I have joined in the ZYX Family

It never would've occurred to me to gainsay the Zyx packaging.  I think it's cute, well done and very japanese (complete with charmingly mangled English in the manual). And those pretty cloth bags - I fill them with sand and use them for damping. They help to convince my guests that I'm completely nuts, even if they pretend not to notice... 

@jollytinker haha, those bags are the best things in their package design, i miss them. But on the side of the Premium Zyx 4D you will find just a piece of paper with a brand name and model. In fact the quality of prints on that paper is even better on lower model Zyx Airy3. But common, just a digital print on a piece of paper used to add brand name on a pair of cartridges cost nearly $8000 new? The manual made on home laser printer and pages compiled with two clips. My local non profit $2 franzine looks better, but these stuff comes with $8000 cartridges. Can't remember any other cartridges with the brand name added with a piece of paper or sticker, except for Mostrer Cable designed by Nakatsuka-San (ZYX) back in the 80s. Respected manufacturers put their brand name and model number on the carts with mode advanced methods since the early 70s and all manuals printed with offset method. In 21st century someone use a tiny piece of paper and home printer for everything that cost astranomical amount of money. Something wrong with that. At least the sound quality is superb. Ok, maybe it's just me, who cares. 

 

"I saw Carr’s posts, but it is not what i’m talking about, i have provided the link of very good picture in high resolution https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMCAEMLWAAA2x8G.jpg:large , on that picture anyone can see the part of the tall nude Micro Ridge diamond on top and on the bottom of the Boron cantilever, which means the diamong go throught the tube. If you know any other manufacturer who use the same construction in modern cartridges plz let me know. My point is that it was patented by ZYX or just an exclussive ZYX design (Nakatsuka-San will not use this method without good reason). As far as i know no one actually use this method or even similar cantilever construction among the modern retippers. Retipper use huge amount of glue arount the tip visible by naked eye, but on ZYX own cantilever i can’t see any glue even on macro lens. Maybe it’s inside the tube, but the effective mass of the tip is very low on ZYX cartridges."   

Chakster:

Both Andy at Phonocartridgeretipping and Soundsmith are currently offering the laser mounted through mounted cantilever construction on sapphire cantilevers. 

I have an Ortofon cartridge that I had Andy do for me earlier this year with a sapphire cantilever and microridge that is definitely through mounted and, as you say, has extremely low tip mass. I've been very happy with it. I think it is more detailed and either just as smooth/refined, or very close to a traditionally mounted microridge on a boron cantilever that he did for me a few years before on the same model of cartridge (Ortofon MC Super) that I still have in use which is currently strapped for mono. 

Soundsmith also seems to have added a line contact through mount on a sapphire cantilever as a retip option on their website recently (maybe in the last year) so they are out there. 

Appears to be much more difficult to find such an option on a boron cantilever through retippers, but boron cantilevers seem to have become more difficult to source in the past few years in general. 

If I had to guess, I would think that the laser mounts that Andy uses are coming from Namiki Stylus but I am not sure of that. 

But that type of construction is out there and currently available from at least those two retippers. 

@hdm Of course i know about modern Sapphire and Ruby cantilevers and the way the stylus tip mounted on them. Every JICO Neo SAS use the same construction from the same two japanese suppliers. And i have to repeat what my friend Nandric said million times, that re-tippers just use what their supplier provided for them. I have owned highly regarded cartridges with Sapphire cantilevers, they’re looks amazing under microscope like one of my ADC Astrion, but it does not mean they are superior to Boron or even Beryllium, if fact it was inferiour cartridge compared to most of my carts. BTW as far as i know Nakatsuka-San designed ADC TRX-1 and TRX-2 with Sapphire cantilever in the 70’s for ADC (but i have not tried those carts yet). Oldschool hollow pipe Boron (like on those Technics mk4) with laser etched hole for the diamond is not available anymore in any modern design, but Nakatsuka-San’s method looks pretty similar on the picture (but in fact combined two different tubes, most likely Boron is rod, but attached front part of the tube must be hollow pipe with diamont sitting there with no glue or minimum amount of glue, not sure about material of that pipe yet, maybe it’s the top secret of his patent). ZYX now offering a top model with Diamond Cantilever. Anyway, correct me if i'm wrong, but the goal of the hollow pipe boron (the old technology) is extremely low mass of the cantilever/stylus combo and high compliance or very high compliance typical for some of the best vintage MM cartridges of the 70s/80s era.