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ADC ZLM - will it match with any of these tables/arms I have?

redondo2018

redondo2018

Active Member
Just picked up an ADC ZLM with what looks like a fair amount of tip left on it. Would love to try it out, but after reading about its delicate suspension I'm not sure if I have a match in tables/arms (I have a bunch of tables, including now the Miida T-3115 table this was mounted on). All of these tables have the stock arms and I believe all of them are considered medium mass, with of course the PL-530 and 1219 fully auto and the rest manual:

Pioneer PL-530
Thorens TD-145 (TP-16 arm)
AR XB
Dual 1219
Miida T-3115
Pioneer PL-71

Any suggestions? Should I just put the ZLM in a box until I have a low-mass arm someday? Thanks in advance!
 
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Why not just try it and have a listen on your own vs. relying on the opinions of others. That's how you learn. You got nothing to loose but a little time.
 
MRL_Audio said:
Why not just try it and have a listen on your own vs. relying on the opinions of others. That's how you learn. You got nothing to loose but a little time.
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Sure, but I've read that the suspension is kind of fragile, so hoping someone has some advice.
 
redondo: Actually the arm of the 1219 should be more on the light side - though the result for the effective mass, one would get from back calculation of the resonance frequency with the M91ED, that Dual has published in the 1219 brochure, would appear too low to really appear plausible.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Not familiar with the Miida, but all of the others should work acceptably. Set tracking at the high end of the range (1.25g).
 
gkimeng said:
Not familiar with the Miida, but all of the others should work acceptably. Set tracking at the high end of the range (1.25g).
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Thanks! In that case, I'm thinking I'm going to keep it off of the autos (which of course I can use in manual but rarely do) so as not to have it come down too hard on the suspension. I mean, I've got them dampened correctly and all, but I think it's probably safer. The Miida is a rebadged Denon GT-700 btw. Also, greetings from PDX ;-)
 
I would think the arm on the Dual would be the first one to try. There are some numbers floating around that it may have as low effective mass as 6-7 grams, which puts it in the low mass camp.
Just run it in manual to make the needle drops easy on that thin cantilever :-).

Dunno about the other arms. But I know if that ZLM is in good shape and you find the right matching arm you're in for a treat.

Just got its sibling XLM setup on a ultra low mass ADC LMF-1 arm and I have stopped thinking about any further upgrades. This is endgame stuff!
 
T68 said:
I would think the arm on the Dual would be the first one to try. There are some numbers floating around that it may have as low effective mass as 6-7 grams, which puts it in the low mass camp.
Just run it in manual to make the needle drops easy on that thin cantilever :).

Dunno about the other arms. But I know if that ZLM is in good shape and you find the right matching arm you're in for a treat.

Just got its sibling XLM setup on a ultra low mass ADC LMF-1 arm and I have stopped thinking about any further upgrades. This is endgame stuff!
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Cool, I'll give the Dual a try (wish the manual operation was a bit smoother though). What sucks is I moved last summer and before that I had a direct drive that has a low mass arm but sold it because all of my carts were for medium-mass arms.
 
redondo2018 said:
Cool, I'll give the Dual a try (wish the manual operation was a bit smoother though). What sucks is I moved last summer and before that I had a direct drive that has a low mass arm but sold it because all of my carts were for medium-mass arms.
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A medium-low mass arm is fine for the ZLM as long as the stylus suspension is in good shape. This is NOT a cartridge you want to run at the top limit of its suspension. It can easily fail on you. Run it at 1.0-1.1 grams, tops, until you know the suspension will hold up.

On full auto mechanical tables, it’s not the “start” and needle drop you need to be concerned with. It’s the auto return function you need to be careful of. Toward the end of the record, the arm has to engage a lever, Gear, or some mechanical function. Many require a certain minimum force. Tracking at 1.1 grams, or even at 1.2, often the cantilever gives way trying to push the tonearm into that return mechanism. You’ll hear high distortion and then groove jumping as the cantilever suspension runs out of stiffness to push the tonearm.

Rarely do tables disengage the autoreturn when put in “manual” mode.

So consider what type of return mechanism your table has, as well as arm mass.

I run the ZLM/XLMs on a medium-low mass arm with no issues at all. The return mechanism uses a photo-optics switch to engage autoreturn.
 
Wolfie62 said:
A medium-low mass arm is fine for the ZLM as long as the stylus suspension is in good shape. This is NOT a cartridge you want to run at the top limit of its suspension. It can easily fail on you. Run it at 1.0-1.1 grams, tops, until you know the suspension will hold up.

On full auto mechanical tables, it’s not the “start” and needle drop you need to be concerned with. It’s the auto return function you need to be careful of. Toward the end of the record, the arm has to engage a lever, Gear, or some mechanical function. Many require a certain minimum force. Tracking at 1.1 grams, or even at 1.2, often the cantilever gives way trying to push the tonearm into that return mechanism. You’ll hear high distortion and then groove jumping as the cantilever suspension runs out of stiffness to push the tonearm.

Rarely do tables disengage the autoreturn when put in “manual” mode.

So consider what type of return mechanism your table has, as well as arm mass.

I run the ZLM/XLMs on a medium-low mass arm with no issues at all. The return mechanism uses a photo-optics switch to engage autoreturn.
Click to expand...
Ok, great points! Now I'm leaning toward the AR XB as the consensus is it's around 6-7g of effective mass (they never published specs), and of course it's all manual.
 
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