Denon 103r ????

Dear Pedrillo: +++++ " What do I do though ...?...."+++++

Who told you that you can have a stellar quality sound reproduction performance from this cartridge?

IMHO this cartridge was/is over-rated and IMHO too over-priced. There are several cartridges in the low 100.00-200.00 range even lower than 100.00 that beat it easy. Please read the Pauly post carefully.

Yes, I know that there are a lot of people that think different about and I respect to all of them and their opinion and if they are happy with that that is fine for me: enjoy it.

Pedrillo, make you a favor and try any of these cartridges: Sumiko Pearl, Ortofon FF15 XEMK2, Shure M97Xe, etc, etc

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I thank you all very much!!
I heed your advice and will post my future changes.
Thank you again for putting up with my questions, I hope I can offer good advice in return some day.
But for now all I can contribute is some silly humor.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?hbest&971920306&openmine&zzPedrillo&4&5#Pedrillo

Hdm Pauly(from earlier post as well) Gadfly thanks for the suggestions. I plan on getting the wood body, and will try to change the resistance in the phono. Reason for posting, was in hope of finding an immediate solution.

Come on Raul. All you have to do with a 103R is put it in a metal body and pot it and it'll be worth $5K and right up there with an Allaerts!

The Shure M97XE is better than the Denon?

I've also struggled with the edginess of the 103R. I realigned it several times thinking it wasn't set up properly. I added mass to the tonearm to accommodate its compliance. I damped the plinth to death. I tried several phono stages (Phonomena, Wright WPP100c, WPP200c, EAR 834P). I tried different SUTs (Lundahl and Cinemag). I tried loading at 40 ohms, 100 ohms and 500 ohms. But after all this messing around, I still hear some edginess. What's a fellow to do? yes, yes, take the plastic body off and try an Uwe ebony body. That's not out of the question, but why not try something different altogether?

And that's what I did... I picked up a Grado Reference Sonata. It may not be the last word in high end carts, but you know what? It's so much smoother than the 103R. And there's no fussing with tonearm mass, loading, SUTs, extra ICs. Just get it aligned, sit down and relax. There's something about the Sonata that sounds very nice. The timbre is realistic. The bass is deep. The top end is smooth and free of glare.

I haven't lost hope for the 103, but I'm frustrated. It requires so much tweaking. FWIW, I strongly recommend reading Romy's rant: Denon 103: myths and the reality