HIFICRITIC
Vol2 | No1

January | February 2008

DYNAVECTOR DV XX-2 IIThis cartridge’s type number is quite a mouthful. Its
DV XX-1 precursor was the ﬁrst cartridge to featurea patented ‘magnetic ﬂux damper’ and ‘softened
magnetism’, features that seek to control aspects of thebehaviour of the magnetic path which are claimed to be
detrimental to the performance of moving-coil cartridges.
The £995 DV XX-2 II retains the beneﬁt of the ﬂux
damper (a shorting coil wound externally on the frontpole), but also features an Alnico-5 magnet. It has a
6mm solid boron cantilever ﬁtted with a Pathﬁnder linecontact stylus and the coils are PCOCC copper wire.
Output voltage is 0.28mVwith a 6 ohms impedance.
It’s claimed to have ‘deep powerful bass, treble is bothclear and lively possessing none of the hardness found inmany moving coil designs’, and we found these claims
largely justiﬁed.
Sound Quality
This is a modern, quite open sounding cartridge witha linear, even frequency response and highly creditabletonality. However, the soundstage is not quite as spaciousas that found with the AudioNote I0 II. It resolves
detail well, and this is combined with very good image
focus and vocal articulation. Both depth and a natural
reverberant acoustic are well portrayed, and an upbeat

Dynavector SV-XX2MkII frequency respose (red right)

sense of drive and rhythm is aided by good, in fact
approaching ‘very good’, timing. These ﬁne results are set
in a good dynamic framework, and the results invariably
sound interesting and appealing. Like the Koetsu, thiscartridge didn’t seem to need bias in the Naim AROtonearm – at least it sounded more focused and direct
without bias, perhaps freed from the mild impedimentof a lightly weighted nylon mono ﬁlament running overa stainless wire hook. Our optimum setting was no bias
and a 2.0g down force. An accomplished and notably tidy
sounding performer, the Dynavector DV XX-2 II scores
an impressive 73 marks.
Lab Report
The DV XX-2 II also delivers a ﬁne set of test results, withgood arm compatibly, high channel separation over awide frequency range, and a uniform frequency response.
I’m not too concerned about its failure on the highest
modulation tracking test, since it was satisfactory at thelevel below this. Distortion is low and channel balance isexcellent.
Conclusions
We were impressed by this nicely complete Dynavector
design, which did well in both lab and sound quality
tests, leading to a ﬁrm recommendation
Pear Audio www.pearaudio.com Tel: 01665 830862

Test Results
Dynavector

DV XX-2 MKII

Dynavector showing the neat
8 coil array on special former
showing ﬁne workmanshipThe clean diamond mountwith alignment plate but withsome excess adhesive abovefor this Dynavector

Price (UK)

£995

Type
low op moving coil Output
280uV 5cm/s Impedance
6 ohms____________________________________________________________________________________
Cantileverboron rod Stylus, ‘Pathﬁnder’ line contact
Open/enclosed?
open____________________________________________________________________________________
Cartridge weight
8.9 g recommended TF
2.0 g loading
100 ohms____________________________________________________________________________________
Output3.45cm/s
260uV frequency response 50Hz-10kHz+1.5,-1.4 dB____________________________________________________________________________________
Channel Balance
0.3dB frequency response 30Hz-20kHz+1.6, -1.7dB____________________________________________________________________________________
Separation
32dB typical
200Hz to 6kHz
22dB at 20kHz____________________________________________________________________________________
Distortion
300Hz lateral +9dB
0.52% 300Hz vertical +6dB
1.75%____________________________________________________________________________________
Trackability 300Hz
300Hz lateral +15dB
2.5g 300Hz vertical +12dB
1.2 g____________________________________________________________________________________
Supertrack
Test+18dB lateral passed at
failed at< 3.5g____________________________________________________________________________________
Stylus ﬁnish and alignmentﬁnishvery good Alignment
excellent____________________________________________________________________________________LF resonance, 15g test arm
frequency
10.5Hz Rise9 dB____________________________________________________________________________________
Suggested arm typeeﬀective mass
10 - 20 g Damping yes/no:noSUBSCRIPTIONS TO HIFICRITIC: Full details are provided on the WWW.HIFICRITIC.COM website
HIFICRITIC JANUARY / FEBRUARY 200825