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In Reply to: RE: Retipping A DL-103? posted by abs1 on August 26, 2013 at 09:24:12
Since the end of 1979 (IIRC) so you could say I know a little about the cartridge. The DL-103D is not just a DL-103 with an aluminum cantilever and elliptical stylus. It is also the highest compliance DL-103 variant and responds well in arms with medium to high effective mass.
Retipping a DL-103 will get you approximately to the type of sound that a DL-103D has but the DL-103D can be retipped too. I have been using a retipped DL-103D for years now and I am very satisfied with its sound.
The higher compliance of a stock DL-103D plus a quality retipping will yield a very good cartridge.
I am not sure where the inmate who posted the opinion that the DL-103D is not a very good rock cartridge got his experience from. The DL-103D is one of the worlds best R&R cartridges with an explosive response and impressive dymanic range.
Its low end response is house shaking and it also possesses all of the other attributes that a quality cartridge has. In short the DL-103D is not hard to get for a lousy reason. Retipp one and you'll see why.
Ed
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
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Looking back, I think I had mine in to high of mass arm for the 103D. That's why it sounded kinda dull to me....
nt
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
medium to lower effective mass because the compliance is so high?
"Hope is a good thing. Maybe, the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
IIRC and I suppose that puts it about in the medium mass area of usability. Of course the 103D is specified at 100Hz like all Denon's cartridges. It's compliance at 10Hz is around 20 x 10-6 cm/Dyne which makes it a bit more at home in lower mass arms.
I've used it in several arms and in all of them it made the same signature sound that the 103D became popular for. Its not too different from the rest of the 103 family as far as its sound goes. If my memory serves me what it sounds like stock is like a 103R with slightly better definition and a bit deeper bass rrsponse. If that is possible.
My current 103D has been retipped several times. The first time it went to VdH and they retipped it and fixed its suspension. Fixed the suspension is a loose term here. The cartridge came back with a much stiffer suspension than on the stock cartridge. The retip job sounded great but I was not thrilled with a stiffer suspension.
Since its initial retip/repair its been worked on by Peter and he has done an outstanding job on it. It has been retipped a few times by Peter and Peter has also rebuilt the suspension on my 103D. The resulting cartridge has a higher compliance than what VdH did to it. Its a bit more lively and I am very satisfied with it.
To get back on subject I ran some numbers by the resonance evaluator and a stock 103D looks like it would be at home on an arm with an effective mass of 12gms or less. And yes that was inverted logic.
Sorry,
Ed
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
It has performed admirably. It is apparently well damped so as to be comfortable in a broad range of effective masses. It sounded, to my ear, happiest in my old Grace G-840 S-shaped arm in big DD tables-- also Denon's. The effect of the Grace/Denon combo-- smooth wide-spaced gimbal bearings and rigid mounting to a massive platform-- seem to yield the 'blackest' background. The only time it ever sounded at all dull was in a Denon integrated TT/arm. A very good all-around cartridge-- it rocks, as well as rendering classical music with brilliant inner life and detail. Worth re-tipping when one looks at the current market I'd say, given your positive experience with re-tipping.
I am preparing to mount a New Old Stock Denon DL-305 on my big rig(Denon DL-75 + DA-401 arm in an original VPI base) and give my current cart (Dyna XX) a couple year's rest. I bought the 305 based on memory from approximately 1980 of how lovely it sounded in a dealer's Luxman arm/table. I will report the results here- this is SURELY the only place on earth that anyone would read a review of a 30+ year-old phonograph cartridge!
I'll agree with Ed 100, I also have a 103D all original low hours and it sings. I had it mounted on a Technics EPA-250 tonearm and the 12x 10-6 compliance matches the original OEM Technics cartridge EPC-205C that commonly came with the EPA-250 tonearm. If used on any of the low mass tonearms due to the weight of the 103D it will require using a add on weight to balance the arm which I also had to do to the EPA-250. A very dynamic/detailed/smooth cartridge, one of my favorites.
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