UPDATE: I talked to Mike at VPI---he told me that he himself hasn't tried mounting a Denon 103 on a VPI Classic, and he doesn't know of anyone having any problems attempting to do so, but if it does indeed pose a problem for this particular cartridge, VPI can simply mount the tonearm about 1/8" farther back to accomodate the Denon wanting to sit farther back on the headshell. He said this altered tonearm placement wouldn't affect any other cartridge that one would want to mount later.
So I went ahead and placed my order with Music Direct, and they're special ordering for me a VPI Classic with the modified tonearm placement to accomodate my Denon 103R.
So I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to buy the Classic and mount a Denon 103 or 103R on it to do the same to avoid any problems. Mike at VPI said there was no extra charge to do this.
One other thing---Mike also told me to have Music Direct specify that the armtube be stainless steel instead of aluminum, but Music Direct's website and every other online site that sells this table already lists as one of it's features "JMW-10.5i Classic Tonearm with Stainless-Steel Armtube", so I'm not sure why he told me that.
So I went ahead and placed my order with Music Direct, and they're special ordering for me a VPI Classic with the modified tonearm placement to accomodate my Denon 103R.
So I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to buy the Classic and mount a Denon 103 or 103R on it to do the same to avoid any problems. Mike at VPI said there was no extra charge to do this.
One other thing---Mike also told me to have Music Direct specify that the armtube be stainless steel instead of aluminum, but Music Direct's website and every other online site that sells this table already lists as one of it's features "JMW-10.5i Classic Tonearm with Stainless-Steel Armtube", so I'm not sure why he told me that.