Dave Pogue, I'm curious what tonearm you were using to mount the 103 ebony?
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Mingles, it was Panzerholz, not ebony. I tried it on three arms -- JMW 10.5, JMW 10.5i, and (don't laugh) that 12" cherry wood arm sold here on Audiogon. Unpodded, it's now on the wood tonearm, since I have two other carts on 10.5i armtubes. I'll probably switch the Denon to one of these armtubes, one of these days. The Soundsmith retip makes it a great-sounding cart, but I wasn't playing it much when I had the pod on it. Dave |
My experience with the Uwe Panzerholz body was the exact opposite of Dave's above. I have both Ebony and Panzerholz Uwe bodies and both have enhanced the openness and transparency of the 103R's I've installed in them. Both wooded 103R's sound beautiful IMO. The Panzerholz sounds a little more transparent, cleaner and neutral than the Ebony - perhaps it's a little less 'velvety' sounding, but wonderfully natural. Both sound very dynamic and alive. The big panoramic 103R staging is enhanced further and imaging is more solid and focussed. It's perplexing that Dave's experience was so different - but then he was using a SoundSmith retipped 103 where I am using stock 103R's (my arm is the Graham Phantom II). |
http://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Phono-Cartridge/Uwe-s-Wood-Body-Denon-103-103R/Ebony-Wood-Body/vinyl/69/694577.html The link above is to a review I wrote on the Ebony body about 3-4 years ago. I've used both the stock 103R and Soundsmith retipped 103R in ebony and clavellin bodies and the benefits of the wood body are clearly apparent with both. A rebodied 103R with a Soundsmith retip (can be done for around $800 in total, possibly less) is an astonishingly good cartridge that can compete with the very best at a fraction of the price. |
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