zyx universe cartr.- ideal weight -ideal vta ,

great thread, alway interesting to hear how people tweak the machine to bring it to higher levels. This will help me as I have recently upgraded to a universe cartridge (can't wait to get it!!). I have been using a zyx airy3s for a couple of years and have used dougs approach to fine tune my cartridge. When you find that sweet spot, the cartridge really sings. THanks for the string

Using the guidance in some of the earlier responses on this string, i found that the lighter vtf (1.7) brought out more of the magic of this cartridge than the heavier settings. I followed DD steps to lower vtf to the mistracking point and then increase vtf slightly. I am not using the triplanar arm but rather a linear airbearing arm but my system would mistrack about 1.65 (horrible sound when mistracking!) but it settled down about 1.68 and the sound opened up about 1.7 to 1.75. I also tweaked the vta after setting the vtf. I went back and forth until i was satisfied i had the best sound. The cartridge is very close to level (slight tail up) with the vtf at 1.7 for a 180 g record. I use a little dampening with my arm(I have a tapered pin that is in a dampening trough with about 1/4 inch of the pin in the oil). In my opinion, this cartridge sounds better at the low end of vtf versus the high end. One point to make, large changes in vta will impact vtf and overhang so you need to avoid large changes in one without adjusting the other

Doug
It was interesting to get to the mistracking point. I tend to make a small move and listen for a side of an lp before making another move. I had actually been near 1.65 for a couple of days and was playing an album when it mistracked. It was a screeching sound for just a moment then it settled down until it hit another stretch of "busy" music and screeched again. After three or four incidents on this record, i increased the vtf slightly and played the same side(i know there are those who say that is taboo), but i needed to know if i had hit the mistracking point. It played good at 1.68 with no screech or mistrack. I played the same track the next night again at 1,70 and as i described, the highs locked in and the bass became more solid. I played several other albums that night and was very pleased with the sound. I came back a couple of nights later and moved the vtf up first to 1.72 the up to about 1.85 in small increments. What i found is that above 1.75, the highs starte losing some of the zing and clarity and the soundstage seemed to collapse compared to 1.7 to 1.75. The bass response was solid in all of the ranges above 1.70. I have not played vtf above 1.9. Thanks for yours and others ideas in this universe thread. It gave me the confidence to move to areas that i had not been before.