I have a Sota/SME arm combo. I have had it for many years now and tried a handful of cartridges. My top two favorites is BenzMicro Glider and Koetsu Black. My Koetsu died last fall, so I decided to try the Denon DL103R to see if this giant killer is truly worth all the raves on the internet. The Denon sounds pretty good and tracks very well, but it has not been without some challenges. This cartridge is relatively low mass and low compliance. Coupled to my SME arm it had a system Fn of about 16Hz. I experienced skipping on some records that had just the slightest of waves to them. I found a place in England that sells a 4 gm mass made for the Denon/SME combo. It worked out great. It brought the system Fn down to 10Hz and also allowed me to raise the back of the tonearm up. This cartridge is very short, so the back of the tonearm was close to the outer edge of the record. This mass, which is bonded to the cartridge body, also improved the bass. My next problem with this cartridge was static popping. We had a very cold winter here and the air got dry. I was experiencing static discharges through the amplification. My records were charged enough to make the hair on my arms stand up. I have a Zerostat and it helped but did not eliminate the problem. I ended up buying some Stylast. That solved the static issue completely just by keeping the stylus wet. I think it improved the sound a bit too. So the Denon does sound good and is musically satisfying, but I will one day go back to a Glider.
