Anyone tried Soundsmith VPI Zephyr MI Cartridge

Macdadtexas,
Did you speak with Peter regarding the sonic differences between the Aida and the Zephyr?

Both are the same price but utilise very different cantilever/stylus arrangements. Aida has the SS's topline Ruby cantilever/optimised line contact while the Zephyr uses and Aluminium/Elliptical setup. Zephyr has much lower compliance at 10µm/mN vs 22 µm/mN for the Aida (or 28 µm/mN with the high compliance option).

I'm thinking the low compliance Zephyr would be more appropriate for my Phantom arm, but I really like how the ruby cantilever/optimised line contact sounds on my SS retipped 103R.

Any thoughts?

System Details

Thanks for the reply Macdadtexas.

After reading the blurb on both products it seems the Zephyr's elliptical stylus was used to alleviate the tracing problems with azimuth roll in unipivot arms.
Since the Phantom has the 'magnaglide' stabilisation to prevent azimuth changes, maybe the line contact equipped Aida would provide higher performance for my situation(?).

Perhaps I'll enquire with SoundSmith.

Bsme85 - quite right. I used line contact type styli with my previous Graham 1.5T - which is a traditional unipivot - and got very good performance.

I was just repeating the SoundSmith ad-speak.
They're suggesting the elliptical shape of the Zephyr's stylus has some benefit in dealing with the inevitable azimuth roll of an unstabilised unipivot. I suspect the elliptical profile presented to the groove would be more consistent than a line contact under conditions of slightly changing azimuth.

FWIW, I've found line contact styli to be quite critical of azimuth adjustment.
When looking at the two similarly priced Soundsmith MI cartridges - the Aida and the Zephyr (and yes, I realise there are design differences) - my thought is that a stabilised unipivot - whether that be a Phantom, Vector or Continuum etc - would probably get more benefit from the line contact shape since they are not prone to azimuth roll. But I guess Peter would be the one to ask on this.

I'm not suggesting stylus shape over-rides other design advantages that any particular cartridge might present on an unstabilised unipivot. IME the stylus shape chosen has a major influence on the recovered sound and I personally tend to favour retrieval properties of line contacts.