Dynavector XV-1S tracking force issue

After 50 hours, it was sounding pretty good, but for $4000 I thought it could do better. I checked the VTA again, and found I had less measured IM by having the arm going "downhill" from the pivot point, not parallel to the surface of the record. Subjectively, the slight harshness in the high end was gone! A difficult to reproduce direct to disk jazz record sounded as close to "live" as I think you can get with an LP recording. For this sample anyway, the optimum tracking force is 2.0 gram, right in the middle of the recommended range.

I installed a Dynavector XV-1S in a Well Tempered Arm and after reading the comments here about tracking heavy I first tried it at 2.4 grams with poor results. The highs were muddy and I could not make the specified 30 db separation, even after careful azimuth adjustment.

After trying 1.8 and 2.2 grams, I found that this particular cartridge sample and tone arm combination sounded best at 2.0 grams. I was also able to make 30 db separation at 1 KHz, L into R and R into L. at the 2.0 gram setting.

After I have 50 hours on the cartridge, I'm going to teak the adjustments again and see if I get any improvement in separation, IM distortion and overall subjective sound.