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Dynavector Karat 17D3

TunerLanding

TunerLanding

Active Member
Hello, I have a line on a great deal on one of these. Has anyone heard this cartridge in a vintage stereo system? How does it sound? And would it fit on an SME 3009 series 2 non improved? Turntable is a PD-131 thanks for any info!
 
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They sound great on a well matched arm. But if you want to run a MC on your series 2 non improved I suggest you look at a model featuring lower compliance rating then 17D3. Now if you had said series 2 "improved"....
 
ripblade said:
The Dynavector Karats work best on med-high arms, I'm told.
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The 17D, 17D2 and 17D 2X are all 8cu base on VE data and the other 17s, the D2MkII, D3 and DS are 15cu so the latter set would like a lighter arm than the former set. These are all probably 100Hz compliance numbers and the conversion factor to get to 10Hz to be able to use the chart on VE is somewhere between 1.2-1.8 or impossible to tell depending on who you believe.

it is gonna fit a headshell. Since the adjustment of the SME is moving the tonearm, not the cartridge in the headshell you don't have to worry about running out of room to move the cartridge forward. Korf seems to think it will work using a 22cu for the converted number and the 12gram arm (for 12.5), 6 gram cartridge for the 5.3 and a gram of hardware. Compliance/Effective Mass Calculator (korfaudio.com)
 
Blue Shadow said:
The 17D, 17D2 and 17D 2X are all 8cu base on VE data and the other 17s, the D2MkII, D3 and DS are 15cu so the latter set would like a lighter arm than the former set. These are all probably 100Hz compliance numbers and the conversion factor to get to 10Hz to be able to use the chart on VE is somewhere between 1.2-1.8 or impossible to tell depending on who you believe.

it is gonna fit a headshell. Since the adjustment of the SME is moving the tonearm, not the cartridge in the headshell you don't have to worry about running out of room to move the cartridge forward. Korf seems to think it will work using a 22cu for the converted number and the 12gram arm (for 12.5), 6 gram cartridge for the 5.3 and a gram of hardware. Compliance/Effective Mass Calculator (korfaudio.com)
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A gram of hardware to bump up the effective mass enough to put the compliance in its ideal spec? Such as what? Heavier screws?
 
I’m very intrigued by moving coil and as I have 2 systems and both Luxman have MC preamp capabilities I really want to have a go. Professionally retipped 17d3 for 800$ Canadian I’ll do it if my tonearm works!
 
Who did the retip?

Ordinarily I take a grain of salt with the online compliance calculators, but the DV cartridges are one of the few that I've measured that correspond to published spec. That said, I'm not sure a knife edge bearing is the best for a stiff MC, but I haven't heard it.
 
Folks just use a gram for that. You can run your calculations on Korf or VE with the 12.5 effective mass of the Series II arm. I don't get any numbers show up when I weigh my mounting hardware. Most cartridges sound decent but I probably ought to try a bit more mass. 23R and 17D2MkII. S2 Imp or Magnepan arm.
 
I personally love the Karats (D3 & DS) in my vintage system. Karats are fast, precise, articulate and flat with nice tight & deep bass. Fantastic transient response. Work great with warm~ish speakers like mine. Not so sure how they'd sound with really bright speakers in general. I haven't used either cart on higher mass arms. OP hasn't mentioned what the rest of his vintage system includes?
 
Mister Pig said:
A DV arm is unusual in that it has higher mass in the horizontal plane, but due to the vestigal arm it's low mass in there vertical plane. So it's not an easy arm to categorize.
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Bass is cut laterally, so I would say their arms are high mass in the bass and low mass in the remainder. The biggest effect mass has is on bass, especially low bass, if you ignore the incidental damping it can provide through sheer energy absorption.

Has anybody ever measured the vertical mass? I know it can be varied quite a bit with the spring, but on average?
 
ripblade said:
Bass is cut laterally, so I would say their arms are high mass in the bass and low mass in the remainder. The biggest effect mass has is on bass, especially low bass, if you ignore the incidental damping it can provide through sheer energy absorption.

Has anybody ever measured the vertical mass? I know it can be varied quite a bit with the spring, but on average?
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I suspect most of it will be headshell dependent. The aluminum arm wand is awfully light and the counterweight is pretty small too.

I can run an Ortofon MC2000 on it with a Denon PCL-5 headshell.
 
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