Denon 103r ????

Raul, you sound alot like my wife, ascribing words that I never said. The 103'r' is a music bargain in today's market. I am not in love with it, although I do like it very much.

Your penchant for getting the last word is certainly not absent on this thread. You pontificate with a practised skill.

And like I said earlier, if you want to dismiss the 103r, then 'palma non sine pulvere'. I can, however, recommend it or the 103 to anyone who might have difficulty finding any of the better MM's of yesteryear that many of us reading these pages have long known about, and suggest it not as an alternative, but a primary consideration because of its price/performance.

Vroom, vroom.

Dear Storyboy: Last word?. certainly far from there and I'm sorry that the way I " speak " " sound " in that way, that was/is never my attitude/intention, my opinion ( like always ) is only that: just other opinion where I try to share my experiences.
Like any one opinion you can/could take what you like/agree and leave out what you don't like it: that's all.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Re Storyboy's post:

The 103 has been called the best moving coil moving magnet cartrdige that a certain someone has heard. The midrange is nicely populated with the addition of very linear but sweet detail and incredible presence.

I have what some think is a top tier old shcool MM cartridge, the Picketing TLS-2S and it is very nice. But the 103 is more detailed [not analytical], more extended, tighter more defined bass, but I guess that the the MM adds it's own sweetness to vocals and rock and roll which diverges from linear but is tasty so maybe I will toss that over to the Pickering.

Point is, that I and even Raul, because he uses a modded 103 called the MagicDiamond, do in fact recommend it highly. Raul just likes his better because it costs more. ;-)

The 103 in it's stock form is a target for critique, but modded it is another animal.

Gadfly-
I think you might want to check with Raul. He does not use the Magic Diamond, although he has listened to one.

Rather than turn Pedrillo's post and question into another 103 vs. Magic Diamond thread, stick to the topic under discussion. Everyone understands your feelings on this. You have made it abundantly clear. I would hate to see this thread shut down because it went the route of the previous one.

As a response to the question, I own the Denon 103 (AND a Magic Diamond). I have never found it to exhibit the edginess you speak of, just the opposite in fact. During the first 50 hours or so, it seemed kind of dark and closed in, opening up more as I put hours on it. I used the 103 on two variations of the VPI JMW 9 series tonearms: the lower mass 9 standard, and the higher mass 9 signature. A wonderful cartridge for the money in my estimation. I have not had a chance as of yet to see how it would perform on the linear tracking tonearm I use now.

Have you played around with the VTA? Adjusting that may help with some of what you are hearing. I don't recall reading how many hours you have on it. They do require some break in time.

One thing he hasn't tried, Slipknot1, is to change the loading. I mentioned this in an earlier post but since Raul had some comments, well, I went with the flow.

There is no MagicDiamond vs 103; no contention at all. They are both the same.

Otherwise I agree that the 103 has some run-in time required to open up and show it's colors.

Really, a small trick would be to add some duct tape to the side of the body of the 103. Someone gave me this tip a while back, it is reverseable, and is revealing on several levels.