Difference between ZYX 4D and ATMOS

After KT Audio Imports posted on the other thread I wrote an email to the company asking them to explain "exactly and precisely" how the Atmos and 4D are different. I have received no response from them and frankly I am not surprised.

Yes. I know that. I just wanted to see if someone would own up to the fact that they are the same cartridge, rather than accusing Mehran of deceiving his customers.

Jeff,
Looks like they managed to squash the ZYX story. Original tread has completly disappeared. As if it never happened! Didn't even know that was possible on Audiogon!?

Greg

They cannot explain why the carts are different because they are NOT different, except for the name. They look exactly the same. They have the same specifications, and ZYX -- not the current distributor -- told Mehran they were the same. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wrote to KT Audio directly asking for an explanation and received no response. Nor will I (or you). What can one conclude from any of this except that the carts are the same and their claims otherwise are a shameful lie? The Atmos and the 4D are the same carts with different names for different markets! If that's not the case, somebody tell me how they are different, because I haven't heard it!!

I know a link to Mehran's website has already been posted, but here for the record are his comments from the website on the Atmos/4D controversy:

"based on my verbal and email exchanges with ZYX and Sibatech, ATMOS and 4D are the same. in fact, on dec. 10, 2007, i had requested ZYX/Sibatech to make some SORAsound 4D empty boxes and manuals for me, so i could take pictures of them as a proof that we could have 4D available to our customers if they wanted. this was mainly to address some rumors in germany that SORAsound could not get 4D and that 4D was better than atmos and UNIverse.

here you see one of SORAsound/4D pictures. relabeling my existing ATMOS inventory to 4D was going to cost me 7,000 yen per cartridge but i decided to stick with atmos, mainly because we had done some reviews of it, nakatsuka san (and me too) also thought it may be confusing to our customers, and also, because i wanted to easily identify the gray market 4D (a friend/associate of mine had unfortunately contributed to that).

a comment recently posted on audiogon, allegedly on behalf of these companies, indicates they are different. i think it is pure BULL. i simply can not imagine these words are from nakatsuka san as i still have a lot of respect for him."

I bought an Atmos from Mehran, because I trust him. I also trust that the manufacturer will honor the warranty commitments as they have promised to do. The problem I have with the statement that they are not the same cartridge, is that it was made in an effort to besmirch the reputation of a widely-respected seller here on Audiogon by claiming he was misleading his customers. That, IMO, is simply wrong.