Peter Ledermann at Soundsmith called me upon receiving my Zyx, and he said the cartridge looks fine... minimal wear on the stylus, stylus is clean, suspension looks fine. He then asked about my setup. When I said I was not using the VPI JMW arm anti-skate gizmo, he emphatically said that was the problem causing the distortion. He said some carts like the Zyx (and his own SS carts too, evidently) really need anti-skate to track properly... and to read and carefully follow his very lengthy and specific instructions on his website regarding setting AS in general, and setting AS specifically for the VPI unipivot arms. So he is sending the Zyx back to me.
In the meantime I have spent a lot of time last couple days learning/reading and setting up AS on the table/arm ... of course Peter’s view on AS is diametrically opposed to Harry W’s. I have read a ton about this now on the various boards and there are clearly 2 fervent camps, Peter’s says gotta have it, Harry’s says no need, basically. Anyhow, following Peter’s instructions leads one to dial in A LOT of AS into the JMW arm. A LOT! I had to buy several metal washers to mount on the AS lever arm to slow the tonearm from skating inside hard, then the AS nylon string pulled so hard on the unipivot that it tilted the arm, causing an azimuth issue. So then, readjust the eccentric counterweight to offset the skewed azimuth caused by the anti skate. Jesus.
Alas, all is dialed in - at this point not using the Zyx yet as it is still in transit back from Soundsmith. But with my Koetsu and ART9, with the AS dialed in ’properly’ per Peter L, I would say things sound great. But then again, with these two carts, things sounded great before too, as these were problem free carts, unlike the Zyx which distorts. Will need to listen more and more critically to see if I prefer which camp of AS.
Zyx will be back in a few days... will try it with the AS dialed in. Hopefully it makes a difference.
