VPI Classic and ZYX 4D

Ok I just got off the phone with Mike from VPI.
First of all, all the honors to this company and the guy.
The best courtesy ever experienced very knowlegdable of what he talks about, of course :)

Now, he said that

1) when measuring the weight on the gauge, always make sure that the armtube is parallel to the platter when pick up sits on the gauge. if not, when the pick up will go down to the record will likely track 0.2gr or so lighter.

2) since the ZYXs like universe or atmos or 4d are very light and even with their silver base's option they won't reach let's say 10grm, the problem is on the weight and resonance of the system. So what I should try is, putting 3-4 gr of clay and rebalance the arm and see if I can get to the second and third track...which I should supposedly get right.

Hope this hels me and everybody else with my same problem.

P.S. for VPI's users it might be better using a stainless steel armtube instead of aluminum when mounting a ZYX

Stefano, have you seen this?

It's made by VPI, and sounds like it may help.

Cheers,
John

Hi,

thanks for the advice.
I did know they make this extra base.
The pick up has already one that takes it from 5gr up to 7.9gr.
I wouldn't like to add any other external body i.e. any more resonance, if it was possible.
If test with clay will go good then I will definitely go for the stainless steel's armtube.

I will keep you guys posted.

Now, I tested the system with 3-4 gr on the headshell.
Tracking is a little bit improved.
By Increasing tracking force up to 2.1gr I am tracking clearly one ch of the 14dB's while the other ch is in distortion due to lack of antiskate force.
I tried to compensate untwisting the wire on the lemo connector.
Situation improves on the 12dB's and a little on the 14dB's but not enough to let me track that one.

The most "interesting" thing I found are the 3 spaced tracks at 15dB.
I cannot track any of them, of course, since the maximum I can track, I guess, is 12dB BUT while the 1th and 4th track are distorted but still they are coming through somehow, on the last one the pick up won't even try to stay on the grooves but it will skip directly to the end.

That is really bad. It shows lack of ability to track grooves.

I don't know what else is left to do in order to improve this aspect!

What I wonder then, is where does the blame for such get placed? Is it then the sole fault of the Cartridge, the possibility of a mismatch of Arm Mass-Cartridge, or is it perhaps also a fault of the Arm design, being a Unipivot?

I know Myles previously mentioned the attributes of the use of a Damping Fluid being nothing more than a bandaid, and he is probably correct with this classification.

I know a number of times, Doug Deacon had made mention of not liking ZYX with Unipivot Arms, and I seem to recall the term used by him in his listening tests as "wooly".

Would/could this what Doug is perhaps getting at, because of the Unipivot Design, its lack of being able to be a compliment, and compatible to such a Cartridge?

It was the initial reason I suggested to perhaps try Damping the Arm slightly. Might be worth a try, and the results can always be easily reversed if not favorable. Mark