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Goodbye ZYX Airy 3

A recent ad on the Audio Asylum from SoraSound, tells of selling off the last of the ZYX R1000Airy3 SB cartridges for $1875 (was $3000).

This was about the same price that 2Juki sold them for, for years (also now gone).

Sad to see this expensive (but not absurd) gem go!

The Airy 3 had many fans and good reviews.

The Airy 3 has been replaced by the Airy 3 Premium line, introduced over a year ago. The Premium is about $1000 more.

Oddly there have been no reviews, and very little user info on the premium line that I can find. Are these "new" premium models actually better??? What is up?

SoraSound seems to "push" their own, "Universe" versions instead.
don_c55
griffithds
852 posts
 
Cartridges do not get better. They just get different. Might be nothing more that the color of the housing, or a different rubber compound for the suspension, but a change is perceived as an improvement so sales will continue. It's all about the money!
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
It's not only with ZYX. It's with all cartridges and other products. Audiotechica OC9 used to be $50...60, now it's $420; went-up almost 10x.
All bcoz paper bucks, missing gold in FR vault (rapidly spent on MidEsast crusades).
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
I believe that if you run a search, you will see that Dougdeacon has posted his impressions of the Universe II, about which he thought highly enough to trade in his Uni. As far as pricing goes, IF the yen tracks the Euro, then the price increase cannot be attributed to currency fluctuations.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I have upgraded my grey market ZYX Airy silver coil (from Juki) to official Premium ZYX 4D SB2 copper once. Those models are different. I have been used Airy-3 on EPA-100 with stock headshell of EPA tonearm with silver Van Ned Hul silver headshell leads and silver VDH internal tonearm cable. Later i bought official Premium ZYX 4D X SB2 and when i mounter it on ZYX Live 18 shell the improvement was so big that my girlfriend noticed that. The 4D is much better cartridge than Airy, well at leat for my music (jazz, funk, soul, latin from the 60s and 70s). I have noticed that i like copper version over the silver one (both low output versions used with ZYX CPP-1 pre-pre and WLM Minueta Referense Phono Stage).

Anyway i would like to read the review about 4D vs. Premium 4D.

don_c55 OP
1,025 posts
 
The expensive ($5K up) cartridges are IMO a money grab, and not worth the price. However that is becoming the norm, with all high end audio, since the old died-in-the-wool middle class audiophile, is retired and broke.

I avoid paying list if I can. I bought my grey market Airy 3's from juki for $1600 to $1850, instead of $3000 list. They were well worth that price!

I feel the Universe 1 and 2 is a rip off!

Maybe the Premium line is a breakthrough, and will be available from juki!
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