Phono cartridge left / right output voltage differ

It's irritating when this happens. We expect "new" to be perfect and free of problems. I bought a DL-103 from AudioCubes years ago and it happened to me, but I don't remember hearing a difference between channels.

Should you complain to the vendor? I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I wish you luck.

The difference is ~.1 dB. No, I don't think you can hear that.

This difference is about a .5 db difference. That is well within most cartridge specifications. One can hear a .5 db difference as a subtle shift in the position of the center image in a set up where the center image is narrowly drawn, but, the shift will be hardly an issue (if it is an issue to you, then you MUST have a balance control, preferably one that can be operated by remote control.

The left is .16 mv and the right is .18 mv.

That is great for a Denon.

Well, we have three different statements of what the difference is in db. I would re-assert that it is almost exactly 1.0 db, as I and Mulveling indicated. 20log(0.18/0.16) or 20log(0.16/0.18).

Regards,
-- Al