Upper Level Vintage DD Strenghts and Weaknesses

In the meantime I have installed the Ikeda 9 Kawami in the Dynavector with a 15 gram headshell. The Dynavector arm is an unusual design, and what I found interesting is that there is a counterweight at the end of the main arm that has to be set in regards to cartridge weight, and then on the shorter arm there is a secondary counterweight that sets tracking force. On the main arm pillar there is a bearing that has a short range of vertical movement, even though the primary arm purpose is to travel in the horizontal range. Why there is a vertical travel with a bearing there I am not sure, but I followed the set up instructions for the cartridge weight and positioned the counterweight appropriately. 

Actually the Ikeda cartridge performed pretty well even though I had read posts where others have said it would not. I am not 100% sure its perfectly dialed in yet, although it tracks darn near everything perfectly. However, on Fleetwood Mac Dreams AP 45 release I have one phrase where I have a touch of sibilance. With the Ortofon MC200 installed I do not have this issue. So I still may have a bit of work to do. I wish there was a published procedure or SOP for setting one of these cartridges up. I imagine set up should work along the lines of a London Decca, so perhaps I will see what I can find out in a search about setting one of those cartridges up. 

The Dynavecotr is an unusual arm, and I wonder about its complicated nature at times. But I cannot argue with the results. I am pleased with the table and arm though. In listening to the Scheu and Dynavector with the Ikeda cartridge installed I am not sure the SOTA with SME V and Transfiguration is really any better. There are slight differences, but all in all the tables basically perform at the same level and have similar presentation. The Ortofon MC200 sounds quite nice and makes for an excellent casual play cartridge. My plan is to pick up a couple of good and modestly priced cartridges and use them in this manner, and then save the ZYX/Ikeda/Transfiguration for more serious listening sessions. 

I own 3 Dynavector tonearms, two are 505s and one is a 501.  I bought the DV505s because I was planning to create plinths out of solid slate, and I did not want to have to account for a removable tonearm mounting board or to cope with drilling a hole for a vertical shaft.  The DV505 works without either accommodation.  But I was also curious about its unique separation of the horizontal from the vertical pivot points.  The DV501 was essentially a stripped down version of the DV505 that lacks on-the-fly VTA adjustment and spring-loaded VTF.  The DV505 also has a long springy wire mounted out of sight under the arm wand, which is anchored only at one end so as to permit it to resonate; the idea was to soak up resonant energy that enters the arm wand.  It's tunable using an adjustable weight.  That feature is also lacking in the DV501.  Paradoxically, many end users feel that the DV501 is at least as good as or better than the DV505.  I have no dog in that fight.   I use one of the DV505s on my slate-plinthed Lenco, and I am very happy with it.  The other two DV tonearms are in mothballs. My long-winded point is that on none of my three DV tonearms does the horizontal bearing permit motion (of the arm wand) in the vertical plane.  You might check the horizontal bearing at the rear of the arm wand; it can get out of whack which may make it loose enough to permit the vertical motion you observe.

@lewm 
This is from the manual on the DV505. 

Horizontal balancing

Main arm is designed to maintain itself always level. But horizontal balancing is still necessary to distribute bearing load evenly and thereby realize best trackability. To achieve this balance, shell and sub weight alone normally suffice. First position sub weight A closest to the fore, or sub weight B at white-color balancing point mark, and then slide sub weight on scaled bar by one notch backward per every 5g added to cartridge weight. (In using any shell other than one supplied, add to or deduct from cartridge weight the difference in weight between these two shells.)

It's a bit confusing, but it essentially references how to set the counterweight on the main arm wand. It does have to be set, and you will see some travel on the primary arm wand in the vertical plane, but it's very limited. If a bearing was not there then why would you have adjustment of that large counterweight? 

The subweight is moveable fore and aft to balance the mass directly over the center of horizontal rotation. It is an approximate exercise, at best. But the actual horizontal bearing will only rotate in the horizontal plane. It’s true that you can tilt the whole shebang backward by about 30 degrees for various adjustments, but in operation the anterior vertical bearing will do all the work in the vertical plane. Its friction and mass are very much lower than what needs to be overcome if you tilt the whole assembly rearward on the posterior horizontal bearing. Unfortunately semantics get in the way of conveying my meaning as clearly as I would like. Photos would be better, if I knew how to post them.

@lewm 

No worries, I know exactly what you mean since I have set the arm up. It's interesting how the primary arm counterweight loads the horizontal bearing. I guess that degree of travel is a function of the horizontal bearings architecture. It makes sense that this bearing needs to be loaded so it's arc is flat in the horizontal plane, and the magnet assembly ensures that also. 

The Dynavector sure represents some unusual design decisions. But from what I hear it works very well, provides you have an unsuspended table. I guess the new generation Graham, Reed, Triplanar, and whatnot are supposed to be superior, but I have a suspicion it's not by a huge margin. I like what I hear from this arm with the cartridges I use.