battling the pops and clicks

I agree with Willster, and with Wc65mustang regarding ZYX's in particular being very quiet in the groove. They're quieter than my Shelter 901 for example.

The ZYX stylus is indeed incredibly tiny. A friend of mine took 200x photos of the styli on a Grado, a Denon 103, a Shelter 901 and a ZYX Airy 2. The Grado looks like a war club, the Denon like an axe, the Shelter like a chef's knife, the ZYX like a surgeon's fine scalpel. Seeing those photos side by side brought home one reason for their differences in performance.

Some other cartridges have similar styli. The Lyra Olympos was as quiet as the ZYX UNIverse when I heard them side by side. The Lyra stylus was longer, but it looked equally tiny in cross-section. They probably both ride deep in the groove, below much surface damage. I believe most VdH's and top Dynavectors are similarly equipped.

One downside of styli like this is that records must be kept scupulously clean. They will scour anything out of the grooves, and the tiniest fleck of dust will impair their otherwise remarkable tracing of HF groove modulations.

Larkyparka...Without getting into the arguement about whether vinyl surface noise exists, I must correct your statement that before CDs came along no one was bothered by surface noise. Most preamps had "scrach" filters, and many outboard electronic devices, dynamic filters (some like the Carver Autocorrelator were very sophisticated), and pop and click eliminators were marketed. So someone must have been bothered. DBX-processed LPs were the only approach that was really effective. I lived through this period, and tried most everything.

Elartford,

You may have lived through that period but didn't achieve success and admittedly never cleaned a record. Anyone blessed with a sense of reason will make a conclusion that instead of properly caring for you records and making informed choices about cartridge/tonearm/table and phono stage bits that work together in harmony without enhancing the noise you complain about you chose instead to go the electonic route. You may have spent a lot of money but you spent it in the wrong directions and you have nothing to contribute except negatives. I guess the best you have to offer Ryan is to just accept it. Your ignorance about the current status of analog is staggering and obviously you missed your chance to have it right long ago. I enjoy my digital as well as my analog and take no issue with your media of choice BUT you are doing a dis-service with your postings and I for one wish you would stop it. You have nothing to offer that resembles help. Your posts probably leave too many with a gut feeling they wasted their money and that's not the case at all. You should be ashamed. Again, I've confronted you. I only hope someone else takes over where I leave off when the time comes.

I have sat and listened through so many LP sides in my time with nary a pop or a click, and this goes way back to when my hearing was better than my equipment :~) So I just cannot accept the "we just have to live with it" suggestion; I'll admit there are records, even new pressings, that make noises that nothing will remove. The flip side (n.p.i.) is that I have managed to clean and condition some rather dirty and un-promising looking vinyl back to a state of silence! And I think we've all seen LPs with surface or other scratches, that can't be heard (whew!) when they're played.

Except in the case of wear due to (usually a combination of) bad stylus and/or excessive VTF, or simply played-to-death, I've concluded that the majority of the time, the pops and clicks are due to static. And if you want to prove this to yourself, listen for a bad one and then make a quick mental note of where (in the music) it occurs, then repeat. If it happens again exactly as before, it's a groove artifact. If not, it's static.

Having come to this conclusion (some will say "assumption") I'm again looking at the matter of why certain cartridges allow/transmit/pick up/produce(?) static discharge and introduce it to the music signal, while others don't.

Looking at the ZYX (three top models), Lyra Helikon and Titan, and the Transfiguration Temper, Temper V and W, they all have well-known reputations for quiet groove tracing. So let's examine their similarities/differences. They have, for all practical purposes, similar stylus shape (i.e. microridge with small profile.) The ZYXs have an acrylic body, while the other two have conductive (titanium or aluminum) bodies. The ZYX has a conventional motor design, while the other two have unconventional motor designs. The ZYX has an unconventional coil topology while the other two have conventional coil winding layouts.

I can't find a single common physical characteristic amongst all three that I could point out (maybe) and say, "That's why they're so quiet."

Well. . . . . there is one thing. The diamonds. I've looked at the Lyra (in a photo under a scope) and my own Tranny under high power. They're gorgeous! And I'll bet the same is true of the ZYX (Doug?) These stylii are not the dull rough chip that van den Hul uses, and glues onto the end of the cantilever with (a rather large blob of) epoxy. These are truly gemstones. Fully polished, large, and in the case of the Tranny, inserted right through the cantilever like a dagger (I don't know how the other two attach the stylus.) And I'm beginning to think (no proof yet) that certain cartridges may actually produce static buildup as they play, while others don't?

Anyway, no more of this "you'll just have to get used to it." It's not true.

Vinyl is not perfect, but it sure beats the @#%^$& out of 'perfect sound forever.' Ticks, pops, and surface noise are not inherent in LPs. Humidity, dust, dry air, and dozens of other issues can affect the sound of an LP, but none of them are impossible to cure.

I have heard very few vinyl rigs that run in "total silence" as you described, but darn close is not an unreasonable expectation. Albert Porter's system is darn quite, and I tried to get him to turn it up : ) Vinyl is work, but it is worth the effort.

There are nay-sayers who complain about virtually every aspect of this hobby, but don't let them get you down. Vinyl can sound anywhere from very good to great. The reward is there, just like in any good relationship.