ZYX Airy2-X-SB on Graham 2.2

Scott,

That's very interesting and very good news about the Airy3 on your Graham. We did all the damping fluid, VTF and VTA tweaking possible in two days on Cello's Graham, but still couldn't tame the edginess. It was either too edgy or instantly overdamped. There was no middle ground, even with damping fluid changes of just a pinhead's worth.

I suspect the amazingly sludgy viscosity of that damping fluid just didn't allow it to settle in the time we had, as SirSpeedy suggested, even though we were as careful possible. It's too bad Graham doesn't provide more expicit instructions for the damping, or at least better emphasize how sensitive and important it is for best performance.

Please keep reporting on your progress. Your overall impressions of your Airy vs. your Benz is consistent with every comparison I've heard, excepting only Raul's somewhat colorful bad-mouthing of course.

Hi Doug: I never say that the ZYX are not good cartridges ( they are )y only say, till today ( I don't heard the UNIverse ), that there are not excellent ones yet. That's all.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Some would disagree. For instance, I know two Miyabi 47 owners who prefer the Airy 3. I haven't heard a Miyabi so no opinion of my own to offer. We need a cartridge swap meet!

Of course if the UNIverse is "excellent" then the Airys are only "good". They are certainly in different performance classes, whatever labels we put on them.

I wonder if the Airy 3 you heard was optimally set up? What arm(s) was it on? From my own experience, Cello's, and Jeff_ss's, it's clear that the Airy 3 is extremely demanding of setup. In some ways it's less forgiving than the UNIverse, even though the UNIverse is much more revealing.

I’ve been thinking about this damping issue. I using the high viscosity blue fluid. I forgot to mention that this stuff is also sensitive to changes in temperature. Maybe that’s not a big deal to some of you guys, but here in the Midwest living in an old house with no insulation in the walls, it is.

I was wondering if any of you guys have tried going back to the lighter weight clear fluid that came with pre 2.2 versions of the arm. I’m conjecturing here, but seems that while it would require more of that fluid to obtain optimum damping , it would also be less sensitive to changes in level. Any thoughts?

Dear Doug: For all what some people ( including you ) in this forum speak about the UNIverse, I'm sure that this cartridge is really in other level. I can't say nothing about till I can heard it.

Now, the evaluation of top cartridges is really a heavy task where you have to have precise rules and take in count to many issues for doing that job ( an individual job ).

One of those issues is the resolution of the audio system, but in this issue is extremly important not only the resolution but if that system have a full frecuency response. The appreciation of the cartridge sound reproduction differs by a wide margin in a full response system against one that is not. The full resolution at the frecuency extremes do the differences between a good cartridge an an excellent one.

Maybe, here is where belongs the differences between your appreciation and mine.

My answer to Larry is still true, not only for a ZYX but for any one that think that a particular cartridge is the best in the world. Any cartridge that " wants " to have that " title " has to beat, at least, each and all those cartridges that I mentioned to Larry, nothing less.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.