After ZYX I have tried quite a few, Lyra, Ortofon, Miyabi 47,
Van den hul (Condor), Benz Micro Ebony TR and the ubiquitous
Denon 103. Sure enough no other cartridge had that uber
special presentation of a ZYX but all of them sounded a little
more human than ZYX too. A denon 103 is the fall back
cartridge for me even though it stands no where compare to
other biggies in terms of resolution and frequency extension.
But the Denon gets a lot of fundamentals right in terms of
tone, timbre, dynamics (macro) and also timing. So, whenever I
use a different cartridge and something sounds off, I fall
back to Denon for a reality check. If things sound fine with
it then I know the other cartridge was cooking something up.
These days I am liking the Lyra and also about to try a Decca
Gold.
Van den hul (Condor), Benz Micro Ebony TR and the ubiquitous
Denon 103. Sure enough no other cartridge had that uber
special presentation of a ZYX but all of them sounded a little
more human than ZYX too. A denon 103 is the fall back
cartridge for me even though it stands no where compare to
other biggies in terms of resolution and frequency extension.
But the Denon gets a lot of fundamentals right in terms of
tone, timbre, dynamics (macro) and also timing. So, whenever I
use a different cartridge and something sounds off, I fall
back to Denon for a reality check. If things sound fine with
it then I know the other cartridge was cooking something up.
These days I am liking the Lyra and also about to try a Decca
Gold.

