Help required re: rebodying a Denon 103R

Any practical advice before I take the plunge and try to rebody a Denon dl-103R with an alu body?

Any pitfalls to look out for? Or handy hints?

I was going to buy a Denon 103 and practice on that but hey, might as well just go straight for the 103r.

 

Thanks.

Found this as well, from across the pond

 

My advice is to take take the money you'd spend on the DL 103 and the aluminum thingie and buy a better cartridge.

 

I put a hardwood body on my DL-103r. Advise: Watch as many how to videos you can stand, some make it look too easy. I’ve done two and both were slightly different, with regards to the glue placement when originally manufactured. One cut out pretty easy just like the video I had watched, while the other was glued way good and took time getting the cover off.

Good Luck

 

Agreed. Excellent advice.

-Bill

 

Not at all helpful!

I have other much more expensive carts, and cheaper ones, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses (depending on turntable/phono combination).
But I'm not asking about the merits of this combo.

Thanks, this is the sort of advice I'm after.

 

I've used 3 different aftermarket bodies (ebony, clavellin and aluminum) on 103R's. Relative to the ebony and aluminum I did not like the clavellin that much but both the ebony and aluminum resulted in pretty substantial improvements to the cartridge (I preferred both those rebodied 103R's to the Ortofon MC 20 Super or Koetsu Black I had in use previously) and the low cost of the aluminum bodies makes them the bang for buck champion. I know someone that recently started using an ebony bodied 103R that says it compares quite favourably with his Lyra Delos.

And that's with the stock Denon stylus. The cartridge can be further and substantially improved with a retip from Soundsmith as well-I've had both the $250 SS line contact and the $350 OCL done on my rebodied 103R's.

You will likely be very happy with your aluminum bodied 103R. Considering the relatively low cost of the aluminum bodies it's a no brainer and dramatically improves an already pretty good cartridge.