Zyx Universe. O.24 mv vs .48 mv with low eff spkrs

Almarg,

Thanks as always for your willingness to share technical knowledge. Most of my postings are based on what I hear and seat of the pants "thinking". It's always helpful to hear from someone who actually understands what he's talking about.

Jcarr,

Great post. I concur with your suggestions, particularly the one that the best repair/adjustment of a UNIverse is likely to be provided by ZYX. Aside from Nakatsuka-san himself, there are 2 or 3 people in the world who are fully trained on the inner workings of ZYX cartridges. They're all in Japan and they all work for him. As an official ZYX distributor, Mehran has access to them.

If this were an entry level model, a third-party repair might make sense. But this is one of the world's premier cartridges (by performance, regardless of price) and Tom has already stated that he's unwilling to give up what it does for the music.

Anything's possible, but I wouldn't expect someone other than ZYX to have the knowledge to bring it back to original condition, if possible, or even to know what the original condition actually was.

There's certainly no harm in asking Mehran about an inspection before deciding to replace.

05-22-14: Dougdeacon
Almarg,

Thanks as always for your willingness to share technical knowledge. Most of my postings are based on what I hear and seat of the pants "thinking". It's always helpful to hear from someone who actually understands what he's talking about.

Thanks, Doug. And likewise with respect to your uncommonly knowledgeable posts about turntables/tonearms/cartridges/vinyl.

Best regards,
-- Al

I will second that on Doug, Almarg and everyone in this thread

This is what I love about the online audio community

I heard what I needed to hear, the .46 mv isn't going to cut it and my course is moving in the high efficiency speaker / tube amp domain

choosing highly desireable pieces of gear can be an issue if they are not in a symbiotic synergy. Lesson learned.

thanks everyone

I plan to touch base with Mehran, we have been down this road before

All the best

Tom

Send my best to Mehran!

I totally agree about what wonderfully helpful folks we have here on Audiogon, and you are getting great feedback from some of the best: Almarg, Doug, Lewm, Syntax, Charles1dad

My guess is that once you hear the Atma amps w a suitable speaker, your only argument will be w yourself, for not doing it sooner. IMO, the Salk speakers are beautiful, real craftmanship, but clearly designed for high power SS amps. A high(er)/flat impedance, high(er) efficiency speaker designed for tube amps is the way to go w the Atma amps. My own experience is that you do have to be somewhat concerned about hum and noise when you go to very high eff speakers; the higher eff the more careful you have to be; there's a reason why many low power amps (likely to be mated w high eff speakers) have hum pots!