TWL said: "And Clearaudio and VDH are ridiculous. The Shelter 501 will beat the VDH $5k Black Beauty, and I don't like any of the Clearaudios."
Well since I own and love my VDH black beauty, let me speak up on its behalf. In my prior setup (LP12, EkosII, Cirkus bearing, Lingo power), I was using a Monster Cable Sigma Genesis cartridge (the last model I think). I loved it. After it got old, I replaced it with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature and had it for a couple of years. I liked that warm and musical sound, very involving. I then tried the VDH black beauty and loved it. To my ears, while not as warm as the Koetsu, it is plenty warm enough, very musical and is MUCH better in transparency, resolution and sounstaging. It just creates the illusion of a performance in front of me in all its variety and detail (I listen only to classical music) in a way the Koetsu never did. It also tracks better than any other MC I have ever had. After hearing the BB, the Koetsu sounded obviously colored, as if it was imparting its own characteristic euphonic sound on every recording.
I now have my VDH BB running on a VPI TNT MkV with JMW 12.5 arm. It's an absolutely killer combo, that has me listening more than I have in years.
Well since I own and love my VDH black beauty, let me speak up on its behalf. In my prior setup (LP12, EkosII, Cirkus bearing, Lingo power), I was using a Monster Cable Sigma Genesis cartridge (the last model I think). I loved it. After it got old, I replaced it with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature and had it for a couple of years. I liked that warm and musical sound, very involving. I then tried the VDH black beauty and loved it. To my ears, while not as warm as the Koetsu, it is plenty warm enough, very musical and is MUCH better in transparency, resolution and sounstaging. It just creates the illusion of a performance in front of me in all its variety and detail (I listen only to classical music) in a way the Koetsu never did. It also tracks better than any other MC I have ever had. After hearing the BB, the Koetsu sounded obviously colored, as if it was imparting its own characteristic euphonic sound on every recording.
I now have my VDH BB running on a VPI TNT MkV with JMW 12.5 arm. It's an absolutely killer combo, that has me listening more than I have in years.