I have joined in the ZYX Family

Nobody mentioned the problem with suspension. According to

Axel the suspension is as bad as by EMT. Because the body is

glued together acrylic the retipper need to cut the cart to reach

the generator. Axel was willing to do this for me  as friend but I

 am not sure if other retippers will do such job. So the worry

about stylus is not sufficient...

I had the same problem with my Sony XL 88 D. Nobody was

willing to mess with this cart because the body was also glued

together plastic. Aka no access to the generator . BTW Axel

also retipped my ZYX  with new (boron) cantilver and ''nude Shibata''.

According to chakster new models can't be retipped dismissing

my cart (Airy 3) as ''old iron'' but to me this cart sounds very good.

I hope Axel's suspension is better than the original .

Addition. I ever started a new thread about ''irreparable carts''

because of  my experience with Sony XL series and my ZYX

sample both with glued together bodies with no access to

the inside parts of the cart. To my surprise nobody was

interested. But I was even more surprised to learn from my

comrade Don that the old master Mori who desigend the

XL series for Sony works by Jico styli and has the job to

produce those expensive SAS styli.  The difficulty is to

provide those styli with the mentioned tension wire,etc.

Don is famiiar with some person who also works by Jico so I

thought: ''heureka''. Would this Don's acqaiutance  be so kind

to ask Mori san if his XL carts are repairable? The answer,

alas,  was not as I hoped for. To be pricise I don't mean that

 a cart is ''theoreticly irreparable'' but in practical sense. That

is if nobody is willing to mess with my Sony XL 88 D. This

cart is regarded by some as ''the best ever'' . I own the cart

but, alas, can't use the precious because of the mentioned

reason: irreparable.

don_c55, Your reasoning is based on guesses which are different

than assertions. Assertions should be based on arguments which

should not contradic each other. You are against retipps but you

buy second hand carts by which one can't know if the previous

owner retipped his cart. In additon you presupose that only the

manufacturer can do this job (retip) correctly such that the cart

will sound ''as before''. From this guess it follows that you have

no idea how moving parts in an MC carts look like and how they

are connted with each other. First of all all manufacturer get their

cantilever/styli combos ready made by their supplier. Styli are

produced by big ''jewel companies'' and not by cart manufacturer.

The 'nose'' of an MC cart consist of stylus, cantilever, coils and

the part on which coils and cantilever are fastened (glued). This

''nose'' is connected with the rest of the geneartor colled ''joint

pipe''. Usualy there is a small aluminum pipe in fron of the ''nose''.

In this pipe the cantilever is glued. Why do you think that this

work can only be done in the ''right way'' by the manufacturer?

To put this otherwise: why do you think that an retipper is not

capable to do this work ''as good''? The retip with the whole

cantilever/stylus combo is much more easy then gluing an new

stylus in place of the old one. Why is that so? For a manufacturer

to replace the stylus only means that one expert extra would be

needed for this job. If you are well informed you should know

that no manufacturer is willing to retip his own carts. They prefer

to offer new carts instead . The exception are cart producers

who also own an retips service. Van den Hul and Peter Ledermann

are examples.

This myth is also assumed by our ''cart expert'' from Mexico who

obviously has no idea how an MC cart is constructed.

When one look at the generator on can see those 3 screws.

Those are meant to fasten, tighten and center the tension wire

which connect the ''nose'' (moving parts) with the rest of the

generator or the  ''joint pipe''.

If one need a new suspension because the old one become to

soft causing ''low rider'' or to hard because the suspension dry

out causes limitation of the cantilever movement such that

the cart's tracking ability is so reduced that the cart can't be

used at all.

Well in order to put a new ''ribber ring'' instead of the old this

tension wire need to be removed first because the suspension

is behind the coils and does not belong to the moving parts.

This presuposes that the menitioned 3 screws must be reachable

from outside. In case of any ZYX this means that the body of

the cart must be cut or drilleed in order to get access to those

screws. That is because the body by all ZYX is glued together

acrylic without any access to those screws or inside of the cart .

That is why I stated in my former post that stylus worry is not

sufficient. Obviously no member of ZYX club has ever got

suspension problem. But if one would like to anticipate possible

problems one need to be well informed.

Skills and age. We probably assume that the older people get the

more problems with their mental and physical capabilities.

Does this apply for skills? We have Van den Hul who at age

of above 70 keeps his skills in good condition by producing at

least one cart pro week. As is known his customers can order

whatever output they want. This means winding the coil wire

on those very small ''bobins'' differently. We have Axel the retipper

who is above 70 but got so many orders that he was not able

to accept all the work. We have the old master Mori san who

designed XL series MC carts for Sony. He make those SAS styli

for Jico which involve tension wire for MM carts. Those are more

difficult then MC tension wire. Technics 205 series  styli are

irreparable because ot those tension wire. To exchage their

 suspension the tension wire need to be removed but it can't

be put back. We also have Allaerts who make his own coils from

 very thin gold wire. Look at the pictires of his coils to get ''the

picture''.  Everyone who owns an ''open MC cart'' can see how

 thin those coil wire are. Who would dear to touch them? But it is

 impossible to wound those coils without touching  them.  The

 answer is  continious practice in order to keep the involved

skills in good condition. We all have the so called ''motor

 cortex'' in our brain. This part  with further brain connection

govern our muscles. Our fingers in particular. Looking at ''Pieta''

made by Michelangelo from a block of marble with chisels and

hamers. One can hardly believe that this work of art is made

with human hands. This context of skills may explain why we admire

 old masters like Ikeda, Takeda, Sugano, Van den Hul , Lukatschek

(Benz) etc.

Dear chakster, I own the same Airy 3 which is retipped by Axel

with his own combo of boron cantilever and nude Shibata.

According to him the Original stylus was mediocre. If you look

at the boron ''nose'' you can see that one additional tube with

stylus is glued above the cantilever. This is an additional tube

becausse one more aluminum kind is in the nose of the moving

parts(aka)  stylus/cantilever, coils and the part on which the coils

are glued. 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. But you

own many of those which you want to sell. Mentionig Axel as

argument is very curious. He as my friend was not able to fix my

205 stylus but well for the to him totally unknown chakster.

Before you can teach others you need to learn the trade first.

As novice you, alas, need to have much more patience.

But as I stated before you start to look like  your model Raul.

Dear don_c 55, I am sorry for my assumption. I thought that all

participants in this thread bought some or other ''cart of the month''

which are (the most) from the 80is. There were few exceptions which

were in NOS state. The most however were used so , I assume,

those should be count as second hand. There are people who

prefer new things but also people who are fond about antiques.

For those who intend to buy whatever ZYX kind your information

is very important. Even for the ''brand new'' samples (grin).

I myself would never buy a cart with defective coils. The reason

is that nobody is willing to mess with coils.

Raul, I think, introduced the expression ''refurbishing''. Like his

other ''concepts'' inscrutable. He never explained what this

means. Reasoning from the ''concept'' what can be fixed or

improved by a cart we think such things like retip (both kinds),

new suspensin and/or better suspension. I don't believe that

anybody proposed magnets change. The coils are, say, only

theoretical possibility.

Dear chakster,

1. premise : all exotic cantilevers are brittle (boron,saphire and

beryllium). Because of this property  they will shatter if one

would try to pressure fit a stylus in them.

2. premise : the advantage of aluminum as cantilever material is

that a stylus can be pressure fitted such that an better connection

can be reached between both parts. Something to do with ''rigidity''.

To put this otherwise: glue between stylus and cantilever is not

a good idea in the mentioned sense: rigidity.

How difficult is it to deduce conclusion from those two premises?

Is it possible that this genius solution which nobody considered

is a piece of aluminum tube in which the stylus is pressure fitted.

In addition this may explain whay no glue can be seen. However

do you have the right to call your cantilever ''boron'''. There is

an aluminum tube behind the boron part and also in front of

the boron part (aka ''the nose''). Those are two versus one.

Now the Technics 205 styli kinds. I am not sure if I used quantor

''all'' or ''most''. Anyway I said nothing about oher kinds.

I hope I used the expression ''most'' such that your sample or

samples by coincidence have had good suspension.

I owned two 205 mk 3 styli neither of which could be fixed by

Axel nor by the guy from the ''styli clinic''(?). The difference was

that Axel charged nothing but this American charged $100.

BTW my intention was exactly ''the same'' as Don's: to warn

my co-members.

Dear chakster, ''my friend Nandric said million times...'' As anybody

can see Nandric wrote ''only''  2801 contributions in this forum(grin).

I think that enthusiasm and exaggeration go hand in hand. But with

your ''encyclopedic'' knowledge of (carts) names and numbers I

am surprised , first, with you confession to have never heard TRX

2 as well that you don't know that the newest TRX 2 got beryllium

 cantilever. This fact  is mentioned as ''improvement'' against the

 ''old model''. Next to the  ''wrong'' (Raul) JVC X1-mk 2 my best MM

cart. ''Oldschool (young) Nakatsuka san '' used back than better

material for both: the body as well for the  cantilevers(grin).

 What kind of admirer are you? You friend Nandric is ''loaded'' with

 Ikeda's stuff even the new 9 TT included. And, speaking about

admiration. To my big surprise some Chinese party leader stated

the following reg. the question why they still honor Mao: ''We learned

 from  Russian experience. Since they abandoned Stalin they are in

declain''. Your pesimistic opininon regarding Russian future looks

as a kind of affirmation of the Chinese assertion (grin).

BTW would it make sense to glue one additional ''boron tube''

(which are not produced at present) on the boron rod (which is in

limited supply) in the context of the reduction of the moving mass

by the moving parts in an MC cart? Entusiasm may also go hand in

hand with cotradictions (grin).

Dear chakster, I see you as my ''young Slavic brohter''. Also as

a younger forum member. I own, as I stated, this TRX 2 with

beryllium cantilever.  I also own TRX 2 with saphire cantilever

(NOS). In the user manual of the beryllium kind beryllium is

described as ''improvement'' of the saphire kind. Who then mixed

what up? I am in this hobby for more as 40 years . I put some

arguments forward which you usualy avoid to answer. Those who

care to read your and my post should judge about our arguments.

As you know Slavic brothers like to tease each other. More in

particular the younger one. Those are who need to learn and not

pretend to know better. You should follow my example not Raul's

(grin).

chakster, for $8500 I would also try to return to life Miyabi but

there are also Miyabi's in disquise under Levinson's and Krell's

names for much less money. Besides those are the ''real Miyabi's.