Help me make a decision! Turntable overload

Pioneer tonearm designed for modern mid compliance cartridges, definitely not for extremely low compliance MC like Denon (which require superheavy tonearms), people never learn the basics.

The superiority of the budget MC over MM is a myth, seems like you know nothing about cartridges. At least you should know that Denon 103R has a conical tip (the worst diamond profile ever which can not extract the musical information from the record grooves) and it must be re-tipped every 300 hrs. Zu Audio and related companies are not cartridge manufacturers, but the Denon is cheap MC designed in the 60’s that can be upgraded by third-party to earn money, the upgrade makes the price up to $700 at least, but for this money you can buy amazing MM cartridges like AT-ML170 or many other vintage MM of the golden era with stylus life span up to 2000 hrs! To learn more about MM read this article in TAS magazine. And them do yourself a favour and start reading MM thread where all the best MM already discovered for lazy people.

I like some MC cartridges too, not all MM are better than MC, but the cartridges you have mentioned here is bad choice. Sometimes i think that reviewers knows nothing about cartridges when they are raving about something like Hanna or Denon 103.

Any cartridge with conical tip must be avoided if your target is details and resolution which makes vinyl magical.

Thank you Chakster!  Diving into those links...  The more I read, the more I realize how little I understand abut this stuff.  Honestly, I had no idea there would be such a steep learning curve.  I'm all about it, I just wanted to get up and running without making a big mistake out of the gate.  Definitely looking for a shortcut so i can start listening to my records.  I'm starting to get the feeling that this hobby could get expensive...  

Normally the cartridge comes with a weight. So you can compensate a little for light tone arms or light head shells.

I have a Denon 110 high output MC on a refurbished Pioneer Pl-550 and I like the old school FM sound it gives. I am not looking for resolution from vinyl.

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/6257

@srereo5,

You sold Onkyo equipment  and never cared for them? I hope other dealers aren't like this?

@slaw...…………………………………………………..

Yup, that is correct.  Couldn't stand the equipment, many returns, and many came in for warranty work.  Their slogan back in the 70's was "Onkyo, artistry in sound". (yeah right) The audio store I worked in sold the Onkyo as the loss leader to get people into the store.  I personally liked the Marantz, Sherwood and Kenwood that we also sold and the real good stuff, the Accuphase.

I saw many Onkyo on the repair bench and the tech always complained about how cheaply made their stuff was, the circuit boards were as thin as a sheet of paper.  If someone really wanted one, I sold it to them but usually they traded up within a few months.  We dumped the Onkyo line for the JVC line which was much better.

Also, I was just one of the salesmen there, I was not privy to decisions on what equipment lines we sold.  I sold the equipment that we dealt with, like it or not.