ZYX Universe II Review
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
- Start date
From your review,
"The analog playback system simply sounded dark, sluggish and quite frankly, boring"
And you are 100% right to say that! As I'm sure that you've found out ZYX cartridges are very VTA sensitive and have a very narrow sweet spot. Unlike Ortofons that you can just throw in there and they'll sing you need to find the g spot for the ZYX before it opens up to you; there simply isn't enough time for foreplay at CES to get it right.
david
I've had several people contact me after reading this post and asking me to elaborate on this post thinking that I was somehow knocking the ZYX Universe. To the contrary, I agree with Myles regarding the over all sound of the analog section during part of the show. They kept tweaking and sound changed from dull to harsh to acceptable. He attributed it to the ZYX not being broken in and I was pointing out that there are other factors involved with the dullness he heard at that moment that had nothing to do with the ZYX. I have ZYX cartridges in my systems and I was pointing that only once the setup is correctly ZYX can show its true qualities.
Fact is that for CES or other trade shows a group of manufacturers come gather in a room and put a system together that otherwise might never be. Setup time is very limited and all the manufacturers in the that room had several other rooms to support and set up with very different products. Most of the equipment is brand new without the benefit of any break-in period. Over the three days the sound changes drastically and who knows exactly why or which item is doing what. I was merely pointing out that there are many variables involved and you can't attribute the ills of a system to a single product, specially something like a cartridge which is totally dependent of everything else.
david
I'm not sure about the stock pics supplied by Mehran. But it is indeed the same cartridge; I picked it up at the end of the show and carried it home from CES on the plane.
As far as the sound goes: the cartridge had the same sound in my system that I heard at CES until run in. In particular, the ZYX lacked that cartridge line's trademark "musical involvement" until broken in and dialed. Note:I tried dialing the Universe II in at different points during the break in process.
And I think that many MCs cartridges share that same "sound" until broken in. At first, say from 0-10-15 hrs, they sound pleasant but limited dynamically and frequency extension wise. Then they go through a period from say 15-30 hrs or so where the sound deteriorates; some will even show a little mistracking until broken in. Then the extremes start to open up followed lastly by the dynamics locking in. Break in seems to vary with cartridges; for instance the Transfig importer reckons the new Proteus takes 100 hrs or so to fully settle in.
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Hi Myles,
Would you say it is more of a suspension thing rather than a coil thing? That's my take on it. Not that it really matters as they will both run in together.
Would you say it is more of a suspension thing rather than a coil thing? That's my take on it. Not that it really matters as they will both run in together.
A lot has to do with the cartridge and the climate that you're living in. I'm not sure how much of what we think of break-in time is actually fine tuning the arm/cartridge setup. My experience with ZYX is that they're either on or off and you need to find the magic VTA for them to come to life, irrespective of break-in time.
david
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