The Vinyl Anachronist: The Golden Age

By Marc Phillips

August 2008

Koetsu Rosewood
Dynavector's new 17D3

Well, it's that time again… time to re-tip the Koetsu. The first two times I had to send my Rosewood Standard in, it was due to my own negligence/clumsiness. The first time occurred after I had transported my who analog rig over a friend's house to demonstrate how his '80s linear-tracking Mitusbishi direct-drive turntable was not the ultimate in turntable design. When I brought everything back home, I noticed that the cantilever of the Koetsu was pushed to the side. Foolishly and hopefully, I pushed it back straight. It promptly fell right off.

The second time, I had just purchased a sealed version of a 180 gram audiophile pressing of The Clash's Sandinista. I had just finished side one, and was in the act of flipping it over when the LP suddenly slipped out of my hand and slid horizontally toward my tonearm. In a split second, my SME V was bouncing all over the platter of my Michell Orbe and the Koetsu finally came to rest on the wrong side of the spindle. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the cantilever wasn't bent again. It wasn't. It was completely gone. As a result, I've never finished the last five sides of that LP. The memories of that day are still too emotionally crippling.

This time, I ruined the stylus the old-fashioned way. I played a bunch of records with it. While those first two styli only spent a year on this wonderful planet of our before meeting their untimely demise, the third one lasted well over four years, and probably had about 5000 hours on it. I've heard stories about how Koetsu styli last a relatively long time, and there are rumors flying around of some old Reds that managed to play records for 10,000 hours before needing a replacement. But in the Phillips' household, folks, the magic number seems to be 5000.

The last time I needed a re-tip, I told myself that I needed to buy an inexpensive yet competent back-up cartridge in the US$300-400 range. First of all, it can take a month or two to get your new cartridge back from Japan after the re-tipping process. Amazingly enough, Koetsu doesn't even “re-tip” your cartridge. They replace the whole cartridge flat out to expedite the process, which I find absolutely amazing. I noticed this the last time, when that recalcitrant Clash LP put a small ding in the side of my Rosewood. When I got it back after re-tipping, the ding was gone! Wow, I thought… they even fixed that, so I won't have to be reminded of my accident every time I cue a record. I was then told about the replacement policy by a dealer friend of mine.

Second, the first two times I re-tipped my Koetsu, it cost US$880. While that may be relatively reasonable in the world of premium handmade cartridges, you can still buy an excellent cartridge for that amount of money. Which is what I did.

The golden cartridge

Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on the latest version of Dynavector's venerable Karat pickup, the golden-bodied 17D3. Known for its exceptionally short cantilever and neutral presentation, this low-output MC is different from past versions through a reworking of the front yoke. According to the Dynavector literature, this seemingly minor modification resulted in such a large improvement to the sound that this Japanese decided to change the model designation.

At US$900 (NZ$995), the 17D3 doesn't quite fit my “budget-priced” criteria. But it does cost roughly the same amount as the Koetsu re-tip. And to tell you the truth, the performance of the 17D3 is so strong for the money, that I can happily alternative its use with that of the Koetsu, causing even more years to pass between costly re-tips.

No, I'm not saying that the 17D3 is as good as my Koetsu. In fact, the overall presentation between the two cartridges is different enough to make immediate comparisons difficult, and ultimately irrelevant. The Koetsu, of course is romantic and warm, with a highly seductive presentation that is downright addictive. As a lifelong Koetsu man, I've been unable to find any cartridge that can make me stop loving this cartridge, except for maybe another Koetsu. (I am toying with the idea of upgrading my Rosewood with a Koetsu Sky Blue Urushi, the first model from the Sugano family to feature all-silver wiring.)

The 17D3 is, however, accurate. It also measures that way as well, something that's rare in the analog world. The Karat designs have always sported almost perfectly flat frequency responses over the years. I've always railed against the idea of measured “accuracy” in audio, especially when it comes to analog (hence my love for all things Koetsu). But the Dynavector makes a very convincing argument for itself by having very few sonic shortcomings. It may sound thin and cool compared to the Rosewood, but that's due to the lack of euphonic colorings that are often found in wooden-bodied cartridges. (Or coral-bodied, or jade-bodied, or bloodstone-bodied…)

Home sweet home

For now, the 17D3 has become a welcome addition to my reference system while my Koetsu travels halfway around the world. I've even used the 17D3 to review other turntables, such as the Thorens TD-160 HD (which you can find in the latest issue of TONEAudio). Once the Rosewood comes back (or has been mysteriously replaced with a Sky Blue Urushi), I'm thinking about placing the 17D3 on a Rega P3-24. For years, I've been saying that the Dynavector 10X5 (NZ$499) is the perfect cartridge for the P3. I think the 17D3 might be the perfect cartridge for that super-duper P3-24 I described here in AudioEnz a few months ago.

Again, US$900 isn't chicken feed, but I can't think of another cartridge I'd rather own for less than a grand, just like I can't think of another cartridge I'd rather own for less than US$500 than that Zu Audio DL-103 I talked about in my last column.

It's a great time for great cartridges. The Dynavector 17D3 is indeed one of the greats.

Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. His earlier columns can be found on the Perfect Sound Forever website. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at Vinylanach@aol.com