has anyone else tried Lloyd Walkers latest tweak

Yes, quartz crystals (of any color) do have piezo properties, as do a few other crystals to differing degrees. They have been used successfully in some power cords and some small black boxes when placed strategically in a system.

So I'm not surprised that they may work when located near a phono cartridge, which is a very sensitive instrument. But I don;t know what Lloyd's black diamond cut crystal has over a regular quartz crystal, other than it probably looks nicer.

So I tried attaching a reasonably sized clear quartz crystal to the front of my cartridge (a Transfiguration Temper). Of course, the arm had to be rebalanced and tracking force adjusted and such to compensate for the extra mass at the headshell.

The end result - I can't hear anything different, but then there is no way to easily A-B this tweak. It does look very odd, like a pimple on my cartridge face. I think the next step is to remove it, and readjust and see if I hear anything going the other way. Maybe some time this winter when I have time.

Instead of paying $395 to Walker Audio I found a clear rounded quartz crystal and glued it to the front of my cartridge with a tiny dab of super glue. Of course I re-balanced the arm to account for the added mass. I've been playing records this way for about a month now.

No overtly obvious change, but things did indeed sound nice. So this weekend I decided to put it to the test. I pulled out 88 Basie Street, an album many of us are intimately familiar with for it's great dynamics, soundstaging, space, extension and great music.

(1) Sounded really nice with the crystal in place. Spacious, meaty, textured.

(2) I pulled off the crystal and re-balanced the arm. OK, so things definitely seem a bit flatter now. Less nuance. Less space. Less character. Absolutely a difference was heard.

(3) Glued the crystal back in place and re-balanced the arm again. Yup, there's that nuance, space and dimensionality.

Conclusion: so I guess this did make a difference to my ears, whether from actual RFI/EMI reduction or from just having added mass at the headshell or resonance dampening - I don't know. But I did hear it; subtle but there.