@hdm, Thanks for your (moral) support and empathy.
My ZYX has an curious history. I got this sample as present
from an friend. Alas the suspension was defective while I
was skeptical about repair possibility because of the, uh,
glued together plastic body. Skeptical because I already
owned Sony XL 88 D (D= one piece diamond cantilever/
stylus combo). This kind of cartridges are regarded as
irreparable. But Axel Schurholz is my friend with 40
years repair experience. So I posted my ZYX to him in
hope to get ''somehow'' new suspension. From this (part)
of the story you can deduce that I have no idea how my ZYX
sounded before Axel's repair. He needed to drill hole's
in the body to reach those screws on the generator. Those
are adjustments screws for the tension wire ,etc. Anyway
he phoned me with advise to also change the cantilever/
stylus for his boron/shibata combo. The stylus only retip
was not possible because ZYX cantilever/stylus construction.
I was very satisfy with the sound because back than I was
not aware about chakster's warning (grin). However my
aversion against those plastic bodies was such that I would
never buy any ZYX . I ever started an thread about irreparable
cartridges in the mentioned context but, alas, nobody was
interested despite my good intentions (grin). Anyway I hope
for my friend Lew as well my Slavic brother that their ZYX
styli will last for ever...