A great afternoon listening session with PT
A few weeks ago while the coronavirus was out there trying to do as much damage as it could, people were forced to stay at home which means we, music lovers, got more time to listen to our beloved music. What was even sweeter is that PT invited me to Divin Lab to have a special session comparing two SOTA cartridges: Destiny and Fuuga.
The Fuuga was set up on the new Davinci EQ turntable and Durand Tosca arm while the destiny is very familiar to most us AE fans attached to the Thales statement arm and Hartvig statement turntable.
First we listened to some Japanese female voice with the Fuuga, it was warm, extremely smooth and engaging sound. It sounds great I said, PT smiled and immediately switched the LP to the statement TT on the right and played the same piece again which was awesome as I could hear the difference of the two system in a most effective manner.
When the needle of destiny dropped, immediately I noticed the highs are opened open, the overall resolution was a touch higher than that of the Fuuga. Also the soundstage expanded a bit further, both horizontally and vertically. However I preferred the presentation of human voice by Fuuga as it was a touch more organic, more fluid. It is absolutely joyous to listen to Fuuga on any vocal, it just melts you in.
When it comes to big orchestra music, the destiny demonstrated more authority with massive soundstage, huge dynamics, and super level resolution. I’m not sure how much of a role the turntable and arm plays here but to me the destiny and Fuuga are both top top level cartridge. It would be hard-pressed to pick one as both have its strength, I would suggest if you mainly listen to orchestra then go for the destiny; if you listen to vocal more then Fuuga is the one.
For myself, I listen to all kinds of genre which makes the destiny seems to be a better candidate, but isn’t the Fuuga enchanting...?