Almost Time to Replace My DV-20xl

Oh me.
Not to offend anyone involved, but, not all dealers are experts at setup, whether they've been doing it for 1 or 30.

Your last sentence is fine for you- but not for a lot of us.
Like saying you should start off with a yugo till you've driven for years.
I wish I had had better gear when I had first started, and like I keep repeating, the Original Poster is way beyond that.

Life is too short to drink cheap beer--same goes for hifi!
Now I'm done....

Hmmm..a Yugo? A preferable metaphor: one may also start off buying a beautiful expensive house...built upon sand.

ah, I see...the ol "build your house upon a rock, and you will be a beacon of light to many"....I'd say ask for a better architect/engineer!

also, it seems, like in much of life, ignorance is bliss...

Both of you are right -

- I had the jmw9sig and experienced poor tracking from a variety of cartridges. After countless setups (various dealers, myself w/ Mint tractor and VPI themselves) I finally learned that if after a couple of setup attempts mistracking does not go away, then there is a problem with the arm, cartridge or their relationship. In my case (and many others if you search the forums) I found out that the JMW9 is prone to mistracking, and my personal opinion is that it's to be avoided. After trying various high $$$ cartridges, I too ended up with an Audio Technica (AT33PTG) which finally minimized (but did not eliminate) the distortion.

- With that said, yes, there are better sounding cartridges that AT.

The OP does not have the JMW arm, he has the Dynavector arm which I haven't heard but looks to be a very good arm.

So - yes, he will need to make sure whatever cartridge he chooses does not have distortion, but with this arm, I doubt he will have that problem.

To the original question - sorry I can't help as I haven't heard them, but I'd say go for the XV1S if you can afford it. Otherwise, you'll just be wishing that you had!

For a bit less money, the Lyra Kleos and Delos are supposed to be really good for the price. Haven't heard those yet either, but I would like to!

Thanks, Goatwuss....truth always wins out.
and agreed, for the original question, if he can afford it, the XV-1S is one of the great cartridges, and more importantly, as you have found out in your situation, it is a very synergistic combination!
I guess question to you, GW, is, why didn't you just change arms? I had a VPI at one time, but not their arm.
take care