cantelever not straight, advise please.


So I purchased a Dynavector 17D Mk2 from a fellow audiogoner here a couple weeks ago and received it yesterday. First thing I did was open the box and without removing the cart from the mounting plate or even removing the stylus guard I peeked a look at the cantelever. First thing I noticed is that it is not straight (by that I mean not parallel to the sides and square to the front of the cartridge body) I have seen other Dynavectors advertised as not having straight cantelvers and have purposly avoided them. The one I bought was advertised as being like new with 10 hours of use, no mention of the cantelever not being straight.

I'm not splitting hairs here either, it's way off, to the point where you could not use the cartridge body to align it.

I don't know how much of a big deal this is, except that I now own a cartridge that I would not sell without stating clearly that the cantelever is not straight.

I talked to the selling and he says he checked it under a microscope and that is was straight when it left his hands.

I don't think this is my problem at all and I should be offered a refund, but I'm not so sure the seller sees it that way. I told him I would be willing to give it a try, but if it falls off or something then he should stand behind it. I don't think he likes that either.

Just thought I'd run it by you guys here and see what the general consensus would be and if you think I should should just drop it mount it and hope it is OK, or demand a refund.
128x128ejlif

Showing 5 responses by ejlif

Thanks for all the responses, this is some really good advise.

I really can't say for sure that the seller is refusing anything, other than I haven't heard back from him for a day, but that is no big deal, it's a holiday.

I just wanted to get the general consensous as to what I should do here and it sounds like returning it for a refund is the the way to go.

It was advertised as 9/10 10 hours of use and like new.
Looked at it one more time with a good light and magnifying lense and not only is the cantelver not straight or "true" but it is extremely crudded up with gunk and dust, something I would not think would happen with a cart with only 10 hours on it? I have a cart with at least 100 hours since I bought it new and it looks very clean and not coated with crud and gunk.
Well as an update the guy refuses to do anything. So we are off to Audiogon mediation I guess. I'd just leave the guy a nice fat negative feedback and be done with it, but there is the worry of him just retaliating and doing the same. I did nothing wrong and have stellar feedback. I make sure to take care of anyone who buys from me and don't want that perfect track record of 8 years tarnished because of some a$$hole from Reno. I may just have to chalk it up as a loss and hope it works OK and just keep it forever.
I can say with complete certainty that if anyone bought my used Dynavector 20XL that they would be getting a solid cartridge that works perfect and has approx 100-150 hours. I guess the real problem is that I didn't buy my cart from the right type of seller. I should have investigated him a bit more. His cart was a good deal and I just said I'll take it. It's not like it's a lot of money, it's more the point of it all that bugs me.

I'll just have to delve more into a person's character from now on and find out if they are worthy of selling a used cartridge or not. If I knew without a doubt that I would be happy forever with any one cartridge I would buy a new one and just be done with it. Even that sounds like it can be a risky proposition!
I did file a complaint and basically Audiogon did nothing to help. I was at least hoping they would put it up in the member diputes forum and that it could be decided amongst our members who was right and who was wrong.

I ended up mounting the cart and it seems to work fine. It's just not what was advertised and not what I paid for. John Pevarski AKA Backpaddle on Audiogon is who I bought it from. I'd leave him negative feedback, but he'll just do the same and I'm not going to tarnish my perfect record of 10 years for this piece of $hit guy.