Breaking in a new cartridge,..Denon DL 103 R.

My experience with the 103R is that it can be a bit aggressive and a little thin sounding for about the first 10-15 hours. At around that time, there is a pretty amazing transformation and it really smooths out and fills out quite dramatically. From there, I would say that there are further improvements in the same way until you hit about 50 hours but they are much more subtle. Once you hit 10-15 hours, it's as though a light comes on and there's magic.

IME different cartridges break in differently. On some the bass takes a while to open up. On others its the highs that need a while to come in. On still others it's both, while a rare and happy few models seem to change very little at all.

I've never broken in a Benz so I've no idea what you're about to experience. Listen and enjoy the changes. They'll help you understand your new cartridge and fine tune it even better. Then share your experience with us and you'll be the Ruby break-in expert! :-)

Enjoy,
Doug

Sorry for talking nonsensically about a Benz. I saw "R" and my brain thought "Ruby". Senior moment.

I haven't broken in a Denon either, so I'm sticking to my guns on the rest of my post!

Start off at 2.5g VTF. Break in should be relatively short. I heard a gradual improvement, but the cart basically sound good out of the box. Break in is short.