The Blackbird has landed

[tmazz]

After 15 years of hard service I was beginning to think that my trusty Sumiko Blue Point Special was starting to get a little tired. (Or was that just Nervosa creeping in?) After looking around at the current crop of HO MC cartridges I decided that since the BPS not only matched up well with my system but lasted so long, I would stick with the Sumiko line. While looking around A'gon last week I came across a young lightly ised Blackbird at a price that just made it silly to consider getting the current BPS. The cartridge arrived today and is in immaculate condition. Next step would be to mount it. One of the things that had held me back from replacing the BPS was the amount of time that I spent with Steve & Nick from AudioVisions getting it dialed in just right. With Nick passing away and Steve retiring I would be on my own this time. One of the other things that attracted to the Blackbird was that from the pictures it looked like the Blackbird and the BPS were built on the same physical chassis. It was my hope that they were close enough that I would at least have a close starting point in the alignment process. Well imagine how thrilled I was when I took out the BPS, put it side by side with the Blackbird and it was not only close but downright identical in every dimension.    I mounted it in the SME IV, pulled out my MoFI Geodisc and the alignment was dead nuts perfect without touching a thing.  The only change I had to make was to adjust the counterweight to make up for the difference in weight between the two cartridges. I am sure I will have to give it a few little tweeks once it has some break-in time on it, but that would hold true for any cartridge.

Of course the big question is how does it sound? Well, I will reserve final judgment and detailed descriptions until it is broken in, but my initial impressions are that it has a very clean and natural sound and bests the BPS in almost every way. I am listening to the Ansermet Pictures at an Exhibition as I write this and it is just marvelous. As a matter of fact I have had a hard time finishing this post because I keep getting drawn into the music.

I will post further details as I get more seat time with the Blackbird.

Right now I am just a very happy camper. 

[Triode Pete]

Tom,
That's cool! I always wanted to try the Blackbird on my system... I got a nice deal on a new Grado Sonata that I couldn't pass up a few years ago...

Happy Listening,
Pete

[richidoo]

Cart alignment jackpot!

My friend is a Sumiko dealer down here, he always spoke highly of that cart. Congrats Tom

[rollo]

   Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!


charles

[tmazz]

Tom,
That's cool! I always wanted to try the Blackbird on my system... I got a nice deal on a new Grado Sonata that I couldn't pass up a few years ago...

Happy Listening,
Pete

I had a Grado Sonata in my TT for about 2 days. Absolutely loved it, but it hummed like hell. Moved the TT away from the wall and it was dead quiet. So my choice was to either rearrange the whole room or get a different Cartridge. That's where the first Blue Point Special came in. I really loke the Grado, but it just didn't agree with something in or near that wall. I had several Grados before that with no hum problem at all, but for some reason the wood body model just wasn't happy in that spot.

[tmazz]

Still breaking in, but one of the things that is really starting to impress me about the cartridge is not how good it makes audiophile LPs sound (which it does do very well), but rather how good it is making stock off the shelf LPs sound.

[BobM]

Oooooo, always fun when new stuff finds it's way into the man-cave. Congrats.

[tmazz]

Oooooo, always fun when new stuff finds it's way into the man-cave. Congrats.

And this is even more fun than most. Usually when you get better equipment the new stuff makes good recordings sound better but also exposes the warts on most everything else. In this case the Balckbird is  making what I previously thought were losts of run-of -the-mill LPs sound much better than I ever imagined. I have many times read about how a new higher end cartridge with a smaller more precise diamond can get down lower in the grooves and seek out previously unplayed parts of the groove walls. While it sopunded good in theory I never experienced it for myself. Until now. I don't know whether the cause id the smaller diamond or something else in the design and construction of the Blackbird, but I am really liking the results. Not only is it fun to have a new toy, but in this case it also is having the effect of me getting (literally) thousands of new, better sounding copies of LPs in my collection. (Be still my heart.  )

Of course my wife's first reaction to that comment was "If so many of the records downstairs sound like you got new copies it will be years before you need to go into a record store again"

NOT 

[thechairguy]

wow, I remember Nick from AudioVisions (I grew up in Syosset, LI, but live in Northern Cali now).  I remember he had a partner back 23 years ago or so...cannot remember if it was Steve back then or not....but, Nick was memorable.

Good guys - and VERY accomplished turntablists.  They made a lowly DUAL 505CS-3 sound stellar with Paradigm speakers back in the day (1988 or so)

Enjoy your new Blackbird 

[tmazz]

wow, I remember Nick from AudioVisions (I grew up in Syosset, LI, but live in Northern Cali now).  I remember he had a partner back 23 years ago or so...cannot remember if it was Steve back then or not....but, Nick was memorable.

Good guys - and VERY accomplished turntablists.  They made a lowly DUAL 505CS-3 sound stellar with Paradigm speakers back in the day (1988 or so)

Enjoy your new Blackbird 

Steve and Nick were the original two partners in the store. Over the years that had several guys work for them as a third salesman, but as far as I know all of them were employees not partners. Nick passed away from cancer about 10-12 years ago and Steve carried on without him until Jan of (I think) 2009.

My son's Thorens 147 was actually Nick's personal TT  from his home system that Steve sold to me after he passed.

They were both really good guys and over the years I grew to consider them friends as much as dealers. I certainly do miss both them and the store. I spent a lot of time just hanging out with them in the store going all the way back to 1987. If you dealt with them in the '88 timeframe there is a good chance we ran into each other out there.


Tom

[orthobiz]

NY?
How about Stereo Sound on Rte 347 near Stony Brook? Elliot worked there, later I ran into him in Manhattan. Those were my B&O, Heco, ADS, Tandberg days.

Paul