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In Reply to: RE: Denon 301 Mk II - Holy Cow! posted by ctbarker32 on October 25, 2014 at 16:40:29
I owned a DL-301/II some time ago when I still had my Thorens TD-126. I played it at least two years or more and I always liked it, but I didn't necessarily think it was any better than my original Audio Technica OC9. I liked it, though. Since you seem to be extremely happy with it I think you should play it a while before moving to the DL-S1. Based on your rather exuberant reaction, I would hate to recommend the DL-S1 and have you find it didn't sound as good as the DL-301/II. ;-)
Best regards,
John Elison
Follow Ups:
Hi John
Just out of interest, how does the sound of the DL-S1 differ from the DL-301?
Whilst I share a degree of enthusiasm as the OP for this cartridge, I do feel that the sound is a little recessed and lacking the incisive clarity that would give the illusion of reality. I'm not sure how much this has to do with the elliptical profile, but it certainly lacks the listen-through clarity I have heard through my Soundsmith'd DL160 with the OLC for example. With the modified DL160 the level of realistic background detail is astonishingly lifelike. Shame it is a dreadful tracker (probably due to its age and years of disuse).
Following on from our recent exchange I thought it may be of interest to you to see the (lateral) white noise response for my DL301 which follows a very similar response to the Shure M97xE! This suggests that the Denon response has been tailored to achieve a subjectively pleasing sound rather than purely a technically accurate one.
If indeed my sample is representative of the "house sound" then this response may go some way to explaining why the OC9MLII is considered too bright for many as my cartridge is perfectly flat out to 23kHz.
Regards Anthony
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
> Just out of interest, how does the sound of the DL-S1 differ from the DL-301?
I don't really know. It has been more than 10-years since I played the DL-301/II and I haven't listened to a recording in a very long time. I put the DL-301/II on my Thorens after playing my original AT-OC9 for about five years. I thought the two sounded very similar. The AT-OC9 had a solid beryllium cantilever and a hyper-elliptical stylus whereas the DL-301/II had a hollow aluminum cantilever and a special elliptical stylus. A friend who had some of my recordings said he thought the AT-OC9 sounded just a bit better than the DL-301/II but I thought they sounded almost identical.
The DL-S1 in my system when loaded heavily sounds really nice, smooth, detailed and very musical. If not loaded heavily it sounds bright and a bit strident in the highs. I didn't like it at first until I tried loading it with 20-ohms and that did the trick for me. Unfortunately, it is a very low output cartridge and when loaded with 20-ohms it needs a phono section with at least 75-dB gain. The high-gain setting on my XOno provides 75-dB gain.
It also sounds good with a Bob's Devices CM-1131 SUT, which loads it pretty heavily in its 1:40 turns-ratio configuration. That's what I use when playing it in my Technics SL-1200 Mk2 turntable with a Yaqin MS-22B MM phono stage. It really sound good using that SUT.
Best regards,
John Elison
I appreciate everyone's feedback in this thread.
I also have an AT OC9 that I have yet to mount on a tonearm so it will be interesting to compare when I get around to it.
It was good to learn about the spacer tape used in between album cuts on the master tape. This explains why I hear the hiss of the recording which then fades to silence before the next track. I figure the hiss I hear is about 50 db down in level and the silence then is a good 10 or 15 db below that. So this for me is a good test at least of resolution and dynamic range. With some cartridges, I do not hear this distinction between tracks. I just hear low noise between tracks. For me it seems to be an interesting way to judge a vinyl playback system.
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