MYSTERY DYNAVECTOR KARAT 23R

Thanks all, for the comments. Chakster, I can’t say VE is 50% wrong but I’ve seen enough errors not to trust it. The Karat 23R I have sounds very good, but it’s NOS so has to "break in" (or whatever a cartridge that old does, hopefully not "break down".)

Many will impute this to fantasy, but as I mentioned that alleged "super elliptical" looks so much like the Shure Micro-Ridge under 30X. The Shure V15 IV is a "super-elliptical-type" stylus and looks very wide compared to the V15 V, which DOES look a lot like the Dyna stylus. Maybe I’m just dreamin’.

As for the 20B Type 2 High-Output, I’m in no hurry to try it. I agree with others, including Chakster, that MM/MI is better. When I was first starting this audio thing ages ago, a friend imported cartridges and let me try them new. I had a LOMC and a HOMC from Glanz, and the HOMC was really bad — the Stanton 881S and Shure Ultra 400 totally humiliated it.

But the Glanz LOMC was terrific and I bought it. But it was lost, along with 25+ other "New" (±33 years ago — now "NOS Vintage") carts, during a burglary. Among them were 5 of the Grace F9 series, with all the variations stylus/cantilever variations. All new.

Did the burglars want phono cartridges? Hardly, they didn’t even know what they were — but they were in drawers that could be emptied real fast into big sacks like jewelry, watches, etc. Smash and Grab and get out Fast.

Probably threw the cartridges in the gutter. Or maybe, if they took the time, saved the nice little wood and plastic boxes and screws — now THOSE had an obvious usefulness.

Also, I got a Dyna 20B Type 2 High-Output MC

Here is your 20B type 2

It has a small badge on one side, only saying "Dynavector".

This is probably your model if there is only Dynavector log on the side.


If you want to check the specs for old models a Japanese library sources are much better to look for it. They know their stuff.

Funny that Dymavector own name for Micro Ridge was actually MICRO REACH!

What microscope do you use to look at the styli ? 

Bimasta.
Sorry to hear about your Audio loss during the burglary.
Hope no harm done apart from material losses.

Chakster
BTW I did buy the nos Karat 23R.
Awaiting it's arrival.

Hope no harm done apart from material losses.

By sheer luck. They broke in a 4 a.m., when my wife and I would normally be sleeping. They came prepared to kill. But it was a very rare night we were out at an after-hours jam, so they left the weapons behind as needless weight to carry back.

No guns or anything costly to replace — just a sawed-off short-handled Shovel for smashing my skull (kill the man first) and two Machetes for decapitating my wife if the noise of my skull crunching beside her woke her up. If she eluded the first machete because she'd been wakened and ran, the second was for chasing her down.

I've often read in these and similar pages that "I'd kill for a (fill in the blank)" — I always read them with a jaundiced eye.