has anyone else tried Lloyd Walkers latest tweak

Yes, quartz crystals (of any color) do have piezo properties, as do a few other crystals to differing degrees. They have been used successfully in some power cords and some small black boxes when placed strategically in a system.

So I'm not surprised that they may work when located near a phono cartridge, which is a very sensitive instrument. But I don;t know what Lloyd's black diamond cut crystal has over a regular quartz crystal, other than it probably looks nicer.

So I tried attaching a reasonably sized clear quartz crystal to the front of my cartridge (a Transfiguration Temper). Of course, the arm had to be rebalanced and tracking force adjusted and such to compensate for the extra mass at the headshell.

The end result - I can't hear anything different, but then there is no way to easily A-B this tweak. It does look very odd, like a pimple on my cartridge face. I think the next step is to remove it, and readjust and see if I hear anything going the other way. Maybe some time this winter when I have time.

Dover wrote,

"The answer to your scepticism lies in EMI not RFI.
Anything that emits/uses RF will emit electromagnetic noise. Even things not designed to use RF if resonating can emit electromagnetic noise.
The piezoelectric properties of a quartz crystal make it usable as a resonator. Therefore the process is twofold in terms impacting the environment around the cartridge.
1. It absorbs vibrations and will emit EMI when excited or resonating.
2. The EMI emission from the crystal can alter the behaviour of other EMI floating around in the vicinity."

Problem is piezoelectricity, by it's very definition, is the conversion of mechanical pressure to electrical charge, not EMI. Besides wouldn't one wish to reduce EMI rather than increase it? Hel-looo!

Dover, You wrote, among many other things, "The piezoelectric properties of a quartz crystal make it usable as a resonator." With all due respect,and I do respect you, as I understand it, a quartz crystal (or any crystal) when energized by electricity will indeed resonate at a unique frequency. That's what makes it so useful in servo and clock mechanisms. Along with this resonance, RFI is emitted. In this case, as I see it, RF noise and EM noise would be synonymous, but,when we just mount a crystal out in space on a cartridge or tonearm there is no electrical energy source to set the crystal into resonating, and I don't know how "the EMI emission from the crystal can alter the behaviour of other EMI floating around in the vicinity", even if it were emitting EMI/RFI. These frequencies don't shut each other down or interfere with each other very much except to re-enforce each other. Otherwise, we would not have radio stations broadcasting on adjacent bands that don't differ much in frequency.

And, as Geoff pointed out, I don't think this is "piezo" effect, for which pressure on the crystal is required.

Wasn't there also a ZYX cartridge that had a spherical sapphire-colored something mounted forward of the body? Was/is that supposed to be a crystal?

I am beginning to think I have to try this stuff, even though I would say the jury is out on how crystals may work.

I cannot believe the amount of B.S. that is passed off as science on this forum. Dover, where did you learn your science? I learned to do science as a grad student at Stanford. Maybe you could provide a derivation of this effect you claim starting from Maxwell's equations. Electromagnetic radiation covers a wide spectrum from ultra low frequency radio waves all the way up to the most energetic gamma rays. What is your proposed method of interaction? Absorption? Scattering? Since we are dealing with a collection of atoms in a crystal lattice a good grounding in Statistical Mechanics would be helpful. One would need to write out the partition function for such a collection to predict its behavior. As far as emitting electromagnetic radiation, that requires an oscillating dipole. Whether that is a radio antenna attached to a transmitter or a nitrogen molecule in the atmosphere whose electron cloud is polarized by the oscillating electric field (Raleigh Scattering, why the sky is blue) generated by light from the Sun. Maybe the crystal converts vibrations infrared radiation (heat). But so would a lump of coal. If you wish to make scientific claims you need to be specific and not just spout a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

ZYX Omega has a Lapis Lazuli sphere.