Denon DL-103R Wood Body Mod

Yes, and many others as well. I've been using a wood bodied 103R for about 3-4 years now. You won't find many people that don't think it is a major improvement on the stock Denon (I believe Dave Pogue is the one person I know of that does not).

IMO it is a very significant improvement. If you go in stages, you can do the wood body and then do a Soundsmith retip with a line contact stylus and you will have a cartridge that can compete with some very exotic and very pricey cartridges. An aluminum body is another alternative and some have reported great results with those as well; be aware, though, that the aluminum will be a fair bit heavier. With an ebony body, you're looking at a cartridge weighing in around 11-12 grams, with the aluminum you are in the 14-15 gram range so be sure you are capable of balancing out a cartridge that heavy.

I'd suggest the Ebony body and that is Uwe's favorite as well (the man behind the wood bodies and he's had a chance to experiment with them all); I much prefer the ebony to a clavellin body I have and the ebony has a strong synergy with the Soundsmith retip if you go that way as well.

I've just put a Uwe snakewood body on my DL103 (non-R version) and noticed a modest improvement. I'd be interested to hear from people who have replaced the stylus and/or cantilever, as to what benefits each of these have had, and whether there have been any downsides.

As noted, I wasn't fond of my Panzerholz pod. Put it on a Soundsmith-retipped DL-103 because of all the positive comments here and elsewhere and "assumed" it was an improvement. But a friend heard one in an ebony pod and pronounced it lifeless and worse, so I removed mine (not real easy) and am glad I did. In my system, the pod seemed to have a negative effect on openness and transparency, but nearly everyone loves these things, so YMMV. Dave Pogue

Dopogue,

So are you playing it nude without housing?

No, I luckily kept the original plastic body and reinstalled it. I thought about "nuding" it and affixing it to the brass plate that is (or was) also promoted as an improvement over the stock Denon, but I'm really happy with the way it sounds now. Dave