Upgrade Denon 103 R to Shelter 501 II?

I've used a 103R since April and couldn't be more pleased. Reports on the quality of this cartridge are all over the place, although most of what your hear about the 103 and 103R is positive. Mixed reviews seem to abound, however, with the Rega arms with some users having good luck and others none at all. From all the reading I've done, it seems to me that the 250 is a poor match with the 103 and 103R while many users may be happy (or unhappy as it may be) with the 300.

For what it's worth, I use my 103R with a Premiere FT3, a fairly low budget medium mass arm. The FT3 does have damping capability though, and that damping capability makes a substantial difference in the performance of the Denon. A poster at the Vinyl Asylum recently pointed out to me that in reading that he had done it recommended that the Denon's be used in either a high mass arm or a medium mass arm with damping capability. So for those out there with medium mass plus damping, the Denons could be your ticket. I've also found that about 4.5 to 5 grams of blue tak on top of my headshell made a subtle but definitely audible improvement with the 103R. My FT3 is on an older Michell Gyrodec and I'm using a decidedly low budget phono stage (about $200 retail), but the 103R easily and grossly surpasses the Ortofon MC 20 Super I replaced, which was a) a much more expensive cartridge and b) supposedly a much better match in terms of compliance with my tonearm.

So experimentation may be in order for you. At $250 the 103R is a pretty cheap experiment that, as one poster above pointed out, you can probably recover most of your money on if it doesn't work out. And if it does work out, you will probably be very happy. When I bought my table used many years ago, it came with a Koetsu Black which I used for a number of years. I can buy 6 or 7 103R's for one Koetsu Black and, although my system may not have been as good (and it's still pretty middle of the road or even low budget compared to most Audiogoners) in those days, I can tell you that is what I intend to do. I feel absolutely no need to buy anything other than a 103R. In my modest system, it does a lot of things right.

Thank you all for your help. I will try the Denon for a while - if unhappy, I will get the Shelter 501. I am told that this is Analog's cartridge of choice when they show the Spacedeck.

Patrick wrote

The only problem with the low price is that people constantly underestimate the value of the partnering equipment. The Denon wants a high-mass, heavy-duty arm with high-quality bearings to drive its stiff, short cantilever and comparatively high weight. Such tonearms do not come cheap - you're talking Ikeda, Ortofon, FR, old-style SME (with steel knife-edge bearings) etc

Considering that this cartridge was initially made for the broascast industry, You have given a very good explanation of its characteristics. That industry mostly used high mass 12" arms. This also explains why it is used more successfully by vintage equipment users as well, since vintage generally used higher mass arms than todays newer arms, which are usually low or medium mass. Yes, one can spend a lot of money to buy a 12" arm, but there are a lot of good arms which will not get optimum performance from the 103 due to incompatibility. In short, the cartride was engineered for 40 yr old table/arm combo, but is generall not a good match for newer lighter arms.

hi all
have owned a d103r fr many years
nowadays it just sits up upon my wardrobe as it has for the last 5 years
great cartridge in its day
but sadly
no jan allaerts
older audiophiles otoh love them
the midrange performance is very good
top and bottem end performace on the otherhand are questionable
you do actually get what you pay for
to an extent

the shelter is better in the frequency extremes but does not have the midrange majic of the denon
younger audiophiles wouldn't think twice and most would buy the shelter
horses for courses i guess
let your own ears decide
best regards
uktel

Let's put things into perspective here. The cheapest Allaerts is about 8 times as much money as the 103R. I would hope it would be better. Maybe it is 8X better, but forgive me if I'm skeptical.

As to proper cartridge/arm matching, it goes without saying that any buyer of the Denon should be looking at that. Hell, I bought a Pioneer PL-12D at a garage sale for my son recently for $5 and ended up spending a bit more money on an AT cartridge than I wanted to and waiting about 3-4 weeks for it to come in because the Ortofon and a couple of other cartridges that the dealer wanted to sell me was not going to match up well with the arm on the $5 Pioneer!!! All I had to do was read the Pioneer manual on vinylengine to figure about half of it out.

As to the compliance numbers on the Denon and its supposed need for a very high mass arm, this has been discussed ad nauseum at the Vinyl Asylum where many people have measured and or listened to the Denon in medium to medium high mass arms and had very good results. While any cartridge is going to benefit from better ancilliaries, there are many users of the Denon with what are supposed to be less than perfect matchups who have reported great results, including bettering cartridges which are much more expensive.

Are the Denons perfect? I don't think anyone is saying that. But to dismiss them as being archaic or poor value is pretty ridiculous.