Mono Cartridge Zyx Airy 3 or Mayajima Zero

Contact Mehran at Sora Sounds
the US ZYX rep
an absolutely wonderful guy

I use the Zero for mono. On the whole, it is very good. It is the clearest cartridge I have heard. Surface noise is low, so low that a few of my records, which I had graded as VG with a stereo cartridge, had to be regraded to NM on the Zero. Also, it is a very good tracker.

But, it lacks the ultimate refinement of my higher end Koetsu - then again, it's a small fraction of the price.

I use higher end Sowter step-up transformers, with Nude Vishay loading resistors. The Zero likes a low load, about 2K on the secondary if I remember correctly.

Thank you,
I read many wonderful reviews about the Mayajima zero but none of the Zyx mono. Is the zyx not good? 

I have heard the ZYX in another guy's system.  It sounded excellent.  IMO, you cannot go wrong with either choice.  Having said that, I have pretty much decided to buy a Zero or Premium Be Mono, for little more than half the cost of the Zero.

Unless you have hundreds, or more, mono records, a mono cartridge is a waste of money IMO.

A good stereo cartridge with the pre-amp set to mono playback, will give 95% of the sound quality of a mono cartridge, when playing a modern micro groove mono 33 rpm Lp.

Old mono records (78 rpm) have other more important problems, such as differing record equalization, groove width, and accurate recording speed. 

Don, I, for one, also do advocate using the mono mode where it's available.  However, many if not most "modern" preamplifiers do not provide such a switch.  In that case, one either has to know how to create a mono signal from a stereo one, electronically, or to buy a mono cartridge.  Further, if the mono mode switch is available, I think there may be something to be gained even in that case by using a mono cartridge.  However, if one does not wish to spend the money, a mono switch will certainly be a big improvement over listening to mono LPs in stereo mode with a stereo cartridge.  I guess that's my opinion, too. I happen to have two vintage preamplifiers that provide mono switching; that's how I found out what one is missing if one doesn't listen to mono LPs in mono, no matter how one goes about it.  This is getting monotonous.

Hi Lewn,
Do you know of how much gain the phono stage use with the Zyx, what is the zyx model? I am afraid that my phono has too much gain for the zyx which has out put of 1 mv. My phono is zyx artisan with 65 db gain. 
thanks
Calvin