Shelter and Triplanar matching ?

In your opinion how many hours before retipping a cartridge ?

I have not put enough hours on any high end cartridge to know from my own experience. If you search Vinyl Asylum you'll find hundreds of posts from people who have. People report anything from 1,000 to 3,000 hours.

In theory, conical styli wear fastest, elliptical styli last longer, fine line and micro-ridge syli last longest.

Not all manufacturers retip/rebuild their cartridges. Koetsu, ZYX and some others do. Shelter does not. Aftermarket companies *might* retip a Shelter, but I don't know that for sure. If they won't, then when the stylus wears out the cartridge is a throwaway.

How much does it cost for an AIRY 3 and for a UNIverse?

In the US the best prices for a ZYX are from Mehran of SoraSound, who sells here on Audiogon.
- Airy 3 $2,350
- UNIverse $4,950

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgcart&1142247849

In other countries an Airy 3 can be bought from the distributor or their dealers. You'd have to ask them their prices.

The UNIverse can *only* be bought from Mehran (see link above). He underwrote its development and has worldwide distribution rights. This is a good thing, not a bad one. Mehran is one of the nicest, most honest and most generous people you will ever meet.

[quote]Do you still use your SUT Bent AUDIO with the UNIverse?

We did until two months ago, with quite satisfactory results. Then we got a new preamp with an MC phono stage that's better than the Bent SUT's. See my system for details. The Bent's are very good for the money, but they can be bettered if you spend enough.

Dear André: Due to your music priorities I think that you should put on your cartridge list: Dynavector XV-1, Allaerts MC2 Finish and Transfiguration W/V. Well the Colibrí too but this cartridge is for a " patience " people. Btw, Allaerts give a 10,000 hours on their cartridges.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Hi Doug

Thank you for all the infos.

Could you just tell me if I' m not wrong:

The ideal impedance for the SUT with both AIRY 3 and UNIverse is 6,6 ohm with 0,24 output version ?

(Would it be 13,2 ohm with the 0,48 mV version?)

How is it possible to adjust so precisely the impedance on the SUT ?

Many thanks

André

Hi Raul and Doug

One Friend of mine who owns a T3 F Goldmund and a Goldmund Reference TT tells me that with LINEAR tonearm the cartridge can last five times more than with a pivoted tone arm ; is it true ?

Sonically did you hear the differences between a good linear and a good pivoted tonearm?

André

The ideal impedance for the SUT with both AIRY 3 and UNIverse is 6,6 ohm with 0,24 output version ?

I meant to write 66 ohms, but that is in MY system. LOMC's are so sensitive to impedance when using an SUT that no one can predict the ideal value for a cartridge in YOUR system. Experimentation is the only way.

(Would it be 13,2 ohm with the 0,48 mV version?)

132 ohms, as above x 2, subject to the warning about different systems.

How is it possible to adjust so precisely the impedance on the SUT ?

By putting a pair of resistors on each terminal. Using resistors in parallel allows for much finer adjustments.

Doug

P.S. I haven't heard a top linear arm, so no comment. It does make theoretical sense that a cartrdige should last longer, provided alignment is perfect. 5x longer? Who knows?