ZYX Universe, Dynavector XV-1s, vdH Colibri, ??


Last Sunday i finally took the time to compare three cartridges; my Dynavector XV-1s (.24mv output), a friends ZYX Universe (.24mv output) and my vdH Colibri (.85mv output) with the darTZeel preamp and phono stage in battery power.

Some background. in a post from my system thread i describe the path that brought me to be experimenting with various cartridges. that post also raves about listening to battery power with the darTZeel phono stage. i promised to compare the Dynavector and ZYX to the Colibri on battery power.

so that is what i did.

the darTZeel preamp has plenty of gain (62db in the phono stage and 20 db in the gain stage of the pre itself) so even with the relatively low output of the Dynavector and ZYX there are no gain issues at all, i only needed to go to about 2 o'clock on the volume attenuator for very high volume with the 95db efficient VR9 speakers. in battery mode the darTZeel phono stage is extremely quiet; so the normal advantage the Colibri has over other cartridges with lower gain is considerably reduced.

the darTZeel phono stage is set with 100ohm loading that seemed to work well with all the cartridges but is not ideal. i know that the Colibri likes about 400-500 ohms ideally; and from what i understand the Dynavector and ZYX both are ok (if not ideal) around 100 ohms.

the Dynavector is pretty new and only has maybe 30 hours on it; so it has not yet openned up completely. i am told the ZYX is fully broken in......and my Colibri is most definitly broken in.

i am very familiar with the setup parameters of the Colibri. i run it with the arm slightly down at the back, and track it at 1.45 grams as measured by my ALM-01 Winds Electronic Stylus Pressure Gauge. with the Rockport there is no anti-skate issues.

i ran the Dynavector XV-1s at 2.70 grams and slightly down in the rear of the arm.......and the ZYX Universe at 1.95 grams and the arm level.

i had played around previously with the Dynavector for my 30 hours and had had the Universe in the system for about a week prior to get it dialed in. so i had a reasonably good idea of setup on each cartridge.

the Rockport does make it easy to switch cartridges very quickly as all you need to do is change the counterweight to the proper one for the weight of that particular cartridge. then adjust the arm length for exact stylus position (there is a groove in the platter that you sight the stylus exactly inside for perfect position), rotate the arm for visual azimuth (i can get it very very close to perfect), and set your VTF. in practice about a 20 minute job if you already know the VTF you want.

so i was able to first listen to the Colibri, switch quickly to the Universe, listen again, then switch quickly to the XV-1s, and listen again.

before i get into what i heard on Sunday i want to describe my perceptions of how the Dynavector and ZYX compared when i the Universe first arrived from my friend. for reasons described in the previous post i had purchased the Dynavector as an alternative to my Colibri and it had been in my system for about 6 weeks. i had been using my Lamm LP2 Delux phono stage with the Placette passive RVC and Tenor 300 watt Hybrid monoblocks. i liked the Dynavector; compared to the Colibri it was less exciting, less on the edge, less vivid and immediate and less explosive......OTOH although it had a little color it was fairly neutral, always natural, very involving and had very good detail if not quite like the Colibri. more of my favorite music was enjoyable compared to the Colibri.

when i installed the ZYX Universe my first impression was of slightly less smoothness and naturalness compared to the Dynavector but more of the excitement of the Colibri. i played some of the Lps that had been on the edge with the Colibri and the ZYX was more natural and under control yet considerably more exciting than the Dynavector.

on the Lamm/Placette/Tenor my initial impressions were that these were simply two good cartridges that had different perspectives. as i listened more to the ZYX i could never really get fully involved into the music as i had felt with the Dynavector or especially the Colibri. why? i'm not exactly sure. it was like i wasn't hearing as far into the music as i liked. nothing was missing from the 'checklist' but i wasn't fulfilled.

the Lamm has 57.5 db of gain, has 400 ohm loading, and is extremely quiet. it has a very slight warmth, just to the dark side of neutral; but has a textural richness and refinement that i have not heard from any other phono stage (until dart battery power). it should be an ideal match for the ZYX.

so that was how it was before i tried battery power (as described in my previous post). i hope this makes sense up to this point.

now to the three cartridge comparison.

first the Colibri. the Colibri can be a 'train wreck'. it breaks all the rules. the barrel and canteliver are out of algnment with the cartridge 'body'......so setting asthimuth you ignore the body and just align the cateliver and stylus. i have owned 3 Colibris and they are all different yet all inconsistent. they can have any length canteliver a customer wants, gold windings, copper windings, wood bodies, polycarbonite bodies.......they have such little play in their suspensions that they can 'buzz' on certain edgy types of music. they are the Formula 1 cars of cartridges. the Colibri is so immediate, so explosive, yet so natural and so incisive that if all elsewhere is not about perfect.....you will know it and there will be a problem.

OTOH when all is right the Colibri is magnificent.

long story made short; with the battery powered dart phono stage in my system; the Dynavector and especially the ZYX are not nearly in the class of the Colibri. as the system improves, the lead of the Colibri gets larger.

i used tracks on 7 Lps for this comparison.

1.Muddy Waters 'Folk Singer', 'Good Morning School Girl', Classic reissue.

the Colibri here made the guitar plucks real and there. the whole musical sense was vivid and immediate. there was not a sense of the recording chain.....just some guys doing their thing. totally involving. each note dripped with reality. brilliant colors in the vocals and guitar overtones. ALIVE.

with the Universe it sounded great, nothing missing, satisfying. but; the guitar pluck was not as vivid, the colors were less vivid, there was overall a bit of haze that only compared to the Colibri was evidant. maybe no other cartridge would expose that issue. the decay of notes was reduced which reduced the overall involvement. sounded like a different pressing. NOT ALIVE.

on the Dynavector this was more different. less energy, less edge. transients were softened. smoother and warmer. very nice. a great sense of ease but too buttoned down for me. this track should boggie. excellent bloom and note decay.

2. The Royal Ballet, side one, Classic 33rpm reissue.

Colibri; spooky good. i don't want to stop. an 'oh my god' about every 30 seconds. i try to critically listen but it's hard.....i just want to close my eyes and forget about everything. about the best reproduced strings i have ever heard. such a sense of venue, the 'subway' and 'buses' outside seem real. where am i?

ZYX Universe; a different realm......reproduced music. very good.....but less of everything. very, very good. specifically, less separation of instruments, less delicacy
and less clarity. the effortlessness of the Colibri in sorting out the complex textures is missing.

Dynavector; not the detail or energy of the Colibri but very natural. slightly veiled but warm and inviting. not
wholey real but still much beauty. good flow and pulse of the music.

it's getting late; i will continue tomorrow morning or evening as time permits.

the Dynavector and ZYX are excellent cartridges that by themselves are rightly considered SOTA. just because i hear what i hear doesn't invalidate anyone else's perspectives.

so as not to attract too many flames i want to clearly state that i limit my comments to my specific system and setup choices. there are many varibles i have not or cannot address; arms, cartridge loading, breakin, taste, settleing in. i did not do the tiny tweaking of these cartridges that one does over time to dial them in just right. OTOH the differences that i heard are considerable and not subtle.

it just one guys opinion on one particular system on one particular day.

with that said; flame away.
mikelavigne
Nrchy,

thanks.

serious comparisons are a bit of work and not particularly looked forward to. what makes them fun is not knowing how they will turn out. i usually learn something whenever i seriously focus on comparing gear.

my current system can reveal differences that i may have never heard in the past.

a good thing? depends on your perspective.

there is no doubt; the vdH Colibri XCP is my reference cartridge. i look forward to future comparisons.
Tangram and Sirspeedy; addressing quality control and customer service issues regarding the Colibri's.

IMHO Mr. vdH likely knows more than most cartridge designers about what is important to performance. of course; that is just my opinion.

his products are less 'slick' in their construction typically from other SOTA cartridges i have seen. specifically, the Colibri's are so simple and direct. when you look at a picture (click here ) of the Colibri you see that it is all business, with nothing added.

i copied the following details from the vdH website to avoid my screwing up of the whats and whys. this describes some differences between the Colibri and Grasshopper 'Beauty'.

*******

"By minimizing and adapting the cartridge’s total magnetic circuit the related distortion and noise have undergone a considerable decrease. This opens up many subtle sound details that never have been heard before; Especially the decay of instrument sounds now stands out much more clearly in the music’s totality.
Due to the minimization of the cartridge’s total magnetic circuit the cartridge’s mass has been reduced. Together with the possibility to tune the cartridge’s static compliance on special customer demand it is now possible to use very light tonearms whilst maintaining a very good tracking ability.
By removing the frontpole is has been possible to apply an even shorter cantilever; This further improves the groove-modulation-transduction’s directness and accuracy.
Due to the minimal magnetic design the output voltage has slightly reduced."

**********

just as in a race car where everything has been eliminated that was not essential the Colibri is reduced to bare essentials. it puts more demands on everything in a system to measure up to it's cutting edge.

the cartridge is quite fragile and the canteliver is out there for any bad thing that comes along to bump it or snag it. there is no 'stylus guard' as there is no body to attach it to. looking at the cartridge it looks intimidating to mount since there is not 'protection'.

the Colibri's i have seen do not have perfect alignment between the body and the canteliver. no matter that it only matters that the canteliver and windings are properly aligned some users are put off by that as other SOTA cartridges are typically quite close to perfectly aligned (although so far none do what the Colibri can do to my ears).

as far as customer service; other than the typical shipping hassels to Europe i have not had any issues. i would say that each Colibri is unique as the length of the cantelivers seem to vary from one to another. is that a positive or a negative?

i was suppose to return my XCP to vdH for a tune-up at 300 hours but never have. maybe i should do that and it will sound even better.
here is a picture of;

my 2 Colibri's, XGW on the left, XCP on the right

note the out of alignment barrel compared to the mounting housing; the XCP appears more out of alignment due to the angle of the picture.
How do you rough in the VTA on the Colibri? Just start with the arm parallel to the platter+record?
Mike,

Thanks for the thorough followups. The photo of your Colibris makes your analogy to a race car seem very apt. All business, no nonessential parts, a purist's machine indeed. Assuming good components and execution, and given proper setup and playing conditions, it truly ought to offer unmatched dynamics and transparency.

Continuing the car analogy, the ZYX and Miyabi seem more like world class sports cars. A top Ferrari or Porsche will outperform almost anything on the street, but on a racetrack they'd have no chance against a F1 race car.

Of course the reverse is also true, as you wisely pointed out. A F1 race car would be literally undriveable on some real-world roads. A short-cantilevered cartridge with nude, low-slung coils could indeed have a problem navigating warps. Center clamps and weights do nothing for pinch warps, nor can they flatten the LP rim when playing the concave side of many dish warps. Vacuum or (perhaps) a periphery clamp might be required to make certain records playable with such a cartridge.

I'm looking forward to your detailed performance notes. Many thanks again for taking the time.