ZYX ATMOS / ZYX 4D cartridges…. the truth?

based on my verbal and email exchanges with nakatsuka san and Sibatech, ZYX ATMOS and ZYX 4D are the same. in fact, on dec. 10, 2007, based on nakatsuka san’s suggestion, i had requested ZYX/Sibatech to make some ZYX 4D empty boxes and manuals for me, so i could take pictures of them as a proof that we could have ZYX 4D available to our customers if they wanted. this was mainly to address some rumors in germany that SORAsound could not get ZYX 4D and that 4D was better than ZYX atmos and ZYX UNIverse.

here you see one of SORAsound/4D pictures. relabeling my existing ATMOS inventory to 4D was going to cost me 7,000 yen per cartridge but i decided to stick with atmos, mainly because we had done some reviews of it, nakatsuka san (and me too) also thought it may be confusing to our customers, and also, because i wanted to easily identify the gray market 4D (a “friend/associate” of mine had unfortunately contributed to that).

a comment recently posted on audiogon, allegedly on behalf of these companies, indicates they are different. i think it is pure BULL. i simply can not imagine these words are from nakatsuka san as i still have a lot of respect for him.