A Soundsmith Denon dl103 retip question

Agree with Dan

I have my Ebony wood body 103r with ESC saphire/ruby transplant.
Excellent sounding cartridge.

Viridian - thanks for that insight

I also found this very informative post over on View yl Engine
http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=22894

I've also read of a guy ( in Italy I think) that completely rebuilds the entire cartridge (nude) that is supposed to be amazing.

I think to start with I'll go for the OC/CL from soundsmith

Now that's been cleared up can anyone comment on the benefits of
1. Nuding the 103
2. Installing the wood body

Many thanks

I own a wood bodied 103. The additional mass and the lack of plastic body resonance (not to mention the threaded screw mounts) make the 103 a joy, but be aware that a heavy arm is a must for good tracking.

I also own a SoundSmith 103 Gold. This too has a wood body but also has the optimized line contact ruby cantilever. It also has the suspension reworked to be a lot more compliant and thus much easier to optimize with a modern arm.
This is a real giant killer: great tone and detailed.

- can microscopic particles of dirt in the groove become more audible making older albums sound worse?

As a rule, finer profile styli are quieter in the groove than larger, coarser styli.

- will a stiffer stylus make skipping due to scratches more of an issue

The stylus won't be stiffer. For LP playback purposes, all diamonds are equally stiff. The cantilever and/or a rebuilt suspension may be stiffer. If so, that may increase the likelihood of skipping. It will also affect the rise time and amplitude of signals generated by groove modulations. Whether for better or worse depends on the system and listener.

All that said, the best/first answer is, clean your records and replace the badly scratched ones. There's no reason to play dirty records. The only reason to play a badly scratched one would be if it were some irreplaceable rarity (in which case you should at least clean it properly).