VPI Classic and ZYX 4D

Stefanoo-Believe me the tracking will get much better! Much, much better!!! Just play the cartridge for another 20-25 hrs and don't get insane about it :) (this is true for the last three cartridges I've listened to including the Titan i, Air Tight PC-1 and the Zyx).

Then you can start dialing the cartridge in. BTW, the sound is also going to change quite a bit if the Universe is like the Omega (that I believe is).

As far as the Carmina Burana goes: I assume you're referring to the Harmonia Mundi recordings (there are five discs in the series) on LP? Actually they are all quite good-with 2 probably the best.

Best,

Myles

So your old rega 300 and 103 tracked better than the VPI/ZYX, the main question is did they sound better? I have a Denon receiver that measures better than my VAC amp, but somehow my VAC amp sounds better......go figure.

I don't have any tracking issues with my Basis/ZYX 4D, but then again, I listen to music LP's, not test LP's.

Cheers,
John

yes it is the Carmina Burana Vol 2 Harmonia Mundi on LP.

It is very nice but I can hear distortion, I mean it doesn't come through perfectly clear all the time.
I assume it is my tracking though.
But I have listen to the Carmina Burana on Telarc LP and I can never hear any kind of distortion.
After my last regulation I have gotten 99% right the 14dB track by untwisting the connector a little and increasing tracking force up to 2.35gr.
I decided I will follow your advice and let it run for other 15-20hrs and see how it goes from there.

BTW do you have carmina burana n Harmonia mundi?

Now to answer to John:

of course my denon and Rega didn't sound like this.
My concern is that by regulating the AS and tracking force precisely enough to get up to the 12dB's one I heard a big step forward and so did I when I got up to the 14dB's.
This tells me that there is a correlation between test tracks and sound, but that is not everything.

BTW I do listen to music too :)

@Stefanoo: Yep, how all five LPs in the series.

BTW, the ZYX is a darn good tracker. It handles two of the hardest cartridge tracking tests I know of on LP without pausing-the original Saul Goodman Mallets, Melody and Mayhem on Columbia and Ameniya's Summer Prayer on RCA/Japan. The former album has some bells that most cartridges run away from; the latter has all types of percussion cut at some pretty high levels that doesn't faze the ZYX. So sit tight and let the cartridge loosen up.

Listen--I thought my copy of one of the Music Matters jazz lps was defective when I played it with a relatively new Titan i. It mistracked like a mother and the LP sounded defective. Emailed Ron and then had to tell him that it turned out to be the cartridge :( After the Titan i was broken in, no problem playing this LP.

Patience, and what audiophile has any, is definitely a virtue :)

Myles

That's what I keep on telling myself - hopefully my patience will eventually pay off. In the meantime I am on my second UNIverse cartridge and for some reason continue to have the right channel mistracking issue. Again the first one was a used cartridge which was advertised as having 75 hours on it so it should have theoretically been broken in and I traded it in towards a new one thinking that perhaps it was defective. The second one continues to have the same issue despite 75-100 hours or so. I've tried everything - two tonearms, three turntables, all kinds of VTA, VTF and antiskating adjustments, alignment and realignment with both the SME jig and a MintLP protractor, adding mass to the headshell, making sure turntable and tonearm are level, etc, etc...still the same issue. And as I've said the sound is otherwise so good that I'm just prepared to live with it and hope that it settles in for the time being. But all I know is that my other cartridge (a well-used Ortofon Kontrapunkt B which costs 1/3 as much) tracks the first three tracking tests on the HiFi new test LP and I never heard any mistracking on regular records - the UNIverse doesn't appear to pass either of these tests. Of course other than the occasional tracking issue on certain particularly challenging LPs the UNIverse sounds night and day better than the Ortofon.

Out of curiosity, how many hours are required for proper break-in?