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Boron Cantilever and Ruby Cantilever, Why Ruby?

I have noticed that many of the better cartridges use Boron cantilevers. I know that Soundsmith uses a Ruby cantilever. I was thinkin of having my Benz Wood Body cartridge retipped but was not sure if the different material used for the cantilever will impact compliance and even sound. Why not boron like the original?
tzh21y
lewm
12,856 posts
 
Nandric, I commented on this in another thread.  Chakster posted a photo of his ZYX showing that the stylus is pressure-fitted into the cantilever, not glued.  Since the ZYX has a boron cantilever, or so I believe, that would make the ZYX exceptional. Any comments? (I own a ZYX Universe, their top of the line at one time before it was replaced by Universe II, etc, etc, etc, up to Universe III, last time I looked, and I do know that it bears a boron cantilever. Universe models are sold only in the US via their distributor, Mehran.)

Naturally, JCarr would say he prefers the sound of boron vs sapphire, since he uses boron.  But he provided no data.  Shure corporation studied different cantilever materials and actually published data (in 1978) to suggest that aluminum has certain advantages, in fact.  No corporate entity does such research these days.  Acutex used titanium, which may be unique to Acutex.  It's all very interesting, but I see that Chakster has come around to my way of thinking; cantilevers do not alone determine the SQ.  No single element of construction does that, IMO.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear Lew, I quoted Carr because I can remember what he stated.

BTW I asked the question. Dertonarm also explained to me why

he prefers aluminum cantilevers. Alas I forget his arguments and

am reluctant to bother him because he is very busy at present.

Like my Slavic brother chakster i own different so called ''top

carts'' with aluminum cantilevers: ''some'' FR's, some Ikeda's,

one Miyabi Standard and Andreoli's Magic Diamond. I also

own ZYX Airy 3 with boron cantilever and glued stylus in a kind

of tube which is glued on the (boron) cantilever. My Friend Axel

Schurholz was not impressed with ZYX stylus and substituted

for his own boron/shibata combo. Despite of those ''facts'' I am

still most impressed with Berillium cantilevers. Alas no hard facts

for this opinion but, as you know, we are all emotional connected

with this hobby so the question is not about the truth (grin).



lewm
12,856 posts
 
So, are you suggesting that what I am seeing in Chakster's photo of his Airy 3 cantilever/stylus is a stylus pressure-fitted to a nubbin of either boron or aluminum, the end of which is glued to a boron cantilever, end over end, telescope-like?  (I ask, because it appears to be a stylus directly pressure fitted to some cantilever.  I cannot be sure of the cantilever material construction, but I assume it to be boron because I am further led to believe that ZYX uses boron cantilever. Ergo, I think I am seeing a stylus pressure fitted directly into boron.)  This should create enough philosophical/logical if/then dichotomies for you that you can easily further avoid answering the actual question.  But I enjoy it. What would Kant say, for example?  I own a ZYX Universe.  It is the best of all my LOMC cartridges, no matter how the stylus is mated to the cantilever.

Dertonearm is in good company with Shure Corporate scientists who actually compared the characteristics of various cantilevers in their 1978 white paper, and came to the conclusion that alu was in fact superior to several others, including beryllium.  Thus they went back to Alu in their V15 Type III.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I will repeat it again just to leave it here:

This is original ZYX Boron cantilever of the Airy III cartridge, picture taken on my macro lens. Look at the stylus. The stylus itself is not glued to the cantilever as you can see. The cantilever material is solid Boron φ 0.30mm - this is what stated in the manual. Micro-Ridge Solid Diamond (0.07mm) goes throught the cantilever’s collar, this thicker part of the cantilever also black (like boron itself) @nandric @lewm

I know only one company what was able to mount their nude diamond through the boron pipe cantilever using laser etched techniques. It was Matsushita back in the ’70s. But ZYX cantilever is Boron Rod, maybe the collar on Airy’s cantilever is Boron Pipe? The collar is black and does not looks like aluminum.

If anyone can post some other stylus/cantilever combo like that please do it, to my knowledge ZYX has its unique cantilevers. This is why Nakatsuka-San never offering a factory re-tip for any of his cartridges, they can only exchange an old cart to a brand new cart with new serial number.

Do not expect that any third-party vendor can offer something like that, their method is completely different, so anyone who will retip ZYX with some third-party vendor will lose its magic!


nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear Lew, As you (should) know I would be more interested in

what Frege would say instead of Kant. But you may be more

impressed with Kant's ''transcendental subjects''. As a blind

person can ''see'' on chakster picture his ZYX has an tube on

the cantilever in which (tube) the stylus is fastened. So we

need to know the material of which this tube is made. As I

already mentioned I quoted Carr regarding the need to glue

the stylus in those fragile cantilevers. Even if those are laser

cut. By pressure fit they will break or shatter. Otherwise nobody

would use glue for this purpose. The glue between the cantilever

 and stylus is not beneficial for the rigidity of the connection. I am

 not able to judge Axel's capabilities but, if chakster is right, he

obviously destroyed the ''magic'' of my ZYX (grin).

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