Your most loved three vinyl grinders owned throughout the years!

[pure sound]

No I don't although it wouldn't surprise me given the age of the design. I think the XSD15 is just the above, but in an EMT shell with a bottom cover fitted.

However it would seem that converting an XSD15 to be universally usable is not quite straightforward.

Here's an interesting write-up on ZG

http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17016

[Marco]

Thanks - I've have a good read through that later!

I suspect that the EMT does use Alnicos, because I can hear their trademark 'musicality'. What's obvious to me is that something must be causing the difference between this:

It was certainly powerful sounding but the HF was hard & ultimately fatiguing. I couldn't have lived with it in the long term.

And this:

What I heard (effects of misalignment and incorrect VTA aside) was that similar 'magic' and tonal richness in presentation, with bass to die for, I get with the DL-103SA - the effect of which I love, (does the EMT also use Alnicos?), but with a much wider repertoire throughout the frequency range in terms of its musical abilities. It also acted as a wider open window onto recordings, due to its superior detail retrieval, and it possessed a filigree of silkiness in the upper frequencies that evades the (already talented in this area through the A23) 103SA.

...when referring to the EMT, because neither of us are imagining what we hear!

A valid explanation must exist to explain the diametrically opposed results obtained, and I'm certain it's not simply just down to our different preferences, because generally you and I have similar tastes in audio.

Marco.