Round 1:
I finished the first part of the review: AirTight Opus 1/SME V-12 vs. VdH Colibri Grand Cru/SME 3012R. I played about 10 vinyls to get a feel for what the Opus 1 sounded like. I also listened to some individual tracks in succession, first with the cartridge/tonearm combination and then with another combination. I play everything from jazz , choral, chamber music to orchestral ensemble. I didn't play any modern reissues or rock or pop music.
This is my impression. The Opus 1 (on the SME V-12) is a very pleasant, even melodious, cartridge. It's a very nice solution that does everything well and has no obvious drawbacks. It's an improvement over both my AirTight PC-1 Supreme and MySonicLab Signature Gold. In that sense, it combines the strengths of each to be more enjoyable than either one. It retains the beautiful, rich midrange tone of the Supreme and adds the dynamics, texture, and extension of the Signature Gold. In fact, it does combine the best features of the two phono cartridges from the same designer, making it even more perfect.
Reviews I've read say it's an excellent all-around, well-balanced cartridge with no flaws. I think Tang described it as an "A", not an "A-" or an "A+". I also feel that other cartridges are better in certain areas. Now for the first round of comparisons, I agree with this assessment. This is a very good cartridge and one I would gladly pay for. However, comparing directly to Grand Cru, I did hear some differences. To my ears, and in my system environment, the Grand Cru does do some things better, with no audible drawbacks.
Overall, Grand Cru sounds more natural. The treble is more airy and extended. The dynamic effect is slightly better. I also found the Grand Cru to have a higher resolution. It presents more information to the audience. GC has extremely excellent quality, mining information from the record grain, but interpreting it faithfully without adding any extravagance. It took me some time to adjust. But now that I've set up the GC, it disappears from the system. I can't hear the cartridge at all. There’s nothing over-the-top on any of my records. It has the highest native resolution of any cartridge I've ever heard.
In contrast, the Opus 1 is slightly tinted in the mid-bass. This is evident on male voices and certain instruments such as cello, saxophone and piano. I noticed this and felt it again and again on various records. For this, I noticed how the cartridge performed on a variety of recordings. I hear the effect it exerts on the sound. I adjusted the cartridge, VTA, and VTF to mitigate this tendency, but I still heard the effect. This is a characteristic of this cartridge. I would also add that the Opus doesn't extend as much in the high frequencies as the Grand Cru. violin or soprano the most exciting climax where the last bit of energy is lost.
The Grand Cru's native resolution and extremely high information level allowed me to better hear the ambient information of the recording space. It also makes musicians and instruments sound more "live" and real. It's not a matter of "were they here" or "I was there", it all depends on the record and the way it was recorded, so Grand Cru makes the record sound transparent. The girl playing guitar in the studio can appear in my living room, or it's like hearing the organ and chorus in church.
Additional information extraction also makes the music more "vital". Musicians create music that comes to life. Opus 1 is just more flattering and lacks energy. It has a nice sound and is easy on the ears, but not to the point of impressing.
Now, I understand that VdH cartridges have had mixed reviews, and that the Opus 1 has received universal praise. I can see how each cartridge has its fans, and the Opus has almost no bad reviews. For the music I listen to, I slightly prefer the Grand Cru because it sounds very natural on my system and doesn't artificially render the music. To be honest, I didn’t realize this when I was listening.
Here are two videos of one of Beethoven's Middle String Quartets. I tried to match the volume, but it wasn't easy. The respective phono cartridge outputs are .45mV and .75mV. I don't know if the audience can hear what is described above, but the images and sounds should provide some context for my evaluation. This weekend I may try switching cartridges on the tonearm and continue the comparison for a second round. I look forward to hearing if the initial impression holds up.
Postscript: Forgot to mention that I think the Grand Cru's extreme information extraction (little added or removed) also contributes to the very realistic timbre I hear. A cello sounds like a cello. I also kept noticing a very slight fuzziness in the sound. Grand Cru seems a little more focused or precise without sounding too cold or boring. I don't really know how to describe this quality, but it doesn't sound too "soft".
Round 2:
I changed the cartridge on the tonearm so that the AirTight Opus 1 cartridge is now on the SME 3012R tonearm and the VdH Colibri Grand Cru is on the SME V-12. I first retained the VTF, VTA, and anti-slip setting parameters, and set the azimuth and horizontal angles for each cartridge previously set. Due to the different weights of the cartridges, I had to remove one of the extra counterweights on the V-12. I used the MINT protractor with the GC/V-12 and it worked surprisingly well and confirmed that both calibrations aligned with ddk's DB protractor. I measured the VTA using 1-3 measuring cards until I felt the sound was optimized for my abilities. I confirmed all settings by ear. Then I sat down and did some more focused listening.
I played the same vinyl as the first round and listened to one track again in one combination, then repeated the same track another way and listened to the entire side of the album that way. I jotted down my impressions, but mostly to remember specific observations I wanted to write about later for this article. It doesn't take long to assess the relative differences between the two cartridges.
As with the first round, the Grand Cru delivers a livelier, more energetic sound. I think the timbre will still be slightly more accurate and the musicians and their instruments will sound more live. The Opus 1 is still slightly faded in the high frequencies, but still has a slight rendering of the mid-bass. But these differences narrowed considerably. The Opus gained some power and definitely had a better balance tonally. I'm actually quite impressed with the sound of the cartridge on this vintage SME tonearm. On the V-12, I have said that the beautiful strings, cello and saxophone have become "gorgeous", even sublimated. It's a lovely sound indeed. On this particular tonearm, this cartridge is really great.
Switching back to GC on the V-12, the sound is definitely a bit louder and more lifelike compared to the Opus/3012R. It has a slightly brassy golden glow to it, and while it doesn't sound as lush and warm, it's still quite pleasant. The GC doesn't sound as good as the 3012R, but it's close. In the second round, it was much more difficult for me to evaluate which of the two combinations was better. For some slower jazz and house music, I prefer the Opus/3012R. In some faster jazz, such as the Art Pepper Plus 11, I really appreciated the dynamics and rhythm of the GC, although the V-12 dulled it a bit. When playing complex classical and choral music, I slightly prefer the GC's sense of separation and more information. Using food analogies, I would describe Grand Cru as a delicious scoop of French vanilla ice cream. It's not a glass of water. However, Opus 1 is just vanilla ice cream with just a bit of butterscotch on top. I had the pleasure of using both combinations, and in the first round I had a clear but slight preference for the GC on the 3012R.
Listening alone, I may still be partial to the 3012R GC I heard in the first round. In the second round, I had no idea which combination I would choose and was completely happy with one of them. In a direct comparison, a few minutes apart, I prefer the GC/3012R, but in the second round, again, it depends on the music and mood.
Here are my rankings of these two pairs of current systems:
No. 1: Grand Cru/SME 3012R
Tied for No. 2 and No. 3: Opus 1/3012R and Grand Cru/V-12
No. 4: Opus 1/SME V-12
Of the four possible combinations of two cartridges and two tonearms, I have a favorite and a least favorite. In the end, the three main factors that determined rankings were: clarity, information extraction, and overall naturalness. With different matches it becomes less clear and the preference will depend on what music I have my heart set on at the time. Maybe this made me understand the two tonearms , and also the two cartridges. The SME 3012R seems to increase the performance of the Opus 1, while the SME V-12 seems to decrease the performance of the Grand Cru. I found this very interesting. Over time, my system setup and the excellent resolution capabilities of these two cartridges have allowed me to understand the differences between my two tonearms better than before. The V-12 has more damping than the 3012R's damping . This reduces the energy used by each cartridge. It also seems to add some rendering to the low frequencies. These two factors seem to hinder the Opus' performance to a large extent, which is why I find the Opus sounds better on the 3012R.
Matching of system and components does matter, as some previous comments suggested. Since I had these two tonearms, I bought two Grand Cru cartridges. If I had two 3012Rs, I would have both an Opus 1 and a Grand Cru. The SME 3012R matches these two cartridges better than the V-12. These cartridges are different enough to add some nice flavor to the right system.
I would like to thank Ian again for letting me hear this awesome cartridge in my system and letting me use it for two weeks. I regret that my audio buddies in Boston were unable to visit me during the new crown period to experience the sound of these two excellent cartridges in my system. I also appreciate the comments and criticism from others on this comparison. There's no substitute for actually hearing something in your own system. I'm now looking forward to the joy of simply listening to the Opus until Ian comes back and I drive back his cartridge. Maybe we'll put it in his 3012R to compare it to his awesome Atlas Lambda. I suspect Lambda might sound somewhere between Opus 1 and Grand Cru, but that's just a guess.
Below are all four videos for reference. I think these videos illustrate some of the differences I heard when listening to the system. When replacing the tonearms, I used the same volume settings from the first round for each cartridge, so all four videos should be fairly close in volume.
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