ZYX R-100 Yatra & SME 3009 MKII Non-Improved

Thanks, Peter. I'm no SME expert. I just pulled the first number I spotted off the internet...

An arm of 12.5g eff mass should be a match with a ZYX, providing that the ZYX has the manufacturer's optional SB headshell weight installed.

I have some confusions with SME 3009 MKII Non-Improved and Improved versions' effective mass before. Some listed it 12.9g and some listed 9.5g for the Non-improved version and 6.5g for the 3009 MKII Improved.

Let's just, for experiment, say that 9.5gr for the Non improved. ZYX Yatra's mass is 5gr, plus the Zinc (?) head shell installed and mounting hardware, the approximate total mass of arm & cart would be around 15.5gr.

According to Resonance Frequency calculator, with ZYX Yatra 's 15cu and 12 cu horizontal and vertical compliance, the arm & cartridge's resonance frequency should be 10.6 and 11.8 Hz, still in the recommended range of 8-15hz.

So this combo is compatible. I am interested in real life result of how well this combo track.

I have a Yatra and I have had issues with it. I never could get it to sound good all the time until recently. I have an Origin Live Aurora mk1 with Encounter mk2 arm. I recently got a good price on a used Aurora mk2 with Encounter mk2. The Encounter mk2 is the later version with the dual pivot design that essentially makes it a unipivot. I believe the unipivot design is a big step up and works much better with my Yatra. This combo sounds really good to me right now. Very transperant and dynamic. I also used the VPI headshell weight. But I used it before and beleive the unipivot is the key. The Yatra is still not the greatest tracker. I set the VTF to 1.82g. Any less I get miss tracking. Any more and it strarts to sound heavy. It does pretty well but will not track a hot cut record. It does not misstrack much otherwise but once in awhile. This cart excelles at conveying emotion with vocals and piano. Also seperates instruments well when a lot is going on in the midrange.

Thanks guys! I decided to go with the Ortofon Rondo Bronze since the specs are more compatible with the SME 3009 II non improved.