Installed my ZYX Universe

Albert

Albert

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Feb 21, 2014
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418
Location
Mb, Canada
I ordered an upgraded arm wand for my ADA MG1 Linear Tracking Air Bearing tonearm to go with my ZYX Universe cartridge and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I had a bad cold at the time so I waited until I got over it enough not to be shaky as I had worries of coughing and snapping off the cantilever on the cartridge before I even had a chance to hear it.

Today I felt better so I thought it was time to mount the cartridge on the new arm wand. It attached easily to the new wand and the wires were easily pushed onto the pins. The wand slipped onto the air tube with no problem and the vta was adjusted so that the cartridge was level with the platter. I then adjusted the vtf to 2.00 g and gave a listen. The cartridge sounded very good but it skipped a couple of times. So I checked and tweaked the level of the air tube and all was well until the end of the record when it skipped again. After scratching my head a bit I realized that the wires at the end of the tonearm had become tight enough to pull on the air tube. So I adjusted them carefully and now all is good.

I tried the zyx on a Santers album (shot down in flames) as it was the first one that I grabbed. What a great cartridge! Compared to a Denon DL-103R the sound is more in balance with the bass tighter and deeper than before. The highs were more detailed and instruments are more easily separted in their own space. Guitars have more growl and sound more natural. Vocals are also clearer with not a hint of sibilance. Pretty good for an average quality lp, it is very promising. I am going to have fun trying out more albums this weekend and I am going to continue to tweak the vtf and vta to dial it in even further. The Denon is still a good cartridge at 1/20 the cost but in absolute terms the zyx is way better in sound quality. Here are a few pics of the installed cartridge.
 

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Nice cartridge, however the true linear tracking tonearm is of more interest.

Looks great and just looked at the basic price $599 wtf. That is dirt cheap. The air pump is more than double the tonearm.

How does it sound and operate in daily use?

Btw - beautiful table - its a Lenco under all that beautiful wood?
 
Thank you for the kind words.

The tonearm works well. It is very light and the Denon DL-103R I had used for years on it tracked everything with ease. VTA can be adjusted on the fly by turning the knob on the left. And of course no problem with anti-skating being a linear tracker. I just upgraded the arm tube to the ultra p slide arm for $300 Canadian. I have a Denon DL-103R on the original arm tube which just slides off the air tube so I don't have to mount the cartridge each time I use it. The Universe cartridge is on the ultra p slide arm. Very convenient. The new tonearm includes a digital read out kit for vta which mine did not come with. I may build a surge tank some day to smooth out the air flow to the air tube.

I bought the table used with the ada mg1 already mounted and with the air pump included. The turntable is a modded Lenco L75 with the constrained layer plinth which weights 80 lb. The veneers are mahogony with cocobolo accents. I have a ceramic ball bearing for it that I should install one of these days to lower the noise floor further. I love my table and will probably never part with it.
 
Yes, that is the arm with the standard arm wand. Wow, that is a lot more expensive than on Ada Lin's website, ordered direct.
 
XV-1 said:
Nice cartridge, however the true linear tracking tonearm is of more interest.

Looks great and just looked at the basic price $599 wtf. That is dirt cheap. The air pump is more than double the tonearm.

How does it sound and operate in daily use?

Btw - beautiful table - its a Lenco under all that beautiful wood?
Click to expand...

Not trying to derail Albert's thread but I purchased an MG1 (Airtangent knock-off) from Ada a few years ago and promptly returned it. My arm was 'sticking' straight out of the box, the bearing (bushing) made rubbing sounds and would catch on the perforations along the guide tube. It didn't matter what air pressure or flow rate you used (I have on hand two Takatsuki and the wisa 300 pump used for the ET-2). The guide tube of the mg1 is thin walled aluminum and the arm wands were made from injection molded split plastic pieces (uninspiring). The most impressive aspect was the arm post with integral VTA adjuster, again reversed engineered straight from the far superior Airtangent.

What I lament the most was how many corners were cut to bring a copy of a famous and classic tonearm design to market at an unbelievably low price. Had the forgers set their sights at cloning the best $15,000 arm they could make for, say $2,000 they may have had something. All that said, there are users --Albert included-- that have MG1s in service and confirm they're getting great sound, so there you go. My point of reference is having owned The Eminent Technology arms the Versa Dynamics and Rockport airbearing systems.
 
Perhaps I got lucky in that my arm tube moves smoothly, floating on the thin cushion of air from the Alita aquarium air pump. I tried a hiblow air pump but the air pressure was too great and the air tube would not move smoothly.

The air tube is thin aluminum and the arm tube is plastic but I think they need to be very light for this design to work. Perhaps a carbon fibre tube would work better (like on an Infinity Black Widow) but I am not sure what their resonance frequencies are or damping characteristics.

I am sure there are better built linear trackers out there but my mg1 has worked flawlessly for me for the past few years. The performance/price ratio is very high even though some of the parts could have been a little better made..
 
Albert, you got a good one and Ada was easy to work with and would have happily replaced my 'defective' arm. I have access to a lab with CNC capabilities, 3D printer etc. that can prototype and whip up custom parts in a pinch, I contemplated re-building the MG1 to address its flaws but my plate is full as it is and didn't want another project.

congrats on the Zyx Uni, I love those carts.
 
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