Hi-End carts - pros

Kurt is one of my acquaintances in Audiogon. Yes, I upgraded to the Goldfinger v2. I don't have any experience with the Koetsu cartridge.

The XV-1s is an excellent all around cartridge from top to bottom. Excellent tracking, rich tonality, low noise, big soundstage, and good extension on both ends. However,in terms of resolution, soundstage, and noise floor, the Goldfinger v2 is in different league. Since the topic here doesn't include the Goldfinger, I am not going to talk about it in detail.

That said, I agree all high end cartridges are good performers. Hard to go wrong with any of the above you mentioned.

Thanks to all for the inputs, I have committed to the Dyna XV-1s, which should arrive in about 7-10 days. Keep you guys updated on how it sounds. :)

cmk,

Congratulations!

I am sure you will like it.

I will point out a couple of things:

One, it does have an exposed cantilever, so be very careful in mounting it. (And another word of advice: Keep it either covered with the stylus guard, or keep a turntable dust cover on it. I had a different cartridge with an exposed cantilever, and my friend's kids strummed it like a guitar string to hear the noise it made. Needless to say - Ouch! Scratch one cartridge!)

Two, you might have read that some people have loaded the cartridge heavier than the recommended VTF. (I have read up to 2.5 grams of VTF) I recommend against doing that. It tracks just fine at 1.9-2.0 grams, IMHO, and in the opinion of two friends who used it as well.

Well, good luck and I am sure you will enjoy the cartridge.

Congratulations! I am sure you will like it. I agree with Kurk_Tank that you don't need to set the VTF beyond the max. recommended by the manufacturer. I had good results at 2.0 gram. I didn't see any sonic benefits at 2.5 grams and beyond, except my pulse rate went up when I saw the cartridge almost bottom out at 2.5g. Enjoy.