while I try and save the pennies needed for the cart and phono stnage that I want, I have decided to have a play with a dynavector 20x. It does not have the treble lift of a lot of MC's (or not to my ears), is nimble enough on its feet, and appears to be much more concerned with reproducing music rather than going for hi-fi attributes. By that I mean it does not sound spectacular in any way, it just gets on with conveying the tones and nuance in music, shows the differences in kit and lets me enjoy what I'm listening to. The dealer is posting a new to me, but like a twonk I don't know what spacers I'm going to need. Any one happen to know.

Right twomk .
in my used and abused drawer are perfect , apart from no cantilevers , examples of both rega elys and a dyno 20x5.
the dyno is 3 to 3.5 mm higher than the rega.
Ergo on a rega deck n rega arm your gonna be looking at 3mm.
Don't go bigger , the dyno sound went off if the arm sloped down to the cart but ok down slightly at the pillar end.

Ta Mr Man
It'll have to be a 2mm spacer then, cos I have a box full of 2mm ones and nowt else

Colin

well, it turned up this morning, pretty box, easy to fit, nice to have threaded inserts instead of pillocking about with nuts and bolts, especially given that I appear to have been born with 6 thumbs on each hand.

Whats it sound like, daft as this might sound, like music. Obviously its new and needs to bed in a bit, but out of the box, its clean, balanced, and does not have that to me annoying top end lift that a lot of MC's have. It's on its 5th album at the mo' (enlightement- Van M), and it has gone from been well enclosed within the speakers boundaries to out to the speaker edges, and about a foot taller in that short time. So far I'm very pleased with it, and if it keeps going the same way I think it will more than meet my needs for the next couple of years. I may have a play with the VTA over the weekend as it will have had a few more hours on it by then.

How you going to alter vta ?
It's not going to mske a jot of diference . If the arms level leave it alone , thats what it's designed for .

What a time your gonna have ?Life after denon !

I have had a search through the packing, and Have found a 2mm shim, a 1arm is mm shim, and the man that sold me the cart gave me 2 x 2mm shims, so I can build the leaning tower of twonk if I want. As you well know, checking if a Rega arm is level is a bugger, what with it being tapered and all that, but I appear to have got it right. I will fold some lined paper and use that as a level later and see. The way its sounding so far though I think its staying as is.

I'm thinking ole battyman bachman is going to be twonking us about this when the colonists arrive.
He luuurves vta !

I normally sort it (ish) when I fit a new cart, then leave it be. This pratting around for different LP's and stuff is not for me. As for life after denon, I'm not so sure thats the case. I may yet order a 301 from the land of the rising sun.

Have you heard a 103R ?
I'm buying a new cart soon .

Yes (103R) its a nice sound, but it fits into the same bracket as the 103 for me. I could listen to them especially on older jazz recordings, but I prefer a more modern sound. If you want info on the 103's in various guises have a read through the art of sound forum. Just read, for gawds sake dont join and post.

I had the DV20X on a RB900 and I didn't touch it VTA wise, just fit and play I say, I'm a bit like Mr Roy Gandy in that VTA doesn't make a huge amount of difference and people do tend to go a bit anal over it, even the thickness in a record changes which can upset the tracking arm angle.

It's a super sounding cart, I loved mine, I think DV and Rega work a treat together, I only sold mine to move up to a DV17

well having had a mess around, (just lined paper) a 2mm shim under the arm is more than near enough. The deck has had a little bit of use this week end, (new toy syndrome no doubt). Its hard to write any thing much about the cart. The more use it gets, the better it gets at the moment. I suppose that will balance off when it gets out to 40+ hours on it. It just really plays music. No hi-fi fireworks to impress in a quick dem. It sounds flat through the range, as in no boosts or drops. It does not seem to care if I throw some poor heavy metal recording or well recorded classical piece. It conveys the tones and textures very well. Brass instruments have the right amount of glare and tizz where needed, you can easily hear how strings on guitars are being worked, and the a nice attack on the front of notes where its needed. The decay on notes is right up their as well. To add to that, using the Rega phono stage, other than the odd pop and tick it all comes up out of a very quite background.

With the Cart plugged into the deck, I can just settle and enjoy the music.
The only thing that I will need to rectify is that it is a heavy cart, and the standard counterweight is well back on the arm, so I will track doen one of the heavy units at some point. I could fit the technoweight I suppose, but I want to keep the deck as standard as possible for a while.

I'm glad your enjoying it Coli
How's it rate with your digital ?

both very good, but different. But then saturn is not as ''digital'' sounding as a lot of CD players. I find the biggest differences are in how the recording was mastered. A poor a-d converstion sounds poor, but a well recorded digital master poorly converted d-a can still sound poor.