Denon DL 103R cartridge holy crap!

After living with the Denon 103R cart for 2 months, I enjoy my records now more than I ever have in my life!
Tommy never sounded this good!

 

Those are great MC cartridges, especially for Rock.

 

Try the Zu variant, everything 103r and more.

 

Great cartridge, I'm into my 2nd. The first was put into a wood body. When replaced it, I didn't do the mod and it sounds just as good to me.

 

Great cartridge, full stop. Used one for about a decade. Running a DL-301 MkII now which is great and does have more detail and better tracking due to the elliptical stylus but I'd really love to hear the 103R with a more advanced stylus. Best of both worlds...

 

I wanted to - but it is such a ripoff. No rhyme or reason why a ZU 103r costs so much more(substantially) than their ZU 103 which has the same treatment.

I love my DL 103 and also will likely look for a stock 103r in the future.

 

The DL103 is one hell of a musical cartridge.

 

Have a stock 103R, use it regularly, and always have the same reaction when it is replaces a more detailed, quieter cartridge (e.g. Hana SL): "this cartridge just sounds good." There's something about the natural dynamic ease and the effortless punch that makes popular music fit the 103R to a "T." Have read all of the posts about upgrading to a ZU or Soundsmith and decided that the stock version is right for me. The original 103 was, apparently, designed for use in radio stations and they made the right choices.

 

Sorry l should have added that l used one on my Gyro/SME V with a Graphite head shell weight.... those who say the SME V can be sterile should have heard this....l then upgrade to Ortofon Cadenza Black which bettered the DL103 in a lot of departments, except for the sheer musicality of the Denon... also do not understand that there a few folk who dislike the DL103 with a passion, just goes to show how different we all are.

 

This cartridge here? Denon - DL-103R MC Phono Cartridge | Shop Music Direct

I know it's the same price as my TT (Uturn currently with a Ortofon 2MBlue), with a Moon 110LPv2 pre. Would I hear an upgrade over the 2MBlue? The Moon can handle MC carts too. Also thinking of if/when I get a DD table, maybe a Technics SL1200mk7 what cart to get for it.

Rock 2/3, jazz 1/3 of the time.

 

Definitely one sweet sounding cartridge.

 

I recently had my old 103R retipped by Sound Smith (it was already in an aftermarket aluminum body). It sounds astonishing - it definitely blows away the AT33PTG/II I was using before.

 

Would this cart be worth getting if I’m using an AT-LP120X going into a Schiit Mani?

 

103/103R user for about 10 years now. Currently enjoying a 103R with a new cantilever and stylus as well as nuded into a wood body.

Enjoy the Denon in its current form and try some mods if you are interested. I think you’ll enjoy them all!

 

No. The Mani doesn’t have the right settings on MC for the DL-103 or 103R.

 

I don’t know if it’s a matter of considering the 103r as a premium version of the 103 and then pricing it accordingly, or what.

 

They are only 100.00 apart in price - whereas the ZUs are 300.00 apart.

 

This thread makes me smile. That's the stuff that makes the hobby worth it. Glad you're having a blast.

 

Right - I think Zu is pricing them as more of a premium product. To be fair, they do go through the bother of testing lots of them individually prior to pricing them. It's still a very good product, and pretty fairly priced, for what's on offer (if we can consider much of anything "fairly priced" in this hobby).

 

Can't speak for the price difference between the normal and R version that Zu imposes.

But the channel matching is the surprising QC process here - quite aside from the new body and epoxy potting. This is the type of detail that is employed by Audio Note for their higher end speakers and also cartridges. It can make a spooky difference to the sense of coherence and 'body' of sound, if it is maintained/supported through the reproduction chain.

I have the 102, 103, 103R, 103Pro and Zu 103 II, Grade 2.

 

I’d like to “like” this 1,000 times.

 

The plain vanilla 103 is currently on sale at one of the vendors in my country.
Although I have always been curious about this well-regarded cart, the Clearaudio Satisfy arm on my Marantz TT15 has an effective mass of 9.5 gr. I understand that's too low. I would like to try the DL301 MK2, which would be more suitable for my table but however I have been searching, it is unabtainable in Europe. Why, oh why?!

 

I too have been searching in vain for a dl301 here in Europe...

 

I just don't get it. Is the 301 out of production?
Why is it being sold in Amazon JP?
If it is a current product by DENON (and not NOS), why is it not offered by dealers?
Sorry for the off-topic rant, but if the 103 had the higher compliance of the 301, I would go ahead and get the 103.

 

I'm not so sure that they really "test" them; to the best of my knowledge every 103 and R comes from the factory pretested with a chart
identifying how closely the channels are balanced. At least both the 103R's I used a number of years ago did.

So more a question of opening up the box and reading the chart LOL! That's a pretty good gig for Zu I think!

As I recall, I couldn't really hear much of a difference between the two 103R's I had (they were very quickly modified)
based on the slight difference in channel imbalance. One was very close on each channel and likely would have
been graded Prime by Zu, the other one less so.