What turntable and TONEARM brands sound best with the Denon DL103 and DL 103R? MC's


Need some recommendation for turntables with TONEARMS that provide the best sound quality with either the Denon DL103R ( retail $379) or Denon DL103 ( retail $229) MC's cartridges.

Is there a major difference in sound quality between the two LOMC's??

Thank you, SJ

sunnyjim
Audio Technica ATP-12T can be had for not a lot of money and works
very well with the DL103.
For more money the AT 1503 and Fidelity Research FR64s.

Thanks to all who have responded

To fjn04, I have not decided to make a U-Turn....yet

To Spencer, I not giving up on the  U-Turntable, but  keeping the bullpen warmed up is my style ( maybe a bad one).  This turntable quest has had its "price limit" up and downs since it first begun I should take my own advice: "that you get what you pay for" (almost all of the time), and if you keep pushing the envelope, it will break on through to the other side. I think Jim Morrison said that..

Nevertheless, I  actually like the looks and sound of the turntable. It is quiet, spins smoothly, and appear stable with low wow and flutter. However, receiving the TT with a bad motor (that produced a hum during play) right of the box was not a incentive to keep it. However, UT replaced the motor and installation was easy, the hum seems to have disappeared or has been significantly reduced to be almost inaudible.

Caveats: The belt supplied with the TT is very difficult to install around the pulley and  the acrylic platter which seems fairly well made for a TT in this price range. The supplied RCA phono cables look antiques packed with 1970 era tape decks, and will be replaced soon.

Sound quality using the Ortofon 2M Red cartridge is good to very good. The soundstage is wide, but depth is just average. Imaging is better than  above average, and not furry around the edges of voices or instruments with.an acceptable amount of  air around the instruments.

The cartridge/ tonearm interface work well enough to produce good tight bass with little to no overhang. Clarity  overall is good, but gets less so in the upper mids  and lower treble range.

I have used 2M Red cartridge before on a Rega P3-24 TT which I sold 4 years ago when the downsize devil popped up again. Therefore, I can again identify the limitation of the 2M Red, even in the U-Turn tonearm which is probably  not equal to Rega's 301b arm on the P3-24 table.

Overall, I would recommend this table to budget-minded audio system builders, which I said to myself during yesterday's  LP listening session. I think I can push the performance and sound quality envelope  of the TT with the Denon DL-110 which I mentioned before. Based on a few reviews of the Denon DL-103 and DL103R, the DL-110 is less of a hassle to install and calibrate, and  lighter than the bigger brothers at 8.5gms each.  Cheers, SJ  

 

Do you get a chance to listen to many others' systems, hobbyists and/or dealers? If you can describe other rigs that met your needs better, that might put it in perspective. 
If you plan to change tables because you love the sound of 103R or 103, well tell us about the rig that it impressed you on. 
I still think that is a cart before the horse approach and you should choose table(& arm in this price range) as most important and costly, then get a cart that suits the table/arm. Cheers,
Spencer 
The fact that Ortofon 2M Red is very popular and the Ortofon is one of the biggest manufacturer today, it doesn’t make this cartridge any better even compared to their own (vintage) M20 FL Super. 

$250-300 Stanton 881 (with Stereohedron stylus) will put it in a shame for less money. I already posted here about this case, it was direct replacement for my local friend. After hearing Stanton 881s mkII in his system his new Ortofon 2M Red was removed and he said he’s gonna sell it as it was a day and night in sound compared to Stanton 881 Stereohedron. I’m a big fan of stanton cartridges and my own Stanton CS-100 WOS is my favorite MM.

To sbank,  No, I have not checked out audio other dealer, or hobbyist's w  analog set-up that impressed me.  But, your last point is well taken and good advice. Unfortunately, I have not visited many audio shops since I left Honolulu, Hawaii in 2014 which were convenient to travel to. Los Angeles county where I currently live is a huge place. Most, if not all the decent high-end audio shops are in the western half the county where there are many rich communities like Santa Monica and West Hollywood, just to name a few. 

So for the time being or maybe permanently, I will stick with the U-Turn TT, and 1)  am replacing the antique phono cables that came with the table with  Audio Sensibility Impact SE phono cables recommented by a member in another threads  2) after evaluating the new phono cable, will eventually replace the 2M Red cartridge with something.....probably the Denon DL-110 HOMC. or possibly the Stanton 881  MM  recommended by .chkster  (see above)

To chkster,  (see above your comment). Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out. I have not owned a Stanton cartridge( 681EE). since 1973 when I replaced  the Shure cartridge on Garrard SL-95B turntable. I still have the small metal embossed box with the Stanton logo that came with the cartridge  Very handy!.  It stored mounting screws, and later was used to store B&W speaker jumpers, and at times, partially  unfinished  little "doobies" misnamed "roaches"  Shame on me.  But I was living in San Francisco and the Sky, (or better) the "The High" was limit .... LOL ...... SJ.   


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