zyx universe cartr.- ideal weight -ideal vta ,

Tvad,

I'm pretty sure this VTF method would apply to any ZYX. We haven't used a Yatra but it worked for the Airy 2, Airy 3, Atmos and an unreleased model we once previewed for Mehran. None of these is as sensitive/responsive to tiny VTF changes as a UNIverse, but their the sweet zone was always just above the mistracking point.

This method also worked well with a friend's Lyra Olympos, another superbly sensitive cartridge in the UNIverse's class. It worked fairly well with our Shelter 901, a very different cartridge from any ZYX. But it isn't universal, some cartridges have a wide gap between their mistracking point and their sonic sweet zone or are less sensitive to VTF in general. Most inexpensive MM's don't have the resolution to distinguish .01g changes, or even .1g changes.

We discovered this method simply by trial and error. With so many cartridges moving on and off our tonearm the concepts eventually coalesced from all the repetition.

The reason it works is the same reason minimal anti-skating works: some suspensions are so responsive that the minimal amount of downforce AND sideforce consistent with good tracking is all that's needed. Additional external force applied to the cantilever-suspension interface just smothers responsiveness.

doug is right on.

I have found with my micro seiki 282 arm that VTF as high as 2.2 grams works well, and sometimes tracks better. But it's a very sensitive cartridge to adjustment.

Doug, are you still calling minimal anti-skating on the Triplanar 5 O-rings? I did that and dynamics improved quite a bit. Do I have to set my anti-skating to zero to dial in my Atmos or is leaving the 5 O-rings on ok?

As always, a great post.

I am using 1.95 VTF. Anything below and you can hear it. As far as VTA I run a tiny bit negative. I tried parallel but it sounded better in my system just down a little. I use it in Schroder SQ arm.

Leave it to Doug to call us all out. On my lesser ZYX, I run it at 1.86 =/-.01. Much less and there added sibilance and much more is a bit congested. My situation is a bit different in that I use a linear arm on an LT-30 (which Doug has seen through pics). Maybe someday I can play in your UNIverse. Enjoy.