1 bpolletti! Just because the venerable 103 was designed back in 1962 doesn't make it a mediocre piece of cr*p! And the venerated Ortofon SPU's are even older! No, the stock 103 sounds fine and will do the job (play records). Upgrades are available (new stylus/cantilever, wood and metal bodies ... ) for far less than the cost of a new "higher end" cartridge!
I'm just trying to save someone else from the anguish of my own mistakes. I am 59 and grew up with vinyl in the 70's, got out of vinyl in '84 and then back in around 2008. When I bought the Pro-Ject RPM-5SE, I had no clue what I was doing. I heard crackling that in fact was coming from a defective switch connector in my preamp (due to not using the input selector for so many years-my input was always my CD player) and I thought it had to be a loose or defective cartridge pin connector and I managed to snap off a pin on the factory-provided Blue Point Special. Pan forward to my next deck which was a VPI Classic purchased "blind" from Galen Carol Audio who recommended that I buy it from him with a Benz Glider SL and a Moon Audio LP5.3. All good gear though I have moved on mostly. But I abused the crap out of that Benz Glider while oafishly trying to adjust the unipivot arm on that deck. I never got good sound out of the VPI Classic teamed up with the Benz Glider. I watched Fremer's set-up video a dozen times and tried everything I could, and bought a Fozgometer and a test record but I don't think the Benz Glider and the original JMW10.5 arm were a good match and I can say that because I have installed that same Benz Glider (re-tipped by Peter Lederman) in a 12" Reed 3P and it sounds phenomenal. You gotta learn to walk before you can run. You don't need to get fancy/expensive analogue gear to get great sound. You do need to get stuff that matches up well, is foundationally solid, and you need to set it up right. There is not stronger argument for brick and mortar audio stores than setting up a turntable for newbies. And there is no stronger argument for an easily adjustable tonearm than the fact that newbies need to learn by doing. That VPI JMW10.5 had tiny recessed allen key grub screws that were awkward to access and needed to be loosened and than re-tightened for VTA and the idea of adjusting azimuth by turning the egg-shaped counterweight or trying to rotate the lateral counterweight ring all the while seeing your arm canted over to one side when your Fozgometer showed balanced cross-talk was a horrendous experience. I still have a VPI Prime with 3D arm and by then the arm became a bit easier to adjust by design and by virtue of my experience, but this is why I say stay away from VPI unipivots as your first decent deck. Unless you are going to have a local pro set it up for you. And after this very long screed let me say this; that Gem Dandy Polytable properly set up with a Denon D103R and a Manley Chinook can sound glorious-far better than a VPI Avenger with Lyra Delos and Herron Audio VTPH-2A that is NOT optimally set-up and the margin between "properly set-up" and not "properly set-up" gets finer and finer as you move up the ladder.
