Slowhand, I own two DV505s. I have not seen a DV507 MkII in the flesh, but as far as I can determine the major refinement between 505 and 507 is the use of a magnetic- or spring-based method for applying anti-skate force, which permits the use of a dial rather than a weight on a string to adjust AS. In addition, I think I read somewhere that the DV507 is very slightly shorter/smaller than the 505, to enable it to be used on a wider variety of tables. And also, the DV507 has a vertical shaft that penetrates the tonearm mounting board, so that the wiring comes out the bottom of that shaft, below the top surface of the tt. In the 505, the wiring comes out laterally from the base across the top side of the armboard. It is not therefore necessary to drill a large hole to mount it. For neatness, Dynavector supplied a 90-degree angled DIN plug, so that the wire itself can go down thru the armboard. (I personally prefer the 505 in this respect; you can just plunk it down on any armboard without drilling a hole for that shaft, then use a straight DIN plug instead of the factory one. Then all you need are two screws to hold it in place. This has been very handy with my slate plinths.) FWIW, the DV505 has a "lateral balance weight", and it appears that the 507s do not. The LBW is to stabilize the movement of the arm in the horizontal plane when there is no applied AS force. I cannot see any reason why the DV505 would not work as well/sound as good as the 507s, but the weight of the 505 might be greater, precluding it's use on certain sprung tts. And yes, the DV505 does have the mechanical VTA aduster. I would not dare to use it "on the fly", but it works very well in a static situation. (Just lift the needle before you make an adjustment.)