ZYX carbon fibre stylus vs boron

I’ve never heard or researched CF cantilevers, this popped up from 2008

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=11676

Note: At the time, that OP was weeding down to only 50 cartridges.

A few years ago I had a Zyx mid level cartridge with an aluminium cantilever. I liked the cartridge so decided to upgrade to one of the newer CF cantilever cartridges, that was much higher in the range. But I could never get it it to sound quite as good as the earlier cartridge, despite 30-40 hours of running in and trying many adjustments. It just sounded a bit dry and colourless by comparison, so I sold it on.

A bit later I bought a new but older model Zyx cartridge from 2Juki, one of the higher end cartridges with a boron cantilever. This sounded fantastic, much better  than the CF cartridge I tried briefly. There was a return of saturated tonal colours, as well as the speed and dynamics I was expecting. I liked this so much I picked up a second one as a spare.

It is possible that my issue with the CF cantilever was a one-off issue with that specific unit, or may just have been insufficient break in. But I was sufficiently unimpressed with it to avoid trying a CF cantilever again. 

rossb, I think you hit the nail on the head.  That is pretty much how I "hear" carbon fiber parts anywhere near the signal path.  I've got an original UNIverse, with boron cantilever.  It's excellent.

I have a ZYX Ultimate 4D-X which has a carbon fiber cantilever. My previous 4D had a boron cantilever. I can only go from memory, but it seems there are only subtle differences between the carbon fiber and boron cantilevers. I do not perceive any faults with the carbon fiber version. I listen to a lot of rock, jazz, and classical. The 4D is darn near perfect in my system. I also have a retipped Denon DL-S1 with a boron cantilever and microridge stylus, which I also like. The Denon perhaps has a tad bit better detail, but the ZYX exceeds it in soundstage and image size. The ZYX is my favorite as it seems to better capture the scale of the music. I rank the ZYX and Denon above my Dynavector XV-1S. Others I am sure would hear it differently.

Carbon Fibre Cantilever differs from other typical cantilevers produced throughout the years of R&D with certain materials then being selected the Cantilever Role.

CF is not a Natural Occurring Material, it is a multiple of an Carbon Element.

Many Cantilever Materials are Elements with their own Element reference on a Periodic Table.

In a nut shell a Purist of pure material, sometimes to be found as a Cantilever with a coating of some kind.     

 There are natural material Cantilevers not from an Element.

Carbon Bonded as a crystalline material to produce a Tow, is then put through a process of becoming a Composite to become a Fibre.

A CF Cantilever is to be produced from multiple thousands of Carbon Crystals and a Resinous Material to produce the form of the Cantilever. 

As a Cantilever it seems very very unique as the Structure, how that transfers energy and a particular amplitude would be interesting to learn.