Since my OP I have had the opportunity to speak with Bernard Li at Charisma Audio and to hear his new Signature One cartridge at High Water Sound in NYC. Jeff Catalano at HWS was kind enough to set the Signature One up for me on his reference TW Acustic table which was equipped with the 12" Raven tonearm. While the system was clearly top tier and entirely unfamiliar to me, I was very impressed with the cartridge build quality, finish, packaging and, most importantly, sound quality. I have been fortunate to hear a few world class systems in my audio lifetime and this was clearly one of them. The presentation was extremely well balanced and tonally correct, with gobs of detail that was not thrust into your face but rather emerged from a very black backdrop. Nothing seemed out of place or spotlighted. There was tremendous coherence and a very natural, musically compelling sonic picture created. Speaking to Bernard before my visit was a real pleasure--he is kind, passionate, knowledgeable and humble. He has clear design parameters and the skills to join carefully selected materials to reach his sonic objectives. He is also resolute in standing behind his products with long-term support should repairs be needed or a retip or rebuild be required. I ended up purchasing the 12" Raven tonearm and Charisma Signature One cartridge for my new Sempersonus TE-2, which should be shipping in the next few weeks. I'll circle back and let you all know how the package performs compared to the VPI that has been replaced.
