Denon DL-103 -- Was it a mistake?

03-27-09: Jwglista
I assume by "sut" you mean step up transformer. That really isn't an option at the moment, as I only purchased the 103 as a temporary replacement for the Virtuoso.

With the painful acknowledgement that I'm too late, I think the AT150MLX would have been a much better substitute than the DL103--it's another high performing MM cartridge (with replaceable stylus, no less).

4mV output, great speed, dynamic range, detail, and body; compliance in the customary range so tonearm mass matching is easy; high output, so no fuss, no muss.

Jwglista... I think you would have been better off with the dl 160, or 110, or a decent mm cart, the 103 really wants a step up..... I think there is a synergy inherent with step up transformers and LOMC's.... and this is what folks seem to 'rave' about. Regardless,' one man's cup of tea ', etc. etc.
I had a wealth of problems similar to the ones you are describing with my first dl 103, and it took a bunch of fuss, trial and error,and help from others to finally make it sing! If you want to sell on the 103, let me know, it's always nice to have a back-up. I have a dl 110 sitting around doing nothing that I can 'extended loan' to you if you want to give that a try while you wait for your Virtuoso. Harv.

Rccc:
I think that if I were to spend time and money getting my 103 to sound "right" just as you did, I would end up coming to the same conclusion. The 103 and Virtuoso just seem like they are based on totally different philosophies of sound. But just having owned the cartridge now, I'm very curious as to how it would sound in an ideal setup.

Johnnyb53:
I appreciate the suggestion nonetheless. I've heard great things about that cart, so it no doubt sounds good. $300 is probably more than I would have spent on a replacement cart (although combining the price of my 103 with the 2M Red puts me pretty close to $300).

I'm enjoying the sound of the 2M Red quite a bit. If there was one thing I could do without, it would be its exaggerated midrange sound. Instruments like trumpets can sound a bit harsh at times.

The Compliance-weight relationship is closer to ideal for the 2M and the Clearaudio arm than it is for the 103 - so even though the 2M Red is a more modest cartridge - it should sound a lot better without having to tweak it. And the 2M Red probably still has a little breaking in to do. With that said, it is never going to sound quite like your Virtuoso.

Well I remounted the Denon to try some loading plugs that I made. I actually learned that doing this will actually *lower* the load resistance on the Cambridge. For example, since the loading of the Cambridge is 100 ohms, if I add 100 ohm resistors in parallel, I am actually lowering the total resistance to 50 ohms. I noticed that by doing this, the sound gets more "deep" into the soundstage, dynamics are smoother, but at the same time less exciting. I didn't notice much difference in the treble. However, when I mounted the cartridge this time, I made the tail end of the tone arm a tad up instead of way down as it was before, and this seems to have surprisingly helped the sound a lot. Ultimately I'm leaving the loading at the default 100 ohms. To *increase* that number, I'd have to physically open the unit, remove the 100 ohm resistor, and put something else in. If I were to do this, I would put in a 10,000 ohm resistor, then use plugs to tone it down. But I will say that I am growing to like the DL-103 a bit more. I am getting used to its sound, although it does still sound just a tad bright in my system. This may change as I put even more hours on it.