Retip a Denon DL-103R or buy another one?

I’m glad you posted this. My retipped cart has a lighter headshell spacer than what is on my stock 103r and was thinking I’d swap spacers. I see you have yours in a Paradox Pulse body, so I’d say weight isn’t my issue.

I’m planning on more listening this weekend.

 

@ProfessorC1983 - any update?

As for me, after letting everything settle in and making a few minor adjustments, I’m finding the bass to be really nice. I think that either my ears have become happy with the change or that the new portion of the suspension has loosened. The bass seems both detailed and tight with some of the bottom end that I felt like was initially missing.

I’m tracking at 2.6 BTW.

 

@Trabik Glad to hear things are improving for you! I'm definitely trending in a better direction too. About 10 more hours since my last message. I removed the 3g spacer weight I'd been using on the headshell, which was messing up my alignment (every time I tightened down the screws, the weight would cause the cart to twist). That also let me drop 10g of aux weight from the end of the tonearm and still keep the effective mass in the butter zone, and alignment is much easier now.

I also added the KAB fluid damper upgrade to my Technics 1200 tonearm. I know there is some controversy about this addition, but it does seem to have helped stabilize my bass, and as a bonus it greatly reduced the lead-in groove skipping I was experiencing, which let me lower anti-skate force to around 1/2 of VTF where it "should" be, and I think makes the cantilever happier.

Of course I'm not done tweaking yet, but I've got the bass sounding pretty decent on my headphones. Next step is to add a subwoofer to my setup so I can replicate it in my room!

 

Pretty rarified company a DL-103r (stock, apparently) is keeping here!

EAR/Technics RS-1500 tape deck, EAR Acute Classic CD Player, Helius Designs Viridia turntable, Omega Standard tonearm, Denon DL-103R cartridge, PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplifier, purna/ma amplifier, and Vayu/fs loudspeakers;, Etc.

 

I have a re-tipped Denon 103r from Soundsmith, any idea how that would compare with a Soundsmith MIMC Star?

 

I can’t speak to that comparison.

I am curious how you feel about adding mass somehow to your retipped Denon. I recently put one of mine in a wood body making it the heaviest of all the versions I’ve used and it sounds really terrific.

 

IMO getting a 103r to work well with a 1200 tonearm is a waste of time. You need a bigger arm somewhere in the 20g eff mass range for that cart to sound right.

 

I also heard that the "servo" arm I have make the weight of the tonearm unimportant to cart matching, I have no idea if that's true?

 

Am running two VPI Prime TTs with three cartridges described in this thread: Sub $1K MC Cartridges: Three Winners . Whenever I switch between the 103R and the Hana SL I am impressed with the replaced cartridge: the 103R for its exciting musicality and sense of live performance and the Hana for its detail, soundstage, and noiseless background.
Want to prepare the 103R with a separate tonearm so that it can be easily exchanged for either the Hana or the Blue Quintet -- the two cartridges I use for classical orchestral music. The 103R is, to my ears, much better for pop/rock and I want to replace the 103R tonearm when going that listening route. The VPI's unipivot design makes this easy (but, of course, expensive...).
Given this usage, is it worthwhile to have my relatively new 103R retipped? Am much interested in the possible benefits from the many discussions on this forum and this is an excellent thread -- keep up the good work, vinyl pundits.

 

My DL103r was retipped to a sapphire cantilever with micro line stylus by Andy at Needle Clinic. The cartridge is in a Paradox Pule Guard aluminum body. The nice thing with this is that they add lead shot inside the cartridge body. All of this really makes the cartridge sing amazingly well.

 

Always reading about all the different bodies for these carts. As am going to order one as soon as this covid thing had got our postage back to normal..Have been reading about this other body the Nasotec.. More of a simple place inside and go rather than the glueing/lead etc.. Any experience anyone?
Body for Denon DL 103(R) cartridges

 

I own a Zu Denon DL-103, which is nearing the need for a re-tip. I'm definitely re-tipping that cartridge, most probably with Steve of VAS NY. The cart is heavy - 14 gr, the current arm it sits on needed quite a bit of lead tape to make it balance. But, after re-tip, I'll just pair it with a Jelco 10" 750E - it has a heavy counterweight that will suit it.

Generally, I'm a proponent of re-tipping any MC cart that costs at least $300 new. Even if re-tipping costs the same as buying new, it would be fun to hear the improvement offered by a superior cantilever/stylus.

So, with time, I plan to re-tip my DL-301/II, Ortofon MC-3 Turbo, and Hana EL. I may not re-tip the DL-110, because it's cheaper to buy new, but may re-tip the DL-160, as it's simply unobtanium new by now.

 

No Anj. Looking forward to your report.

I've made do with a Zu for now (mark II). There's a brass version going around, made by a European which I'd like to try one day. The Zu is impressive though.

 

Sorry, not brass. Bronze. By Lignolab in Germany. It's a bit pricey, though, but orders of magnitude less expensive than the Musikraft equivalent.

 

If I could hit rewind, I would try adding as much mass as possible to the headshell and see how a stock 103 or 103r sounds. I’d really like to be able to do a side by side between a stock 103r and my modded 103r in the panzerholz body.

I guess what I’m saying is add mass in any way you can.

 

Since we're on the topic of mass and the 103, another note.

Adding mass is key, as Trabik comments. Designed at a time when different tonearms were in use, it's interesting to note the success listeners have had with heavy tonearms (steel armtubes) and lossy bearings (knife-edge). This is found in old arms like the SME 3009/3012. Not sure, but I think the recently produced Jelco 850 or 950 offer a similar arm. But other massy arms produced today have a similar effect, even with modern bearings (Schick, Audio Creative Groovemaster, modern EMT, etc).

The thinking is that the stiff cantilever mechanism of the 103 generator can push a lot of physical energy back down the arm, muddying response at frequency extremes. Mass, and lossy systems allow some of this to be 'sunk' and damped in the arm, helping the 103 to track better and sound more focused and beautifully 'burnished' in the midrange.

If you haven't tried it yet, it's worth experimenting.

 

cheers guys and yes about mass am using the Jelco 550 arm (on Thoren TD160 super) and have the Oyaide HS carbon Fibre headshell which alone is 12 grams (and DL110) so pretty good there..

 

I just had my 103S retapped by Andy Kim and don’t think I’ll ever need anything better. It sounds insanely good and much better than before.

Andy’s prices are very reasonable and his turnaround was really quick. From the day I removed it from my turntable and shipped, I had my cartridge back and installed in less than one week.

I went with his top level option of sapphire cantilever and micro line stylus.

There are a lot of recommendations on this site, as well as others. Andy can be reached by email at [email protected]

 

Anyone used one of these 103 plugin type SPU headshells?

 

Nope. This looks great - do you have more details on it? Where can I get one, and the pricing?

 

I don't know much about it, just showed up today in one of the constant stream of pinterest emails I get ... but listed as sold out at the shop link ... SE-10Σ（DL-103専用アルミシェル） - Silver heart/SA

DL-103専用 アルミシェル「SE-10Σ」（Silverheart/SA コラボ特別仕様）

Mono and Stereo High-End Audio Magazine: SILVERHEART SE-10Σ DENON DL-103 HEADSHELL

 

Thanks!

 

It is a very cool headshell, certainly caught my attention. Handmade, looks very well done, but apparently sold out right now, and at close to $300, a bit on the luxury end of the scale, but with some of the Yamamoto headshells well over $100 now, maybe not that big a stretch, and certainly unique, which always comes at a premium. Hopefully they make some more.

 

Super cool, I want one but 300 bucks is to pricey for me. Is the mount adjustable for overhang?

BillWojo

 

The pictures say no ...