ZYX Ultimate with carbon fiber cantilevers -- listener reviews?

emailists, That is indeed remarkable longevity for a stylus.  Is there anything special about a strain gauge design that would reduce wear on the stylus? I can't think of a reason related to the technology per se.

Vindanpar, "Nice", I can understand when applied to a pair of shoes, but "astounding"? Nah.  Ferrari's can be astounding but not shoes to wear while driving them.  I don't think the price of a Rembrandt is analogous to the price of a high end cartridge.  One is a solid investment as a collector's item.  The other is a rapidly depreciating guilty pleasure that deteriorates at a rate proportional to the hours of pleasure it produces for the listener.  Only to be replaced in the public's affection by the inevitable next new model.  This is not to say that there is anything wrong with that.  I'm all for it when the excellence is really there to be heard.

thaluza, Mea culpa. Without having searched for Doug's review of the 4D (Atmos) vs the Uni, I do believe you are correct, in essence.  Your description of his review does ring a bell, now you mention it.

JollyT, You've got the experience of actually listening to the Universe line in your system.  So, I am in no position to doubt what you say.  If the Uni II and the Uni Premium are progressively better than the original Uni, then I guess I have something to look forward to, should I find either one at a good price.  By the same token, Chakster, it might be premature for you to judge the ZYX line if you have not heard any of the Uni's in your system.  Years ago, Doug Deacon posted a comparison of the Airy 4D to the original Uni, and he found the latter to be decidedly superior.  For my part, I would say that the Uni might end up superior to any of my vintage MM or MI cartridges (IMO, of course), but it's too soon to say. For sure, it's up there with the best of that bunch.

Unchilled, I am currently listening to a Universe that I bought with only 10-20 hours on it for only $2000.  Such bargains are out there if you are patient; this one was on Audiogon, and I am a longtime friend of the seller, albeit we live about 10,000 miles apart.  Still, knowing him as I do gave me the courage to buy used.  Mehran occasionally has "factory reconditioned" Universes (the original, like mine) to sell; I don't know what he typically charges for them, but reconditioned Universe II's are close to $5K, which is a bit rich for my blood, just on general principles.

Ha-ha-ha.  We yearn for a review, so we can dump on it.  The audiophile version of Catch-22.  My neighbor up the street owns a Uni Premium.  I have yet to hear it, but it was in his system that I first heard the "plain" original Universe, several years ago.  Couldn't be nearly as good, because only $5,000.  I think Nakatsuka-san figured out, perhaps with Mehran's help, that by constantly renaming his line of cartridges after slight modification to existing products, he can also gradually increase prices and get away with it, largely because of our top down ecosystems.  If something costs more, it MUST be better.  Or perhaps I am being too cynical. It does not matter to Lyra, Airtight, ZYX, Koetsu, etc, that most of us are priced out of their top tier products; they can sell those to the Oligarchs of the world, and we can pick at the lower level merchandise.  If a Bugatti Chiron is $2M, why not a $15K phono cartridge?

Does the UNI Premium have the CF cantilever?  I think that when I researched this question, I found that only the Ultimate series uses CF.  I hope someone here will correct me, if I am wrong.  By the way, the Ultimate is available in Tokyo, unlike any of the Universe models.

Yes, Don.  Why do you say that?  ZYX is extremely popular outside of the US, particularly in Asia, especially in Japan.  If I would fault them it would be to say that they have far too many models with too many variations on the same theme, such that choosing among ZYX cartridges becomes a bit bewildering.  Could be a turn-off for some buyers. It's particularly weird that the Universe line can only be purchased in the US, or at least it cannot be purchased in Tokyo. (I know this; I tried. A reputable high end dealer in Akihibara, who once sold me my Koetsu Urushi, did not even know there was a "Universe" line. This was last October, in the presence of my son to act as interpreter.)  Whereas every other ZYX variant is also available in Tokyo, including I think the Ultimate series with the carbon fiber cantilever. 

Which brings us to the CF cantilever.  I don't see how it could sound "just like" the boron cantilever.  Historically, I have not liked the interaction of CF with audio reproduction. It often to my ears sounds like CF parts overdamp the system; the sound seems a bit muffled, even. Whereas the typical ZYX cartridge is anything but overdamped.

I have a ZYX UNIverse, the original model with 0.24mV output and copper coils; I think it's absolutely a great cartridge, perhaps my favorite. This makes me lust a bit for the UNI II, but I remain a skeptic as regards the models with CF cantilevers.