Dynavector XV-1S tracking force issue

I installed a Dynavector XV-1S in a Well Tempered Arm and after reading the comments here about tracking heavy I first tried it at 2.4 grams with poor results. The highs were muddy and I could not make the specified 30 db separation, even after careful azimuth adjustment.

After trying 1.8 and 2.2 grams, I found that this particular cartridge sample and tone arm combination sounded best at 2.0 grams. I was also able to make 30 db separation at 1 KHz, L into R and R into L. at the 2.0 gram setting.

After I have 50 hours on the cartridge, I'm going to teak the adjustments again and see if I get any improvement in separation, IM distortion and overall subjective sound.

What Raul said ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier (in an uncharacteristically short post)

I would START evaluating every cartridge at 47K if this is possible (or without supplementary loading resistors with a step-up transformer), and work my way down in binary increments (halving the load with each successive step).

You may well find some LOMC cartridges are fine at 47K.

I would NEVER advocate a universal loading rule however (as Raul states). If this was truly what HP recommended, it is misguided thinking.

Note that loading is contextual to not only the cartridge (rolling off ultrasonics), but to your phono stage (how it reacts to ultrasonics by ringing and misbehaving in other ways). There's a recent thread where Ralph (Atma-sphere) comments on this.

As usual, the correct answer is: "it depends".

Case in point: I've loaded my XV-1s with good results, anywhere from 35 ohms, to 47K - depending on the RIAA stage in use.

On my Atma-sphere MP-1, 47K is fine.

Treat loading the way you would tracking force and anti-skate. Apply just enough, and not too much. Too much of any of these parameters squashes dynamics, and too little is edgy (a necessary generalization to keep this post brief).

If the numbers tell you one thing, and your ears tell you another, guess which "instrument" you should trust.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Br2600, you've done just fine! Good ears over dogma anyday.
Enjoy!

After 50 hours, it was sounding pretty good, but for $4000 I thought it could do better. I checked the VTA again, and found I had less measured IM by having the arm going "downhill" from the pivot point, not parallel to the surface of the record. Subjectively, the slight harshness in the high end was gone! A difficult to reproduce direct to disk jazz record sounded as close to "live" as I think you can get with an LP recording. For this sample anyway, the optimum tracking force is 2.0 gram, right in the middle of the recommended range.