Denon DL 103 modifications and re-body questions thread

Some of us are new to vinyl, or returned after many years away from it. Myself, I was lured into the D-103R after reading Art Dudley's review of the Zu Denon. Then, I found out about the ESCCO mods here on A'gon.

Sometimes when your experience is limited, and the choices are many, we just do the best we can. My Zu-ESCCO 103R is a great cartridge for me, I am very happy with it. It out performs my Dynavector XX2MKII, which is quite a nice-sounding cartridge too.

I guess I should just ask questions instead of answer them, though I have learned a great deal, with the help of many fine, knowledgeable members of A'gon, and for that, I am thankful. I will state though, my largely DIY system would put many sky-is-the-limit systems to shame.

Flame on, my brothers!

Dan 

I ran modified Denon 103R's for close to five years and moved on to other cartridges about 3-4 years ago. 

The Denon generator is indeed very good. The weak spots in the cartridge are the body and cantilever/stylus.

I ended up running 103R's in both aluminum and ebony bodies; I had Peter L at Soundsmith epoxy both of them into the bodies-there should be information online about safely doing so, although one has to be careful doing this.

Alternatively, one can use a very small amount of acetone to secure the top of the cartridge after the body has been removed into any of the friction fit bodies without actually "potting" the cartridge with epoxy into the body.

I ran an aluminum body with Soundsmith's standard ruby cantilever and line contact stylus and an ebony body with Peter's OCL stylus (also on ruby).

Retipping costs have unfortunately risen with cartridge prices in the past 5-6 years. I remember the first retip I did with Soundsmith was $250. Now you're looking at $350-$400 for those options and $450 for boron. The $300 sapphire option appears to be Peter's high value option at this time I would say.

Aluminum bodies are cheap-you can often pick them up on Ebay for $50-$60 and they make the most sense (and sound very good) as compared to the usually more expensive wood bodies.

So you can do a stock 103 in an aluminum body pretty inexpensively (probably around $300 if you shop), then run it for 800-1000 hours and retip it if you like. 

At $300, if you have the right arm and phono preamp, the cartridge will offer a lot of value and while it may not be perfect (what is for $300 anymore?) it will do a lot of things right and will be a pretty enjoyable cartridge to listen to. Errors of omission kind of stuff. 

Even with higher retipping costs, now that cartridge prices have gone through the roof, a retipped 103 or 103R with a better stylus profile/cantilever in an aluminum body will hold its own with most sub $1000 cartridges. It will not be perfect, but I can't think of anything that is in that price range anyway, and it will have a character that is somewhat unique and very likeable if partnered carefully. 

And you'll have had the opportunity to listen pretty extensively to the cartridge to see if you like its strengths before having to decide on whether or not to put more money into it in the form of a retip.

But both the body and a good retip significantly improve the cartridge. The body is the higher value proposition because of its lower cost but improvements from the stylus/cantilever really elevate the performance as well. 

metal and or ceramic filled epoxies

https://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-176-musikraft-cartridge-bodies-emia-phono-transformer

lewm6,481 posts
11-30-2018 5:20am
I agree with Chakster and Glen. And Rob, please explain why an MC cartridge would per se have a lower "noise floor" than an MM cartridge. I can't think of a justification for that generalization. In fact, the facts might suggest that the opposite is the case. It certainly would be if you use an active gain stage (rather than a SUT) to amplify the output of an MC.

Moving coils generated more current and less voltage than MM's. Higher current from cartridge to 1st amplifying device means better noise rejection. Basic physics.

I agree that if you use a step up transformer which converts high current/low voltage to high voltage/low current then you increase the risk of noise intrusion ( rf etc ) between the transformer and phono. Thats why interconnects after a step up transformer should be as short and as well shielded as possible.

Best to use active gain for MC's in my view as you suggest.