Ortofon/Dynavector ? cartridge characteristics

The above suggestions for the Ortofon A90 and Dynavector XV1s are both seemingly very good ones, but the A90 is now out of production and hard to find (I'm running an A90), and I don't know what kind of synergy the Dynavector has with the Triplanar.

As for other state-of-the art cartridges, the Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge is certainly vivid, and it is thunderously dynamic with tight, lightening-quick bass - in fact, unbelievably so - you may want to read Michael Fremer's Stereophile review in last month's Stereophile (it contains interesting comparisons to the A90). The manufacturer, Soundsmith, is 12 miles from me and I've heard it a fair amount. I find it more lush in the midrange than Fremer does, and it would probably balance nicely with your Shindo. The list on the cartridge is $5,500 - I don't know if it can be purchased at a discount.

I have had the VAC Renaissance 70/70 (and 140/140) for eleven years and find your comments about its bass performance to be a bit puzzling. I've always run it with zero feedback, and I've tried it with eight different speakers, some which were absolutely not bass speed champions, and the amp was never bad with any of them - it's not quite as quick as the solid-state amps I have run (my current primary amp is a darTZeel), but it's actually pretty close. What speaker cables and output tubes are you using, and which speaker taps do you use?

I would call Kevin Hayes at VAC and ask him which tap the 70/70 tends to sound best with - I can never remember, but I think it may be the 8 Ohm tap. I use the 8 Ohm tap because my speakers average between 6 to 10 Ohms. I've used the 4 Ohm taps for other speakers and always had success, but I would ask the question and in any event give 8 Ohms a try - my recollection is that the Sophia is relatively easy to drive (especially for a Wilson), and the output transformers on the amp are very high quality (that amp will drive 2 Ohm loads).

As for the Transparent Reference, they are certainly a fine cable, but I know that Kevin does not like speaker cables with network boxes with his amps. If you have anything else laying around, you may want to give them a shot. I've used Kimber Select all-silver and all-copper, the surprise being that the all-copper, which is comparatively much cheaper, was nearly as good as the all-silver. For the last five years, I've run Jena Symphony, which is the best match I've found.

Regarding Soundsmith, my suggestion is to call Peter Ledermann (he is "Soundsmith") and just talk to him. As noted above, he's one of the lovely guys in audio and he's not a salesman - he'll tell you what he thinks will work best, regardless of cost. He's a great person to talk to anyway, as he is also one of the few extremely knowledgeable people in audio (he's a former research scientist with IBM). Telephone is 914 739 2885 - wait for the options and then dial "9" to talk to Peter. Tell him Drake told you to call.

Good luck.

Dan_ed:

I think you're right to "just listen" to tonearm / cartridge combos. Given the low rumble of most modern tables, the 8 Hz. - 12 Hz. resonant frequency issue is basically irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. What IS crucial are the other resonances that can occur and that are entirely unpredictable - for these, just trying it is the only way to know.