Miracle by Joseph long on Dynavector XX2MKII cartridge

My only (minor and amusing actually) issue with Joseph was that when I discussed with him the re-tipping of my Koetsu Urushi, he laid out so many possibilities, nearly any combo of cantilever and stylus shape that one can think of, that I felt confused when I really wanted some guidance. He did seem like a fine person, and I would readily use his services. Partly for this reason, I would STILL like to know what cantilever and stylus shape were chosen by Islandman.

Hello Lewm,

I heard from Joseph twice, first was: Nude 3/80 micron Orbray microridge.

Second was a long missive:

If I may interject some information: Your cartridge had a broken suspension wire which necessitated a full rebuild. If all it needed was  a new cantilever or diamond, I would have used an original exact replacement Ogura r/R70/30 uM (micron) Vital Line contact diamond, but to save time and expense , I used an extremely high quality Orbray (formerly Naniki) suspension block/tie wire/coil frame/cantilever subassembly.

The coil frame on this unit is thinner than the original Dynavector unit so there will be a savings of moving mass with improved tracking ability. I could have rebuilt it using the original and knew everything else, but this takes a very long time and adds unnecessary expense to the repair.

The frame has no wire on it, so I wound by hand new coils ~50 AWG halogen free high-purity silver-plated oxygen-free copper coils 50 turns per channel with a resulting internal impedence matched to 7 ohms. Original spec is 6 ohms  so pretty  close Output is adequate , I estimate 0.3 to 0.35 mV to the original rated .28 mV. The diamond that comes on the subassembly is a nude r/R 3/80 Orbray Micro Ridge, that is 0.1x0.1 mm square and 0.3 mm tall. It is lower mass than the original diamond and an extended line contact of the PF. The lower mass will impart a more delicate nuanced quality that the larger Ougra and also pick up more detail due to much finer scanning edge spec'd to to be anywhere between 2 and 3 um by the manufacturer.

I reused your original elastomer suspension because it was in excellent condition. 

I hope you don't mind me coming in and filling in these details. You have been an absolute pleasure to work with, so polite, nice, enthusiastic, patient, and charming.

I certainly hope this will not be the last cartridge you will ever mount.

Thanks for being you, and God bless.

Joseph 

So, lewm, I hope this answers the questions you were wondering about.

Regards,

Dan     

Hi,

I can finally post again.  I had to verify my phone number and address.  
 

Dan, you got it mostly right, just some typos.  Did you retype the whole thing I wrote?  
 

Anyway, yes, the reason I went with a Micro Ridge is because it was already on the new suspension/coil frame/cantilever/diamond subassembly that I can get from Orbray that save me a lot of time and you a lot of money.  Incidentally, the Micro Ridge is the same diamond that is on the DV-20X2.  The Ogura 7/30 micron is more of a semi-elliptical because it is an extremely short line contact.  Consider that the most common elliptical is 8/18 and you see that the 7/30 is a miniscule amount narrower in tracing edge and not even double the length of the bearing edge.  Also, Ogura Vital PE ellipticals are made in such a way, true ellipsoid, that according to what I see under my microscope, wear with “cat eyes” and not large circles like a standard elliptical.  In other words, they wear like Ogura line contacts and are likely made the exact same way.  So while Ogura very short bearing edge styli are called elliptical based on shared dimensions with standard ellipticals, I do not believe they wear the same way and lose high frequency tracing ability halfway through their service life.

 Just some thoughts.  
 

I hope you enjoy listening to your cartridge as much as I enjoyed rebuilding it.

Joseph,

I was going to email you and let you know I posted your explanation, but I see that isn't necessary, you didn't say anything, so I guess it's all right.

I appreciate your explanation, but I found out what I needed to know as soon as I played the cartridge, my appreciation just let me know all I needed to know.

Thanks, and best regards,

Dan

I was impressed with the breadth of Joseph's knowledge when I spoke to him, and I am even more impressed to read his emails to you.  Thanks for posting.