Agreed...

Agreed...

Posted by EdAInWestOC (A) on September 19, 2016 at 05:10:00

In Reply to: RE: I have the 2nd and 3rd retips... posted by mosin on September 18, 2016 at 15:03:34:

However, the DL-103 family (except for the DL-103M) is reknown for a very neutral generator that can benefit from any kind of retip. A cottage industry sprung up long ago to retip and replace the body of the 103 family. None of this is news to you, I am sure.

The only exception, the DL-103M, is an exception because is already comes with a Boron cantilever and special elliptical stylus. I have one of these also and its an interesting cartridge. It is a very low output cartridge and requires a step up or head amp capable of handling a cartridge with very low output and high internal impedance (0.12mv/ch and 40 ohms).

The 103M also has a metal body so I assume it may be a response from Denon based on all of the retipping and body replacements going on. It is worth checking out if someone has the right gear. I haven't tried it with my latest phono preamp, a Liberty Audio B2B-1, but I tend to think it may be decent pairing due to the relatively high gain and very low noise of that preamp.

The DL-103D came with an aluminum cantilever and special elliptical stylus. As good as that combo was, the weakness of the stock 103D was a tendency for the sound to break up when tracing a complex and loud performance with plenty of high frequency content (like cymbals). It wasn't terrible but you could hear the sound closing up when the cartridge was pressed for lots of the above.

I first retipped my 103D with a VdH Type 1 stylus and boron cantilever. That combo totally removed the cartridge's weakness mentioned above. The finer tracing of the VdH type 1 stylus also improved the resolution of the cartridge beyond the special elliptical stylus on the stock cartridge. After this experience I stuck with the higher end cantilevers and stylus profiles.

Ed
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Selecting best cantilever stylus combo - RIQUE 19:50:33 09/17/16 (6)

RE: Selecting best cantilever stylus combo - flood2 21:19:39 09/18/16 (0)

I have the 2nd and 3rd retips... - EdAInWestOC 06:33:10 09/18/16 (4)

RE: I have the 2nd and 3rd retips... - mosin 15:03:34 09/18/16 (3)

Agreed... - EdAInWestOC 05:10:00 09/19/16 (1)

RE: Agreed... - horn kid 06:55:36 09/19/16 (0)

I wanted to keep as much of the original flavor of my wood body DL-103 - Opus 33 1/3 15:34:54 09/18/16 (0)

Follow Ups

Agreed... - EdAInWestOC 05:10:00 09/19/16 (1)

RE: Agreed... - horn kid 06:55:36 09/19/16 (0)

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