Dynavector DV 20X-L -- which MM will better it?

Axel, there's an abundance of disagreement about this topic, as you've no doubt noticed. Some listeners think the Shure V15mr was the apogee of MM technology. I'm among the other camp that was never particularly enchanted by it. To my ears, it was rather ho-hum. I much prefer the sound of Garrott Brothers cartridges. As you probably know, they lack US distribution at this time though. They can be ordered from Decibelhifi.com.au in Australia (their country of origin.) Paul Szabady has reviews of the Optim range which can easily be found online. Another MM I'd like to hear is the Reson Reca. It's based on the Goldring 1042, but tweaked to a higher level of performance. I've got a Goldring 1042 and it's got many positive attributes that make it particularly suited to rock, blues, & some jazz. It lacks the refinement that I want for more textured and subtle music like classical. Supposedly, the Reca addresses those areas of shortcomings. In the end though, I doubt that any MM is going to have the treble resolution and nuance of a good MC. I do like the non-fusiness of MM cartridges and the well integrated musical wholeness of the good ones. The Soundsmith cartridges are another non MC design that sounds worth investigating as well.

I've also got a Grado Reference Sonata and find it has some occasional problems tracking highly modulated inner grooves with my VPI JMW9 arm. Not a frequent problem, but it is annoying all the same. Admittedly, the Grado does have a very relaxed and beautiful sounding midrange. In contrast, the Garrot Optim FGS has a more linear character that doesn't make one aware of a particular frequency region standing out in comparison. It's upper midrange to treble is much more satisfactory to my ears, more linear and detailed. You're not going to think it's a top flight moving coil, but it sounds "right." Axel mentions siblilants as a problem, which was greatly helped in my set up with the addition of a small tweak. I ordered a sheet of part # vds-0040-e vibration damping sheet from smallparts.com and cut a pad to go between the cartridge body and headshell. I traced the outline of the headshell onto the pad, cut it out, & drilled mounting holes. It's a very thin .040" sheet that functions quite effectively to reduce vibrations in the cartridge body. Sibilants became much cleaner with every cartridge I've used it with.