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ZYX Optimum phono cartridge - a defining statement

ZYX Optimum phono cartridge


Following is a review of the latest ZYX cartridge the Universe Optimum.

Without further ado I would like to thank Mehran of SORAsound who goes so far above and beyond in realizing this audio quest for his ZYX family.

I have owned all the ZYX Universe models since 2006. All have the characteristic ZYX warm, natural and detailed sound. Each was the low output 0.24mV design. The original Universe was solid is resolving difficult passages especially in chamber and jazz music. Moving forward to the Universe II the cartridge took on a lot of low end energy and prat. Rock music was more dynamic, the transients enhanced and it had that extra body in the lower register.

My system started with the Galibier Gavia turntable, triplanar arm and Doshi Aalap full function preamp. During the time I had my Universe II, I upgraded the tonearm to a Durand Talea, Daedalus Ulysses speakers and a KL Audio LP 200 electrostatic cleaner. All significantly enhanced my system.

Fast forward to stepping up to the Universe Premium. This was a very apparent jump in sonic realism. The sound opened up in a tangible and natural way. The instruments just hung there in space. The tonal qualities resolved further and separation was enhanced. Overtones, details, things like really picking out a buried bass drum or percussive elements.

Moving forward to the present - the Universe Optimum is just as much a quantium leap as the Universe II to the Universe Premium was. Everything snapped into place. Micro and macro dynamics fully rendered. Incredible detail and imaging. The presentation just occupies a space completely natural and open.

Instruments are even more defined, the sound converges around the source. The bass is so taunt that even the most subtle bass line is drawn out distinctly but in no way bloated.

Reggie Workman at times plays very subtle and his upright bass is buried in the mix in active portions of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Not so with the ZYX Optimum - the bass line is crystal clear and lower in volume. Toms, snare and bass drums were felt in a three dimension sense - the tautness, size and velocity and tone on the heads, particularly the bass drum are very apparent and accurately rendered. Cymbals, brushes or resonating piano keys have a distinct pulse and luscious decay when approprate. Stringed instruments have a warm bodied resonance. You are in the room for Bill Evans, Paul Motian and Scott Lafaro during Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

I was overwhelmed hearing my standard go by - Steely Dan’s Aja side 1. This album and all it’s nuances is in my DNA. Everything was rendered with such realism. This fully suspended the thought that I was listening to an audio system.I was floored with glee.

Vocals have such body and emotion whether it be Ella and Louis, James Taylor, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Rebecca Pigeon, Norah Jones, Sufjan Stevens, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, etc.. Vocal harmonies from CSN, The Beatles, Yes, Ray Charles, and Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings are very well defined and engaging.

Acoustic instruments are rendered organically with warm overtones. Electric guitars and synths cut through strongly when intended.

It’s been a true joy replaying familiar records and introducing new ones. It is interesting that lesser songs seem to grab me more and I appreciate what the artist had intended.

Jaqueline Dupre’s Elgar Cello Concerto has the most delicate then dynamic elements. The detail of the ensemble playing in Yes’ Fragile is magical - doubling of parts standing out like never before. Bob Dylan’s More Blood recording is an "in room" experience. The Living Stereo Charles Munch / Boston Symphony recordings - Ravel Daphne and Chloe and Fritz and the Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Bartok Symphonie Fantastic are explosive with quick and composed dynamics and subtle in the quieter nuanced sections. The drone of Chris Wood’s saxophone as it builds up in Traffic’s Low Spark of High Heeled Boys gave me goosebumps.

My whole system has been elevated in a major way.

The ZYX Optimum is one of those mind boggling components that dramatically converges on realism. The Optimum brings out the passion in reproduced music in ways I have never fully experienced before. The "you are there" essence is palpatible and so engaging.



Tom

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analogvm15's avatar
analogvm15
112 posts
 
What could possibly go into a phono cartridge which would make it cost $17K? No, really, I'd like to know.
lewm
13,110 posts
 
analogvm, With respect to your question, my response is, "You and me both".  There is a story about Abraham Lincoln, who was a surveyor before he went into politics.  He billed one of his customers the sum of $300 for surveying a property.  The customer asked Abe how a few sticks placed in the ground could possibly cost so much.  To which Abe is said to have responded, "Two dollars for markers; $298 for knowing where to place markers."  (I probably have the numbers wrong, because $300 does sound like a lot of money for the cost of surveying a property in the mid-1800s.)

The point is that the buyer has to believe the designer put some "secret sauce" into his most expensive cartridges that is omitted from the lesser models in the line.  You are paying that invisible but hopefully audible difference. If you notice, often the most expensive models are a different color from the lesser ones, and usually they sport exotic cantilevers and styli.  Inside, there may be a more exotic magnet or more magnets or silver coil vs copper, etc. (By the way, all reviewers of the UNIverse line early on said that the low output models with copper coils were the best sounding, better than the silver coiled versions.  So of course I bought a low output/copper. But my original UNI "only" cost $5K when new.) We all know that the most expensive cartridges are built from parts purchased from a supplier and that the cost of a tiny piece of machined boron cannot be much more than the cost of a tiny piece of machined aluminum, etc. Certainly the cost of all these tweaks taken together is not 5-10 times more than the basic parts cost, which is typically the multiplier to use when comparing the cost of the bottom of any makers line of cartridges to the top of that line.  But that takes us back to the story about Abe Lincoln; the designer's brainpower is on sale.
analogvm15's avatar
analogvm15
112 posts
 
@lewm Thank you. I would have thought that cartridge design and build had been settled science long ago minus the exotic materials. MM, MI, LOMC, HOMC. Not much new under the sun.
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jollytinker
213 posts
 
Yes, but any good piece of audio gear is part Newton and part Dostoyevsky. There’s the rub.
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