Dynavector 10X5 vs Blue Point Special "Evo III"

Or (and still within your budget), go the whole enchilada and get a Denon DL103R from Koji.

$250 plus $27 shipping plus a small fee for processing your credit card ... totalling to a tick under the magic $300 number.

Once again, I have NO commercial interest here.

Koji can be found through: http://www.eifl.co.jp/index/export/export2.htm

I've run a DL103 and DL103R on tonearms as light as a Graham and Rega, and as heavy as my 18 gram eff mass Schröder.

The only caveat is that they put out only about .28mv which might be a problem for your gain structure.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I have listened to the Denon, a very nice cartridge, another to recommend. But I did put it up next to my Dynavector and it did not soundly beat the Dynavector. They didn't even get into a wrestling match, no angry words. I always wonder about this audio equipment that feels a need to become physically violent with other pieces of audio equipment. Can't they all just get along.

Though the Denon really sounded nice I felt the dynavector had more body, the turntables were different though so the comparison was not very reasonable.

A suggestion. Buy a Denon DL-103 for under $200 shipped from Germany (search on Ebay for seller) and add a Denon step-up transformer for around $100 from Audio Cubes. This combo will soundly beat the Dynavector (I had one and sold it), IMHO. I'll bet it outperforms the Blue Point, too, but haven't heard it. Good luck, Dave

I have a VPI Jr. with AQ PT-6 and Dynavector 10x5 and enjoy it a great deal. Very musical, detailed, quiet, easy to listen to and a very good match with the VPI/AQ PT-6 combo. I can highly recommend the pairing. Sorry I cannot compare it to the Blue Point