Are Boron Cantilevers Becoming Extinct?

[Mister Pig]

ZYX has just released a new replacement line for all their cartridges. The new ones are using a composite carbon cantilever. There have been rumblings that boron cantilevers are scarce, with Ortofon switching to sapphire ones on their Quintet Black. But now another manufacturer seems to be heading in a different direction.

This composite carbon fiber is more rigid than aluminum, iron and titanium. In addition, its specific gravity is just half that of boron. Therefore we can be sure that the C-1000 carbon cantilever is the ultimate and ideal cantilever material for analogue record playback.

Perhaps we are in the midst of another evolutionary change in cartridge design.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[4-2-7]

There have been rumblings that boron cantilevers are scarce, with Ortofon switching to sapphire ones on their Quintet Black.

Yes that's what I'v heard

Perhaps we are in the midst of another evolutionary change in cartridge design.

Maybe but most likely a way to not use boron.

BTW, since you have a boron ZYX, we delegate you to get the new one and test it side by side.

 

[twiiii]

Ortofon just released a new top of the line cartridge using Boron. In fact boron has become readily available again according to an Ortofon chief designer allowing the new design at a lower reported selling price.

 

[dosmalo]

I have an Audioquest AQ404i and an Audioquest B100ML and I looked as soon as I saw this thread and the cantilevers are still there.

 

[Gibsonian]

Hadn't heard about any shortage of boron. Just bought a boron cantilevered AT33sa, in route as we speak.

 

[Gibsonian]

With a bit more research seems indeed a worldwide shortage being reported.....

 

[revox-b77]

I have to ask my brother...OH wait you said Boron...never mind.

 

[Mister Pig]

I have to ask my brother...OH wait you said Boron...never mind.

We're you at the bathroom facing the vanity when you were talking to your brother?

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[Gibsonian]

This composite carbon fiber is more rigid than aluminum, iron and titanium. In addition, its specific gravity is just half that of boron. Therefore we can be sure that the C-1000 carbon cantilever is the ultimate and ideal cantilever material for analogue record playback.

Based on the statement above, I believe it is safe to say that boron cantilever is more rigid than the carbon fiber one!

 

[Freddymac2]

Well in my opinion, call it what you will, but plastic is plastic, and suffers from heat and UV exposure. I can almost promise you that my close to 36 year old Koetsu with the Boron cantilever on it would not even be working, no less sound as sweet. And after two Dynavector 23 R ruby cantilevers shattered in under 3 years, I am going to stay with Boron. That doesn't mean that I would not listen to the lower mass cantilever, but I doubt if I could afford it. I have yet to find anything that will reproduce human voice like the Koetsu does. If you haven't noticed, many of our advancements go sideways or even backwards.

 

[ripblade]

If another manufacturer has stepped in to restore the supply of boron cantilevers, that's great news! Boron has been my favourite material since I first heard it decades ago. Corundum can sound shrill with the wrong generator, and the softer metals have a metallic tinge to the sound that is easily noticed on ancient acoustic instruments that used no metals in their construction.

The only CF cantilever I'd heard left me unimpressed. It offered better neutrality than the softer metals and none of the zing of corundum, but complex passages became confused and congested, the timbral dynamics blending together.

I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed as the disappearance of boron would be too depressing to contemplate.

 

[Nat]

It seems to me that any boron shortage would have to be pretty dire to actually matter to cartridge makers -- what can the total mass of all boron cantilevers ever made be? A ounce or two? Probably way less.

 

[matteos]

ZYX has just released a new replacement line for all their cartridges. The new ones are using a composite carbon cantilever. There have been rumblings that boron cantilevers are scarce, with Ortofon switching to sapphire ones on their Quintet Black. But now another manufacturer seems to be heading in a different direction.

This composite carbon fiber is more rigid than aluminum, iron and titanium. In addition, its specific gravity is just half that of boron. Therefore we can be sure that the C-1000 carbon cantilever is the ultimate and ideal cantilever material for analogue record playback.

Perhaps we are in the midst of another evolutionary change in cartridge design.

Regards
Mister Pig

Carbon fiber is such a great material. People are making speaker cones from it. Would love to hear it in audio. Very light, incredibly strong. I hope we see more gear utilizing it.

 

[theophile]

Someone said that it was an asteroid that did it.

 

[gusten]

Someone said that it was an asteroid that did it.

I wouldn´t be surprised. Those damn asteroids.

 

[theophile]

I wouldn´t be surprised. Those damn asteroids.

Preparation H is the answer for asteroids.

 

[luvvinvinyl]

Auto-correct didn't pick up your spelling error. Should be double 's' after the 'a'.

 

[808_state]

I've just started using a cart with a Beryllium cantilever (Yamaha MC-1s). If people are still using Be for speakers any reason they can't find a safe way to produce a few more tiny needles?

 

[ripblade]

I've just started using a cart with a Beryllium cantilever (Yamaha MC-1s). If people are still using Be for speakers any reason they can't find a safe way to produce a few more tiny needles?

I wish! Be is supposed to be even better, but when was the last needle offered with it? Boron is toxic too, but apparently not as bad. It's one reason I fear it's extinction for cartridges.

 

[808_state]

I wish! Be is supposed to be even better, but when was the last needle offered with it? Boron is toxic too, but apparently not as bad. It's one reason I fear it's extinction for cartridges.

Focal uses Be in tweeters so it can't be that big of a deal...hopefully with Boron it's just a lack of supply, ie. whoever actually makes the cantilevers just hasn't been doing it.