Bravo Johnnantais!!
My Denon DL-103D gives up almost nothing to more expensive a famous cartridges when it comes to terms of sheer musical enjoyment over a wide range of material. It surely gets far more playing time than any of my others (also for financial reasons).
Sure, some have greater detail, focus, air, space between performers, timbral accuracy, etc. All these fine points are better recreated, but when I take my critical listening hat off it really doesn't matter that much. Perhaps it's because I still listen to a good amount of rock and hard rock. I need an all around performer. The Denon can easily go from Black Sabbath to Branford Marsalis and then on to Joni Mitchell. All sound great and the Denon gets right to the heart of the music, as you said.
Is it the best? Definetly not. But, other carts will be sold off long before it will.
***Gregm***
Thanks for your insights on the Scheu Tacco. The arm seems to perform extremely well with my cartridges. I've been considering trying out that low-priced Airtech linear air bearing tonearm.
My Denon DL-103D gives up almost nothing to more expensive a famous cartridges when it comes to terms of sheer musical enjoyment over a wide range of material. It surely gets far more playing time than any of my others (also for financial reasons).
Sure, some have greater detail, focus, air, space between performers, timbral accuracy, etc. All these fine points are better recreated, but when I take my critical listening hat off it really doesn't matter that much. Perhaps it's because I still listen to a good amount of rock and hard rock. I need an all around performer. The Denon can easily go from Black Sabbath to Branford Marsalis and then on to Joni Mitchell. All sound great and the Denon gets right to the heart of the music, as you said.
Is it the best? Definetly not. But, other carts will be sold off long before it will.
***Gregm***
Thanks for your insights on the Scheu Tacco. The arm seems to perform extremely well with my cartridges. I've been considering trying out that low-priced Airtech linear air bearing tonearm.