Zyx vs. Van Den Hul

Gosh- Meant to say the ZYX is CLOSER to my taste.

I had the frog at one time and also thought it was not the most musical. I have ZYX now.

Hmm, I would be a little worried about a ZYX on a low mass arm, but I am not sure how the silicon damping would affect these calculations.

I use it with the highest effective mass armwand available for my Moerch tonearm.

Worth checking with Mehran at Sorasound about.

And I will say that I love my ZYX 4D. What a stellar cart.

Though I did find mention of a ZYX working well with the WTA over on Audio Circle.

Mike Pranka at Dynavector USA (importer of WT tables) might be worth consulting with if your local WTA dealer isnt of help.

Fjn04,

REGARDING TONEARM MATCHING
If using a ZYX on a lower mass arm like those you mentioned:
a) make sure you get a cartridge with the optional "SB" weight (fitted by ZYX, not a user add-on); and
b) consider adding a 3-6gm headshell weight (VPI offers them for their tonearms).

It will sound okay without these measures, but somewhat lightweight in bass and dynamics. Getting the eff. mass up around 15cu or above will restore heft and jump to the music without detracting from the naturalness that ZYX cartridges are famed for.

REGARDING CARTRIDGE OUTPUT
Swampwalker is correct. ZYX uses a different test LP for level testing and their output specs are therefore conservative (low) compared with most other brands. Multiply a ZYX output spec by 1.34 to obtain a roughly comparable figure.

I would advise AGAINST getting a high output ZYX (.48mv, which really generates around .64mv) unless your phono stage absolutely lacks enough gain for the low output version (.24mv, which really generates around .32mv). I believe Monbrison claims your preamp can handle down to .2mv so I wouldn't expect a problem.

If your phono stage lacks enough gain for a .32mv cartridge then I'd advise against getting any LOMC, ZYX or otherwise.

I've had most ZYX models in my system and have A/B'd several high output vs. low output versions of the same cartridge. In every case the high output model lacked dynamics, heft, speed and spark compared with its low output sibling. This has also been true of the few other HO vs. LO comparisons I've heard. If you don't have the gain for a true LOMC, stick with MM. There are many good MM's that will sound just as good as a HOMC, for thousands of dollars less.

That said, the ZYX lineup in its LO versions offers great music for the money (incredibly great if you can swing a 4D, UNIverse or UNIverse II).

DISCLAIMERS
friend of and occasional technical consultant to Mehran
avid ZYX lover for 10 years (read my reviews)
haven't heard a VdH