY stereo system.

I suspect this excessive crispness you're objecting to is an artifact added by the system. Rather than trying to paper over it with a schmoozy cartridge, stick with a revealing cartridge and track down the source(s) of the problem.

My purist $.02, FWIW, etc. :)

Frogman,
Thanks for clarifying. You said it simply and clearly, and without any annoying overshoot/ringing on the leading edge. ;)

Opus88,

I didn't know what halls you frequent, so thanks for clarifying. I haven't been to the Musikverein or Concertgebouw, unfortunately, but like most classical buffs I have many recordings made there. Their renowned "warmth" is quite audible in the rich harmonics and long decays, yet I don't hear any rounding at all, plenty of clean, crisp leading edges. I think we suffered a vocabulary malfunction. :)

As Frogman said, your OP did seem to be seeking a bandaid approach. It was that which I was urging against. By finding the VTA adjustment problem you actutally did what I'd recommended: identifed the source of the problem. Good job!

Doug

P.S. On any arm with a threaded VTA/SRA tower, it's advisable to make adjustments by taking the arm below where you want to end up, then move it back UP to the desired setting. This takes up the backlash in the threads and assures that the arm is actually at the setting you want. This was discussed several years ago on my "TriPlanar Tips" thread but it applies to any arm with a similar design.