Benz Micro Ruby Z

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/87343

I love this cartridge so far....a lot of break in left to do............seems to have a very short cantilever so I have to be careful with the first cut when using the VPI ring..a little bass shy, but excellent dynamics.....will experiment more with VTA.....very clean and open in mids and highs..which is critical for my B&W 802's......will let you know more

I have been using this cartridge for a little over three months now and absolutely love it. The Ruby Z is closer to the S-class cartridges than it's Ruby 3 predecessor. The Ruby Z's frequency response is very flat minus a slight dip at about 30 Hz (Benz provides a printout with each cartridge) and the treble, although very detailed, is extremely smooth. The Z is not quite as colored as the 3, however, the mid-range does seem to lean to the slightly warm side. I feel that this cartridges' ability to portray acoustic instruments is unrivaled in it's price range. The Ruby Z tracks perfectly and throws a deep holographic soundstage. I am running mine through a Modwright SWP 9.0 loaded at 1000 Ohms with amazing results.

Hi I just got the Z and while I only have 3 hours on it, it seems to make lots of noise for loading above 500 - 47K ohms. On my Pass XONO (DIY) all loadings from 10 - 470 are fine, I think it actually sounds great at 470, but I wanted to try 870, 1k and 47K, but when I change the loading to these values, I get lots of loud "rustling" noise as I cue to the tonearm over the record. Is that just strange? I noticed you load it at 1000 ohms and everything is fine. Wonder if my has a defect?

I acquired the Ruby Z a few months ago and absolutely love it. I experienced a similar issue about amonth ago. I found that in my particular instance it was due to the routing of the cables and shielding. I moved to a new house and during the setup process I must have routed my cables differently than before. I tried different phono cables and switched to different IC's between the phono pre, Aesthetix IO Sig with default loading of 47K, and the Octave Jubilee preamp, all with differing results. For instance, the rustling noise would dissappear, however, I ended up with distortion in one or both channels, like it was a drop out. It was really frustraing as I thought something may have happened to a piece of equipment during the move. On a long shot, I wrapped some polyeurethane pipe wrap around the phono cables and all was normal again.

I guess in my particular sitution, going from 220 volts to 120 and moving into an enirely new house, albeit, only temporary for now, added to the complexities. I never thought to consider the shielding of the cables to cause as many problems as it did, especially since I never had this type of issue before. It may only be a small amount of EMI/RFI leakage from a component or cable and finding the culprit will entail isolating components and cables until you find it. The cables or equipment may only need to be adjusted a few inches if it is leakage of signals. I hope this helps you, it sure helped me.

BTW, the Ruby Z is completely broken in now and sounds fantastic, very impressive and lively sounding. I will add a review shortly.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life