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ZYX Optimum phono cartridge - a defining statement

ZYX Optimum phono cartridge


Following is a review of the latest ZYX cartridge the Universe Optimum.

Without further ado I would like to thank Mehran of SORAsound who goes so far above and beyond in realizing this audio quest for his ZYX family.

I have owned all the ZYX Universe models since 2006. All have the characteristic ZYX warm, natural and detailed sound. Each was the low output 0.24mV design. The original Universe was solid is resolving difficult passages especially in chamber and jazz music. Moving forward to the Universe II the cartridge took on a lot of low end energy and prat. Rock music was more dynamic, the transients enhanced and it had that extra body in the lower register.

My system started with the Galibier Gavia turntable, triplanar arm and Doshi Aalap full function preamp. During the time I had my Universe II, I upgraded the tonearm to a Durand Talea, Daedalus Ulysses speakers and a KL Audio LP 200 electrostatic cleaner. All significantly enhanced my system.

Fast forward to stepping up to the Universe Premium. This was a very apparent jump in sonic realism. The sound opened up in a tangible and natural way. The instruments just hung there in space. The tonal qualities resolved further and separation was enhanced. Overtones, details, things like really picking out a buried bass drum or percussive elements.

Moving forward to the present - the Universe Optimum is just as much a quantium leap as the Universe II to the Universe Premium was. Everything snapped into place. Micro and macro dynamics fully rendered. Incredible detail and imaging. The presentation just occupies a space completely natural and open.

Instruments are even more defined, the sound converges around the source. The bass is so taunt that even the most subtle bass line is drawn out distinctly but in no way bloated.

Reggie Workman at times plays very subtle and his upright bass is buried in the mix in active portions of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Not so with the ZYX Optimum - the bass line is crystal clear and lower in volume. Toms, snare and bass drums were felt in a three dimension sense - the tautness, size and velocity and tone on the heads, particularly the bass drum are very apparent and accurately rendered. Cymbals, brushes or resonating piano keys have a distinct pulse and luscious decay when approprate. Stringed instruments have a warm bodied resonance. You are in the room for Bill Evans, Paul Motian and Scott Lafaro during Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

I was overwhelmed hearing my standard go by - Steely Dan’s Aja side 1. This album and all it’s nuances is in my DNA. Everything was rendered with such realism. This fully suspended the thought that I was listening to an audio system.I was floored with glee.

Vocals have such body and emotion whether it be Ella and Louis, James Taylor, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Rebecca Pigeon, Norah Jones, Sufjan Stevens, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, etc.. Vocal harmonies from CSN, The Beatles, Yes, Ray Charles, and Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings are very well defined and engaging.

Acoustic instruments are rendered organically with warm overtones. Electric guitars and synths cut through strongly when intended.

It’s been a true joy replaying familiar records and introducing new ones. It is interesting that lesser songs seem to grab me more and I appreciate what the artist had intended.

Jaqueline Dupre’s Elgar Cello Concerto has the most delicate then dynamic elements. The detail of the ensemble playing in Yes’ Fragile is magical - doubling of parts standing out like never before. Bob Dylan’s More Blood recording is an "in room" experience. The Living Stereo Charles Munch / Boston Symphony recordings - Ravel Daphne and Chloe and Fritz and the Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Bartok Symphonie Fantastic are explosive with quick and composed dynamics and subtle in the quieter nuanced sections. The drone of Chris Wood’s saxophone as it builds up in Traffic’s Low Spark of High Heeled Boys gave me goosebumps.

My whole system has been elevated in a major way.

The ZYX Optimum is one of those mind boggling components that dramatically converges on realism. The Optimum brings out the passion in reproduced music in ways I have never fully experienced before. The "you are there" essence is palpatible and so engaging.



Tom

128x128audiotomb

Showing 10 responses by nandric

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
@jollytinker , The problem of the grammar of comparison is
its limited range. We are forced in some curious move from
''the Universe is the best'' but ''Optimum is even better''. This
is like ''Peter is the longest guy in our group but John is even
longer''. The thing is that we are forced to exaggerate to make
our point. What about general statement that some MC carts
 are marginal  better than other? This is the opposite side of
exaggeration. We are making subjectieve value judgments
while value judgment are not truth functional. Not a question
about truth or falsity. So we try to get consensus in valuation
in order to get some ''objectivity''.  I agree with chakster about
his valuation of the FR-7fz. So FR-7fz is objective an fantastic
cart? But truth and falsity are not an question of consensus.



nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
I am sorry but I need to dwell on language in order to express
my thoughts. In linguistic and philosophy of language there is
consensus about ''generative capability'' of languages. This 
capability is ascribed to the possibility to generate ''new meanings''
by endless (?) combination of  morphems. So I was very critical
about people who argued as ''I lack the words to describe X''.
My added argument I borrowed from Frege: ''if a thought is clear
then it can be expressed'' in ordinary language. But I changed my
mind because of simplicity of our grammar.  Hegel, Kant and
even Wittgenstein used one single sentence form ''S is P'' 
(subject is predicate) construction  to express their thoughts.
Aka attributing some property to whatever object. 
We are of course interested in the properties of objects but there
are also RELATIONS in which we should be interested. 
But comparisons ''allowed'' by grammar are also very ''poor''.
For our cartridges we have no better than '' a is better than b'',
or ''Peter is bigger than John''. However we also have scientific
vocabulary which is much richer and much more precise than
ordinary language provide. Musicology is a science and has
an much richer VOCABULARY than ordinary language.
On can ''see'' this by our member frogman. He is able to 
describe his experience much better than the rest because,
so to say, his language or, better, his musical vocabulary is
much richer. 


nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
@audiotomb , Oratio pro domo is well known but not very
convincing argument. Lewm, our most eloquent member 
noticed the following: ''If you examine your own writing in your
post, you could see that you are using the same description 
terms over and over again to describe each new model''.
To me this means the limitations of the ordinary language 
for specific purpose. Each science has its own elaborated
terminology which make it possible that, say, Lewm can
talk about his own science with colleague from different
countries with poor knowledge of English. This is only possible
among people involved in the same science and thanks to
their own elaborated terminology. This, say, language is
different from the ordinary language used for all purposes.
I ever started a thread about ''irreparable  carts'' naming Sony
XL and ZYX as such. Their glued together acrylic body does
not allow acces to the inside of the cart. My own ZYX needed
new suspension and my friend Axel Schurholz needed to
drill hols and cut some parts to get acces to those crews on
the generator to fasten, among other , also the tension wire.
I then decided to never again buy any ZYX. Consider whomever
who spend such amount of money for the newest ''Optimum''
in need for an new suspension. 

nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear chakster, curious that you don't know how new Russian
rich spend their money. The first capitalist copied the (English)
aristocracy with their ''exclusive taste'' but in Russia you eliminated 
your aristocracy so the new rich have no idea what to buy and
use only prices to compete with each other. Next to watches
and (old) cars ($ 15 million for second hand  Ferrary) there are
not many ''objects of desire'' to show off. So $17 K for a cart
is the so called ''peanuts'' for them . Considering the fact that
there are more and more rich people no wonder the prices go
up. 
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
If value judgment are not truth functional or , to put it otherwise, 
don't satisfy truth criterions, how are we assumed to judge?
That is to say what kind of criterions are applicable? 
I think the same we use for valuations of literary works and
works of arts. The so called ''price quality relationship'' would
apply for person with the same income but we all know that
individual incomes are very different while this also apply
for personal preferences. So there is no easy way out. We
need to agree that we can't agree. But we can search for the
''soul kindred'' and share with them our hobby or passion. 


nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Lew, Your last sentence ruined the whole ''introduction''.
Chakster can't say much about Universe series because he never
heard one but Lew is sure that the whole Universe series ''would
blow away the particular vintage LOMC's'' which he has never
heard. I own this ''particular'' FR-7fz which Dertonarm used his
whole life and lately some Aussie was jubilant about.
BTW I have the impression that you can't decide between your 
own Urushi, Ortofon MC 2000, Universe and some MM kinds.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
@jollytinker , What you think that Lew is referring to and what
he really referred to don't need to be the same. He was referring
to the lack of knowledge about the Universe while he himself has
no knowledge about those LOMC' to which Chakster referred.
This is called ''contradiction'' . But I can't compete alas (price wise)
with someone whom  dilemma  is between Singer 911 and Mclaren
720s Spider (grin).
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear chakster, ''Advocate'' in USA is called ''attorney''. For the
poor people there are ''no cure no pay'' kinds but even the rich
people fear the bills from the other kind.
We also have different kinds of members. There are those who ignore the post from some other members. Our most competent member Dover even recommend whom  post should be ignored.
 But Lew is different in the sense that he ignore  the post he does
 not like. 
So if you are wondering why he react to some of your post and
not the other you should not think that he does not like you.
He also ignore questions he does not like. I asked why he owns
as many TT's as carts but , as one should expect, he ignored
the question. But he does participate in any discussion about 
any TT''s and any carts always referring to his own ''collections''.
That is how we know which one of both kinds he owns. 
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
@jollytinker, I assume that you mean with Dostojevski ''art'' as
part of the combination with ,say, ''mechanics''. I do believe
that this is the case by the so called ''tuning'' by the master. All the
mechanical parts look nearly the same but ,say, J. Carr, Ikeda-san, 
Allaerts , Takeda san and Van den Hul ''create'' , so to speak,
works of art. 
When you read Lew's explanation of his choices then ''love'' or
''passion'' are the leading forces for his motivation. To me those
are ''the same'' mental states. 
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Lew, I am sorry to see how you interpret my writing. You can read my writing but not my mind. I am the biggest admirer of
you in this forum. You are my ''English teacher'' because I learn
English by reading your, say, prose. However ''critical remarks''
are not the same as '' hostile remarks''. I am not aware of any
and you was not ''precise'' because there was no any reference
to ''any of those''. My objections are about your ''custom'' to
participate in discussions  about items you have no experience 
at all with. Like philosopher who discuss some possible 
worlds  for the sake of argument. As scientist you should be more
''resistant'' to critical remarks. I am not ''hostile'' to you on the
contrary . Read my last post to see what I really meant. 
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