Dynavector Karat 17D3: retip for $500 or get something new?

@prophos - move to another cartridge. If your speakers are not bass efficient, the 17D3 is not for you. I owned one a number of years ago, and while it is brilliant for rock, I felt the bottom end did not have the authority, and I felt it to be thin and bright. 

If you can find an Audio Technica ART9 on the market, grab it. It has since been discontinued and replaced with the ART9XI, which you should consider if you can’t find the ART-9. While I now have a $9000 Air Tight PC-1s, I still say the ART9 is still hands down the best cartridge for the money and bests many cartridges costing 3-4x its price. Do a search on this forum and you will see the massive following on it. It is a very musical, organic, and revealing cartridge. It does almost everything right.

I didn’t have the VTA off in any way shape or form. I’m not alone in my interpretation of the 17D3. I’m not implying that the cartridge is “bass light”, I mentioned it lacks authority, which is subjective, but to me means worthy of me acknowledging it sounds real and deserves my attention. And when I say the cartridge is thin and bright, I don’t mean that it is only through the bass. While the 17D3 is likely amongst the neutral and most articulate and dynamic sounding cartridges available in its price range, it doesn’t add a lot of body or musicality across the spectrum that others crave in more expensive MC cartridges.

But is it bad for the money? Absolutely not. For example, I actually replaced the 17D3 with a popular Shelter 501 MK2 which is in a similar price range. The Shelter did add some of the midrange warmth, but at the expense of slowing down attacks and rounding off the frequency extensions.

It wasn’t until I got to the ART9 a few cartridges later that the bar was so significantly raised because it brought both the tonal and holographic realism and the resolution. I am not alone in this perspective either, if you review the threads on this cartridge in this forum. Dozens of folks swear by it, and many of those have not felt the need to move on to a different cartridge for years.
I have even tried the flagship Audio Technica ART1000 to succeed the ART9. While it was more resolving, I actually preferred the tonal balance of the ART9 and didn’t feel that the ART1000 was worth 4x the MSRP. I landed with the Air Tight for guidance received on forums and reviews that folks who wanted to push past the ART9 should consider it a next step. I’m glad I did, but it’s an endgame cartridge that is not easily attained.

These cartridges were installed on a VPI Classic signature with the 3D arm and Nordost reference wire. The table and cartridges were aligned using a stylus scale, an adjustable VTA base, and a Fosgometer and Soundsmith Counterintuitive for the azimuth. Loading settings were controlled by one of three stages at the time - Fozgate Signature Phono, Modwright SWP 9.0 SE, and now Modwright PH 9.0.

I have since upgraded to the Clearaudio Innovation Wood.

With all of those changes across the years, the most satisfying changes were finding the ART9 cartridge (I’ve owned three), and the Modwright phono stages, which are absolute giant killers once tubes are rolled right.

@chakster The ART9 discussion may be old but not irrelevant. And just because one person replaced his with a cartridge over twice the price doesn’t mean it’s not a great cartridge. I replaced mine with one six times it’s price, yet I still recommend it. 

This is not about hype. That thread happened 3-5 years ago. People still go crazy over cartridges like the DV-XV1s and Koetsu, both which have been in the running for over a decade.

And if you read my initial recommendation, it was to also look for the ART9XI, which succeeded the original ART9 and is available today. And though I have moved on to other cartridges myself, I still recommend the ART9 or ART9XI. 

Regarding Dynavector, I also own the DV-XV1s and DV-XX2 MK2 in my collection. I think they are fantastic cartridges, and this isn’t a bash on Dynavector. 

Should the OP want to retip the cartridge, reach out to Steve Leung of VAS audio. He is a top notch guy, and his office is the next suite over from VPI. His retips are excellent, and I’ve had three carts done by him myself.