You can find reports on the thread about the RMAF 2010. I was sitting in the back row, or rather, standing. All seats in front of me were occupied, and there were people also standing along both sides of the small-ish room. Speakers were Daedalus. Amps were Atma-sphere M60s. It was impossible, really, to compare the two tonearms (Schroeder Ref vs Talea), because two different phono stages AND two different cartridges were used. The Schroeder was playing into a new Artemis LCR phono stage and thence into the linestage of an Atma-sphere MP1. The Talea was playing into the Atma-sphere phono section. I believe that a Dynavector DV1S was riding in the Talea, and that a Sussuro (by SoundSmith) was riding in the Schroeder, but I could be wrong about the Talea. From where I sat, I very slightly preferred the Schroeder circuit (cartridge, tonearm, phono stage) because it was a bit more dynamic and "wet", which suits my own taste. OTOH, I could not fault the Talea in any way, and it certainly is a thing of beauty and precision. I did not care for any of the musical selections (which tended to the esoteric), so that did not help. Eventually, that is what drove me out of the room. Others who were in a better position to hear nuances either agreed or disagreed with my assessment, but as I implied above, I think it was more a comparison of cartridges and phono stages than of tonearms. Anyway, it was fun to see so much vinyl power in one room (Lederman, Schroeder, Durand, Mackris, etc, etc), all nice guys.
