Jump to content

ZYX Bloom, best bargain MC under $5,000?


luvdunhill

Recommended Posts

Well, as you may or may not know I really love these cartridges. In fact, I will never own any other brand, save a Denon DL-102, or some other mono cartridge, and even then I'd have a custom mono cartridge made when I could afford it. Here's a product listing:

http://www.sibatech.co.jp/ZYX/ZYXcatalog.htm

as well as a picture of the R-50 Bloom:

R50Bloom.JPG

My cartridge is a special ordered low-output version, which comes in around 0.24mV. One nice thing about these cartridges is that the vertical and horizontal compliance is the same across the line, as is recommended tracking force, stock weight, recommended load, etc. etc. This makes moving up (and down) the line pretty easy. I used to own a R-1000 Airy as well as a R-100 Yatra and 2 years ago, I decided to "downgrade" to the ~$550 R-50 Bloom.

So, recently I decided to have my cartridge returned to Japan to have it inspected and cleaned. Well, I came to find out that this might not be cost effective for the Bloom, due to its relatively modest price and was forwarded to Doug Deacon, a name you may recognize from Audio Asylum or Audiogon.

I was a bit worried, as I had only cleaned this cartridge with Zerodust between sides, no dry brush, no nothing... I also included my VPI :rant: headshell weight that I have been using to help mate this cartridge to my Nottingham arm (note in the excerpt below, Doug thinks the weight was made my Elusive Disc, not so it's made by VPI :rant: and resold by Elusive Disc). Anyways, here's Doug's reply after spending an afternoon with the cartridge:

CLEANING

I visually inspected your Bloom under magnification. There was some buildup of foreign matter on the stylus and near the end of the cantilever. Not a lot but enough to justify a good cleaning.

After 30 minutes of work it looked much better. There's one stubborn spot which may or may not be foreign material, but it's 99% clean. Most important, the stylus contact surfaces are now pristine.

I took photos and I'll email you "before" and "after" shots, once I figure out how to upload from my new camera. ;-)

LISTENING

I mounted the cartridge last night and we played 2-3 familiar sides. This is the first Bloom we've heard and I thank you for that opportunity. Paul and I entirely agree on what we heard...

What a great little cartridge! It offers a large proportion of every good thing our UNIverse does - for 1/10 the price - and it does absolutely nothing wrong. Unlike most entry level MC's there are no colorations, no sluggishness, no coarseness, no artificial anything. The trademark ZYX honesty and clarity are all there.

The Bloom's few sins are minor sins of omission, a little less of this, a drop less of that - the kind of audiophile extremes you never notice unless you're used to hearing them. What you do notice is that the Bloom plays real music and makes you want to sing along (which I didn't, fortunately!).

We were frankly expecting a lower level of performance. Nakatsuka-san has produced a superb entry level model. We've heard $4K competitors that we'd toss in the dumpster in favor of a Bloom. :-)

FUTURE CARE

Some of that foreign matter looked like a clear gel, perhaps from your Zerodust? I would caution against too frequent use of that. Any gunk that pulls away from it and sticks to the stylus/cantilever is difficult to remove safely. Magic Eraser-ing followed by a dry brush is all you need for regular maintenance, as described in the document I sent.

RANT_ON

Your Elusive Disc headshell weight is, as you know, slightly magnetic. Pardon me, but what idiot specified a magnetic material for use in close proximity to a sensitive motion detector/signal generator containing powerful magnets? Do not use this weight. It will distort the magnetic fields inside the cartridge and affect the linearity of the signal.

You do need the weight, but try to find a something suitable. VPI makes one. You can get it from them, from a VPI dealer or from online sellers like Acoustic Sounds or Music Direct. I have no experience with it so I'm only hoping it's non-magnetic. Of course we hoped that about the first one... :-(

You could DIY something with a piece of brass, or just drill two holes in a nickel (whose weight is perfect.) If you use a nickel, I'd mount it above the headshell with washers both below and above. The washers will help isolate it from resonances. If you mount a nickel flat on the headshell, stray energies will bounce off it back into the cartridge, muddying the sound. (I've tried it, trust me.)

RANT_OFF

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great write up! I have a Fuji R100 and I love it. Although the only other cartridge I've had besides that is a Dyna 10X5..

Very interesting regarding the zeroDust tip. That is the only thing I've used to clean it.... hum. Better examine that with a magnifying glass. I'll look into that magic eraser thingy...(any links for this?)

I have the so-called "Silver Base" on mine from the start. I presume it helps, but could not argue one way or another as I haven't heard the Fuji w/o the SB.

Thanks for sharing, good stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the so-called "Silver Base" on mine from the start. I presume it helps, but could not argue one way or another as I haven't heard the Fuji w/o the SB.

yes, the "Silver Basement" would eliminate my cartridge weight problem :) That's probably my sole reason to upgrade at this point back to the R100 line, I'm that happy with the Bloom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

anyone heard these carts compared to the shelter 500/700/9000s? I have lusted after some of the ZYX carts for a whie but went the shelter route as they were easier to demo. Maybe once I am out of debt I can give these a try or is there a case to sell the shelter and pick one of these up are they that good?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

anyone heard these carts compared to the shelter 500/700/9000s? I have lusted after some of the ZYX carts for a whie but went the shelter route as they were easier to demo. Maybe once I am out of debt I can give these a try or is there a case to sell the shelter and pick one of these up are they that good?

well, I owned a Shelter 90X and wasn't all that happy with it once I heard the Zyx cartridges. How does it compare against the Bloom, I'd choose the Bloom in a heart beat. It's been quite a while since I've heard any Shelter cartridges, though. For the price, it's definitely worth a shot.

I cannot say I've ever seen a Bloom for sale on the used market.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

WOW I got my fuji yatra with the silver base today and it smoked the shelter 7000 without a doubt. All I can say is it is even across the spectrum where I felt the shelter had a mid bass/bass bloat that colored the sound. The ZYX has great stage depth and width and is very even across the spectrum. I am wiped out from a few days travel so I just have the cart roughed in at this point but it sounds just great.

Anyone thinking about these may want to contact SoraSound Mehran gave me a nice discount on the yatra/silver base combo and was excellent to deal with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone thinking about these may want to contact SoraSound Mehran gave me a nice discount on the yatra/silver base combo and was excellent to deal with.

:prettyprincess:

it's a wonderful cartridge. I haven't owned the Yatra, but I have had the Fuji and Airy cartridges and now the entry-level Bloom. If the silver basement was available for the Bloom, I probably wouldn't ever upgrade.

I will warn you, there's a good amount of break-in. I think they really take around 250 hours to fully get up and going, but the first big change came around 75 hours. You'll notice it. Also, all of my ZYX really seemed to like 1.85-1.9g tracking and were extremely sensitive to changes in VTF. I could definitely hear changes in 0.02g increments.

Did you go with the low output version?

Congrats!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted to go low output but he offered such a good deal on the .48 with the silver base that I could not refuse.

Does the cart take a dump and then come back or just steadily improve? So far right out of the box it is great, bass is just a touch prominent and if it opens in the mids and highs it would be perfect!! For now I am enjoying another layer of the sonic window removed this is one killer brand of carts. I almost went bloom but without the SB weight I would have to have used some sort of weight with my origin live encounter arm.

Next up is the wallet killing Galibier Serac turntable, thankfully it takes months to get and it's a 50% deposit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted to go low output but he offered such a good deal on the .48 with the silver base that I could not refuse.

Does the cart take a dump and then come back or just steadily improve? So far right out of the box it is great, bass is just a touch prominent and if it opens in the mids and highs it would be perfect!! For now I am enjoying another layer of the sonic window removed this is one killer brand of carts. I almost went bloom but without the SB weight I would have to have used some sort of weight with my origin live encounter arm.

Next up is the wallet killing Galibier Serac turntable, thankfully it takes months to get and it's a 50% deposit.

no, it starts off "bad" and gets amazing :) You're in for a ride. The main thing that gets so wonderful are the highs, and this why I love these cartridges so much. Tons of detail too... Analytical without being overly so. The bass will tighten up hen deepen and loose that woolly character it has now. I've been through the ride three times now. All cartridges were new when they got to me.

I use a block of sticky tac on top of the arm to weigh it down and looking into fashioning some custom delrin headshell weight. My next tonearm will be a Moerch, but I'll still need the SB someday.

I have a friend in town with the Galibrier Serac and XYZ UNIverse with a Triplanar arm. Quite an amazing combo.

Wait, didn't you PM me about a DAC? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The brake in on my Fuji was even, no appreciable decline in sound quality. Mine is a few years old, with maybe 10-15 hrs a month of use, it still sounds great. Also, it tends to warm up quickly, in my experience it only takes about one side of play to come to full life.

I agree on the nice and powerful bass. For headphones is no problem, but for speaker set ups, maybe having that "sub-sonic" filter may be a must.... But that is just a guess.

cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and yes, Mehran is the man to get ZYX stuff from.

Out on a semi-tangent, have you guys heard any of Nami's CDs (mehran's wife). WILD stuff. I like, but I can see it not being everyone's cup of tea, the material. I think there are links for some samples on the website IIRC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree on the nice and powerful bass. For headphones is no problem, but for speaker set ups, maybe having that "sub-sonic" filter may be a must.... But that is just a guess.

yup, I had to add a filter to my DIY Xono. I can get the values if need be, as they were taken directly from a real production Pass Xono, where the filter is non-defeatable. Just let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.