Hi Curio,
A Lexan platter mat would be helpful to bring back some vividness.
But in this case the cartridge is boring! so, it can compensates for the Technoarm's inherent confusion & everyone is happy again!
My experience with this cartridge in my Pluto 9A, was exactly as your's in your Reed 3Q. I asure you : you are hearing the Benz LP. And you don't like it. That Raul has the proper arm for her, it is not irelevant, once you have also the Technoarm that matched well. Well...Does this mean that Technoarm betters the Reed 3Q ? I think it is clear that one can find some kind of balance in one way or another :
The Cardas cables behaves as the same medicine when someone trying to match a SS amp with ESL speakers. (Same contribution as the Benz LP).
A solid core Silver cable somehow resonates with similar results (of the Technoarm) : lacks soundstage & inner depth but it's forward projection adds a directness that can cheat you to prefer a Telefunken or a Mullard tube over an RCA or Sylvania, when the right tube is the Siemens.
The mixing & matching decisions must always have a point of reference, a component of a high enough standard, that we accept it as indispensable for building our system around it. If you choose the Benz LP as your unquestionable reference, (that means your system somewhere needs a shutter) then, the Reed 3Q is acting like the soft British tube in an allready overly warm preamp. No wonder why, a flat-lean cartridge in a wood body on a 12" wood arm tube, results in "overboring" performance (for a lack of a more precise word). Can anyone acuse the arm ? Sure, (as often the casual listener acuse the stethoscope relentless penetration of a compression driver but not the upstream components behind it).
In my belief, I think that the source must be of the highest resolution : the most detailed & nuanced, like a surgical instrument with the utmost precision & at this hunting, (of turntables & cartridges) the easy, calm & effortless performance (with great tonality) of the 12"Reed 3Q arm is the unmistakable indication of it's rightness. Simultaneously, this behaviour is necessary for an arm, as it can push further the apparent capacity, living more space for a credible cartridge evaluation. It can permits the most dynamic, speedy & razor sharp (but unforgiving) cartridge, to release it's scale & gives what other cartridges, (or any other component) cannot offer to our system. Wouldn't be a shame to downsize here, -at the very start of the signal- and afterwards to seek in desperation for (ie): power cables, to deliver what is permanently lost at the begining?
Something in this specific set-up acts as the limiting factor, -filtering the delicacy of inner detail, -doesn't move your senses, -can not engage your emotions. Is it the Technoarm? No! Even if it is the weakest link in the chain, It can only pass the cartridge's signature.
FWIW : (insider gold Vs insider ref. & colibri XGP Vs XGW) I used to own all of them. All the wooden bodies presenting a lower dynamic range, definition, detail & clarity.
Perhaps to look for the lack of transparency elsewhere in the chain but not to the Reed 3Q. (probably to your cartridge and/or perhaps your speakers).
Don't Give Up
George
