I have joined in the ZYX Family

@nandric

First of all all manufacturer get their cantilever/styli combos ready made by their supplier.

I wish someone will show me something similar to this ZYX boron cantilever + micro ridge stylus combo.

It looks uniqie, not like any other stylus/cantilever combos i have ever seen. This is my own picture of Zyx Airy III cantilever/stylus on macro lens illustrate my thoughts very well. The nude diamong is going throught the cantilever from the top to bottom as you can see, there is no glue (at least i can’t see glue around the tip). If someone would like to find correct diamond to fit in the tiny laser hole made for ZYX Micro Ridge i would say "maybe the sound will be close to the original". But if the whole cantilever must be replaced, then i’m pretty sure it will be completely different cart and sound, because no other retipper can get access to this unique stylus/cantilever construction made expecially for Nakatsuka-San (ZYX) exclussively.

I don’t even want to speak about sealed body of all Zyx cartridges that retippers must have to destroy to open up, but the simple fact that ZYX unique cantilevers are not available to anybody else make my statement pretty clear. Nude diamond fixed in the laser hole in Boron cantilever, not glued to the cantilever. Refurbished ZYX is definitely no longer ZYX cartridge, but something different and most likely downscale compared to the original (because of the technology used).   

@nandric

I do not buy used cartridges - ever! I buy new. I also do not have them retipped or rebuilt.

New ZYX cartridges do show up on Audiogon by dealers other than SoraSound at a big discount.

Ralph’s Universe cantilever was probably viewed by XYZ as abuse IMO.

The boron cantilever is durable under "normal" use, but might break with rough cleaning, or an arm drop onto the Lp.

Ralph’s products are sold by SoraSound, so you would think he would give Ralph a new cartridge as a courtesy. SoraSound screwed Ralph IMO.

@nandric

All exotic cantilevers can’t be pressure fitted with

whatever stylus so the stylus need to be glued in such cantilevers.

See our cantilever discussion with J. Carr. Your pretentions by

far exceed your knowledge. We already have had such dispute

about Technics 205 styli suspension failure which you deny but

never provided any proof except your own convinction.

I saw Carr’s posts, but it is not what i’m talking about, i have provided the link of very good picture in high resolution https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMCAEMLWAAA2x8G.jpg:large , on that picture anyone can see the part of the tall nude Micro Ridge diamond on top and on the bottom of the Boron cantilever, which means the diamong go throught the tube. If you know any other manufacturer who use the same construction in modern cartridges plz let me know. My point is that it was patented by ZYX or just an exclussive ZYX design (Nakatsuka-San will not use this method without good reason). As far as i know no one actually use this method or even similar cantilever construction among the modern retippers. Retipper use huge amount of glue arount the tip visible by naked eye, but on ZYX own cantilever i can’t see any glue even on macro lens. Maybe it’s inside the tube, but the effective mass of the tip is very low on ZYX cartridges.

For the second part of your comments i’m surprised that you still don’t believe that some of Technics 205c mk4 (and even 100c mk3) in fact were refurbished by your friend Axel in Germany. I got a few pictures for you below.

here is my original 205c mk4 in perfect condition:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMImN1rWkAAtqx0.jpg:large

and this is refurbished 205c mk4 with nagaoka boron cantilever and glued elliptical stylus tip, also look at the alluminum collar around the cantilever. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMIlZ_OW4AIFaSA.jpg:large

If it’s not enough look at refurbished Technics EPC 100c mk3 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMIq61hXUAA_9hF.jpg:large

Suspension repaired on all of them, Axel did the job for Foxtan who supplied him many cartridges. I bought them from Foxtan as the originals, but he cheated me using my lack of knowledge at that time, in fact i bought refurbished 205c mk4 carts for the price if the originals (so never trust the foxtan). The sound was very good, so i was happy about them and never actually looked on them with macro lens. The 100c mk3 was the original but suspension was dead, but foxtan sold it to me as a good one, then i returned the cart to him for repair and it took a half year to get it back refurbished. Later jpjones told me the cart’s cantilever does not looks like the original! But the foxtan told me his master worked only on damper (what a cheater) and how naive i was at that time. you have promoted Exel so much on audiogon that i decided to send him my 100c mk3 for inspection and i was very surprised when he told me it was him who did the job for foxtan with my cartridge back in the day, he recognized his own work! I asked for details and Axel told me he used Nagaoka Boron Catilevers with Elliptical tip on that carts. The refurbished 205c mk4 looks exactly the same (also his old work).

When i managed to get the original 205c mk4 i realized how much better this original cartridge sounded! One of my friend still use the refurbished axel’s version.

I own many cartridges because i like them, and i'm happy to sell doubles, but i do never sell bad cartridges like some other people do, i remember my own experience with dishonest sellers and all the disappointments about it.