tooblue, I bought the UNIverse with very low hours on it from Halcro, who is now departed but was a great guy. He owned at least two UNIs. I was motivated by the fact that I heard one on my neighbor's very high end system, and I thought it was fantastic. He had a Durand Talea tonearm on a Galibier TT feeding probably the Coincident Pure Reference speakers at that time. The UNI I bought from Halcro was good in my system but not great. I own at least two other cartridges that outperform it. Then when I examined it with a microscope I noted the large zenith error, so I cannot help but wonder whether that is an issue with the SQ. I would like to preserve its rather unusual architecture (boron tube with press-fit stylus) before I cave in and have the standard re-tip which from SS would be a boron rod with glued on OCL stylus. Could be my imagination, but some of the best sounding cartridges I own have press-fitted styli and in one case a sapphire tube with press-fit, rather than a sapphire rod cantilever. I will consult with Joseph Long but Elliot is likely correct; to preserve the original configuration I probably have to go back to ZYX via Mehran, if he is still a rep. By the way, in the microscope it appears that there is a boron rod. To the end of the boron rod it appears they have fitted over it a tubular end piece into which the stylus is press-fitted. But I could also be looking at a boron tube over which a second boron tube with larger diameter is fastened.
Re-tipping a press-fitted stylus
I have a ZYX UNIverse, the original one in that series of UNIverse cartridges. It has a boron rod cantilever into which the stylus was press-fitted across the hollow boron tube. There is no visible evidence of any adhesive. I want to have it re-tipped for the main reason that by microscopic examination, there is a significant zenith error. First question is are there any re-tippers who can replace a press-fitted stylus with a new press-fitted stylus. Second question is whether than even can be done while also correcting the zenith error. (By "zenith error" I mean that the stylus is installed such that its contact surfaces are not square to the groove walls; the stylus tip is slightly twisted.) Thanks for any response. I am thinking that to get the job done the way I want, the cartridge must go back to the factory.