Thank you for your responses. I want to carefully follow up (without being unappreciative of your time) and clarify that I don't believe it to be a tracking problem. I've had the cart professionally aligned a couple of times by an expert over the years.
Let's say that both the 20XL and the XX2 were/are aligned perfectly. Now: my concern specifically involves issues beyond tracking: whether or not the XX2 will remain more "poised" -- for lack of better words--through complex material towards the end of records with regard to better transparency, air and bloom... enough to justify a jump in price of $1300.
If you have the Janis/Kondrashin Prokofiev 3rd on Mercury, whether original or reissue, this is one album in which--during the last pages of the score--my system as is doesn't handle the grooves very well. There's no crackling distortion typical of mistracking, but the sound definitely becomes more thin and opaque.
Let's say that both the 20XL and the XX2 were/are aligned perfectly. Now: my concern specifically involves issues beyond tracking: whether or not the XX2 will remain more "poised" -- for lack of better words--through complex material towards the end of records with regard to better transparency, air and bloom... enough to justify a jump in price of $1300.
If you have the Janis/Kondrashin Prokofiev 3rd on Mercury, whether original or reissue, this is one album in which--during the last pages of the score--my system as is doesn't handle the grooves very well. There's no crackling distortion typical of mistracking, but the sound definitely becomes more thin and opaque.