Denon DL-103R Wood Body Mod

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.

For anyone interested, my Panzerholz pod is available. Mint. Dave

I have both the Panzerholtz and ebony and both are potted.
Which I thinks again makes a difference. The Panzer is on a SS retipped 103: ruby + fine line. The 103 is stock cantilever. Now the Ebony /w stock cantilever is a might dull in comparison to the Panzerholtz. A dramtic difference between the two. I prefer the retipped Panzeholtz.

but not as much as a humble cherry wood bodied 103R. This 103R has been retipped by soundsmith with an elliptical stylus on an aluminum cantilever, non stock.

It is my opinion that the aluminum cantilever should be kept. Use whatever stylus you want, but that cantilever imparts timbre that is what the 103 is all about. to me at least. this 103R is not potted, btw.

It is soon time to get the ebony bodied 103 retipped and I will have him try putting the fine line on the stock aluminum or a new aluminum cantilever if he cant fetch it onto the stock. I will drop back to an elliptical if he can't fit the fine line.

The reason is that the ruby cantilever is fast fast fast. It outpaces the drama that the original 103 has. More detail, yeah, but no loss in drama, please. Let's have some DRAMA!