Technics SL-23 TT opinions.. mated with Denon DL-103?

coachpconnor,
Just to further counter the inexperience based misinformation above, here is what Origin Live has to say about the relevance of compliance matching:

Cartridge compliance calculations are an overrated simplification of complex problems. For example the vertical compliance is sometimes different to the horizontal compliance but this is not stated. As far as compliance issues go – Origin Live and many dealers find theory bears little or no relation to reality. This view is now increasingly held. There are too many surprising experiences where theoretical optimums mis-track and theoretical mismatches track perfectly.

That's Origin Live. https://www.originlive.com/cartridge-compliance-tonearm-effective-mass-cartridges-work-well-origin-l...

Its not that what they're telling you is wrong. Their harmonic resonance theory is perfectly valid... theory. Its just that this is the real world. 

No axe in this match but I would not be adverse to trying the 103 and seeing where it shakes out.

I have a Denon DD tt with Infinity Black Widow arm, extremely light!
The 103 played perfectly well on it imho.
Sure it may not have given its best on that arm but it was more than acceptable.

If you already have the 103, give it a shot, you may be surprised.

@millercarbon

Do you know what is resonance frequency and why it shouldn’t be in the musical range? If you don’t know just buy yourself a Hi-Fi TEST LP, put low compliance cartrige on lightweigh tonearm, play Test LP and you will see how your arm and cartride will start shaking, a thrilling experience. This is resonance frequency. Do you want your arm and cartridge shaking while you’re playing normal record?

This is what’s on the Test LP:

Tracks 2 & 3: Cartridge & Arm, Lateral & Vertical Resonance Test
These two tracks are used to test the resonant frequency or your tonearm and cartridge combination in both the vertical and horizontal domains. These tracks offer both a visual and auditory indication of the resonant frequency; the stylus will “wobble” and the test tone will warble.

P.S. With Denon DL-103 cartridge a high mass arm must be used (20-30g effective mass), not a lighweight arm, this is the basics.

Denon is not the best cartridge at all, but using it on lighweight arm like @uberwaltz Black Widow (3g effective mass) is just the opposite to the common sense. The Black widow designed for MM cartridge with a compliance figure at least 4 times higher than DL-103 compliance. Also the effecive mass of the Black Widon is 10 times lighter than it should be for DL-103. The music will be transferred from LP to the speakers, but it’s a total mismatch in terms of tonearm/cartridge resonance frequency. I would never do that!

The cartridge is too heavy for that arm. He won’t be able to balance the arm anyway!

It’s a simple matter to turn a low or medium mass tonearm into a high mass one; just add weight at the headshell. For $150 it’s worth a shot. I would not be intimidated by the apparent mismatch between a 12g tonearm and a Denon DL103. If after adding 5-10g of weight to the headshell there is a problem with inadequate counterweight, that can also be addressed by sticking some bluetack to the CW. (Try it with no added headshell mass first and then add mass incrementally.) Have fun. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.