Thanks to members here for lots of good advice on my cartridge purchase decision, so here’s a bit more on my new Dynavector 10x5 MKII (Shibata)
Set up difficulty for Shibata is high but a Fozgometer and Feickert protractor made setting up this cartridge much easier. Particularly the Fozgometer as regards to azimuth set up, which I understand is VERY important with a Shibata stylus. There are some options out there that do what the Feickert does fairly well. I made a first pass at trying to get the azimuth right by leveling the tonearm and eyeballing the headshell for parallel positioning as compared to the platter and record surface. Sounded OK, very OK in fact.
Then I connected the Foz, it’s pretty simple but the directions can be confusing. Now when making the adjustments, there’s nothing to hear. Just test tones fed directly into the Foz. Whoa, balance between left and right was off significantly. Turntable is level, tonearm is right but the Foz helps get the Shibata settled deep into those grooves. I have a Micro Seiki BL-51 with a new Jelco 550S arm with the HS-25 headshell which allowed for azimuth adjustability fairly easily. A couple of twists left and one back to the right and I achieved a balance of a quarter to a third of a tic on the Foz scale. Even the directions say, when you have it as close as possible you got it. Well, not in those exact words.
Here comes the good part, channel balance is now AMAZING! And now the really amazing part, one of the reference albums I’ve been using. just jumped out at me with a soundstage, left and right, up and down, front to back that certainly hadn’t been present before AND with midrange and high end detail that just wasn’t present before. I’m hearing things on my reference albums the Shibata is digging out, small and elegant details. But not JUST the small stuff, the mids and high end overall has gained volume and is more balanced. Gobs of good bass.
Depth on Arnie Domnerus Septet, A.D. 1980
“If You Could See Me Now”
Amazing depth and instrument placing, not just left or right but front to back, a good two or three feet more than the elliptical and UP and DOWN in the same plane, the drummer coming up from the snake to a tom a bit up and to the left(his right). It startled me.
Many layers of flute timbre I hadn’t noticed before. It think Dynavector owners have remarked about layering and it’s hard to put into words.
Paul Simon, Hearts and Bones
A small reverb on a whistle is audible.
Increased shading of the guitar strums
Fade out on “Baby I Think Too Much” lingers at a lower volume than I recall.
“Song About the Heart” Paul Simon’s vocal very small warble on “heart” now noticeable.
I can only hope it gets even better as it breaks in. But damn, I think I made a good decision.
Now I’m just bragging.
Maybe some more later if I can pull myself away from playing rekkids. I haven’t turned on my digital rig in days.
Set up difficulty for Shibata is high but a Fozgometer and Feickert protractor made setting up this cartridge much easier. Particularly the Fozgometer as regards to azimuth set up, which I understand is VERY important with a Shibata stylus. There are some options out there that do what the Feickert does fairly well. I made a first pass at trying to get the azimuth right by leveling the tonearm and eyeballing the headshell for parallel positioning as compared to the platter and record surface. Sounded OK, very OK in fact.
Then I connected the Foz, it’s pretty simple but the directions can be confusing. Now when making the adjustments, there’s nothing to hear. Just test tones fed directly into the Foz. Whoa, balance between left and right was off significantly. Turntable is level, tonearm is right but the Foz helps get the Shibata settled deep into those grooves. I have a Micro Seiki BL-51 with a new Jelco 550S arm with the HS-25 headshell which allowed for azimuth adjustability fairly easily. A couple of twists left and one back to the right and I achieved a balance of a quarter to a third of a tic on the Foz scale. Even the directions say, when you have it as close as possible you got it. Well, not in those exact words.
Here comes the good part, channel balance is now AMAZING! And now the really amazing part, one of the reference albums I’ve been using. just jumped out at me with a soundstage, left and right, up and down, front to back that certainly hadn’t been present before AND with midrange and high end detail that just wasn’t present before. I’m hearing things on my reference albums the Shibata is digging out, small and elegant details. But not JUST the small stuff, the mids and high end overall has gained volume and is more balanced. Gobs of good bass.
Depth on Arnie Domnerus Septet, A.D. 1980
“If You Could See Me Now”
Amazing depth and instrument placing, not just left or right but front to back, a good two or three feet more than the elliptical and UP and DOWN in the same plane, the drummer coming up from the snake to a tom a bit up and to the left(his right). It startled me.
Many layers of flute timbre I hadn’t noticed before. It think Dynavector owners have remarked about layering and it’s hard to put into words.
Paul Simon, Hearts and Bones
A small reverb on a whistle is audible.
Increased shading of the guitar strums
Fade out on “Baby I Think Too Much” lingers at a lower volume than I recall.
“Song About the Heart” Paul Simon’s vocal very small warble on “heart” now noticeable.
I can only hope it gets even better as it breaks in. But damn, I think I made a good decision.
Now I’m just bragging.
Maybe some more later if I can pull myself away from playing rekkids. I haven’t turned on my digital rig in days.
