Help / commiserations needed

[whfal]

Evening all

First time post so hopefully happier ones after this...

I've recently reclaimed my study from being a nursery and happily went about the business of setting up my stereo again when I noticed the stylus on my cartridge not exactly pointing the way I might have expected - it looks it's been bent about 70 degrees sideways!

I'm guessing that somewhere along the line when the turntable's in the lounge but not being used, little fingers have found their way under the cover (it's a Gyrodec) and that's been the end of it.

The cartridge is a Dynavector DV-20X.

Does anyone have a view as to whether this might be fixable, either as a whole or with a new stylus (which I'm not sure is available for the Dynavector), where I might send it to investigate...etc?

I'm in central Scotland but it's a fairly expensive cartridge so postage isn't an issue if it sorts the problem.

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Al

 

[bigfish786]

http://www.northwestanalogue.com/contact

 

[Al ears]

http://www.northwestanalogue.com/contact

Ouch. Bent that much makes it very difficult to recover without snapping the thin aluminium tube. Speak to northwestanalogue as suggested but it may cost a check of a lot to repair. I lost my Zyx cartridge that way, would have cost more to repair than it was worth.

 

[whfal]

Yep, that's what I feared. I'll have a word with Northwest but I am tempted to just stick the thing on eBay clearly marked as broken / for spares on the offchance someone who knows what they're doing wants a bargain project.

With a new baby in the house my days of my buying cartridges in that league are gone for a while but it might pay for a budget one for now.

 

[Al ears]

Yep, that's what I feared. I'll have a word with Northwest but I am tempted to just stick the thing on eBay clearly marked as broken / for spares on the offchance someone who knows what they're doing wants a bargain project.

With a new baby in the house my days of my buying cartridges in that league are gone for a while but it might pay for a budget one for now.

Speak to him first but if your cartridge is a low-output I can recommend the Audio Technica AT33ptg. It's not cheap but about half the price of your Dynavector, or cheaper again a Denon DL103R.

 

[stevebrock]

The AT33 PTG2 is a great cartridge - it's up there with a Nag 500

 

[avole]

at all costs! Seriously, they're OK, but MC means Dynavector or Benz Micro in my book.

Expert Stylus are the go to company for repairs, by the way.

 

[whfal]

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

Looked around a bit and settled on a new Ortofon 2M blue in the end. I suspect that in a better listening environment it would be a noticeable downgrade but, having taken the time to set it up carefully, I'm pretty amazed how good it actually is.

Dynavector is now on eBay so we'll see if anyone's brave enough.

If anyone runs into the same problem I have to say that both Northwest Audio and the Expert Stylus Co were quick and comprehensive in providing helpful guidance and indicative quotes.

 

[Al ears]

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

Looked around a bit and settled on a new Ortofon 2M blue in the end. I suspect that in a better listening environment it would be a noticeable downgrade but, having taken the time to set it up carefully, I'm pretty amazed how good it actually is.

Dynavector is now on eBay so we'll see if anyone's brave enough.

If anyone runs into the same problem I have to say that both Northwest Audio and the Expert Stylus Co were quick and comprehensive in providing helpful guidance and indicative quotes.

And where those quotes prohibitive? I am guessing they were. I came to the conclusion that if your cartridge isn't worth about a grand it is not viable to repair.

Can we know what quotes were? I only approached Northwest when my Zyx died.

 

[Al ears]

at all costs! Seriously, they're OK, but MC means Dynavector or Benz Micro in my book.

Expert Stylus are the go to company for repairs, by the way.

In my opinion the Benz Micro Glider SL is the best value for money MC cartridge out there, you'd have to spend double the money to even get a 10% improvement.