zyx universe cartr.- ideal weight -ideal vta ,

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.

Doug, I liked the way you've said that, "Smothers Responsiveness". You analogy makes much logical sense to me about VTA, and Anti-Skate. Your words hit home, thank you for putting it into words than even I can understand.

So many disbelievers seem to speak about "fairies dancing on a head of a pin", and whatnot when speaking about all things "analog".

Your logical suggestions, and advice we have talked about in private.

My Benz Ruby 3 is finally starting to sound like a good Cartridge, it's not sounding "quite so broken" anymore, and sometime soon, I will try your suggestions of O-rings as well, lessening VTF, try to ignore the Digital VTF Scale (within reason), and let my ears be the final judge.

Makes mucho sense that excessive VTF, and Anti-Skate, even if ever so slight, may not serve much benefit.