The perfect match for the DL-103. Stereophile Recommended Class B.
"This step-up device, designed and voiced for use with Denon's evergreen DL-103, was among the first commercial products from Auditorium 23, Aschenbrenner's Frankfurt workshop. Its two sealed trannies are fastened inside a nondescript case of extruded aluminum more or less the size of an electric shaver, and the input and output connectors are the same type of Switchcraft RCA jacks used by Shindo Laboratory, with a long, flexible ground lead hardwired to the output side. Input resistance measured 7.8 ohms, output resistance 505 ohms.
The Auditorium 23 Standard was wonderful with the Denon, Zu, EMT, and Benz cartridges: dramatic without being brash, and consistently full-bodied and colorful. Attack components of notes were sufficiently clean and unambiguous that the music never became slow or ponderous, and the Auditorium 23 was so dynamically faithful, and so finely nuanced, that it seemed to let the most distinctive performers, from Backhaus to Hendrix, sound more like themselves.
The Auditorium 23 was slightly coarser than the Audio Note: Its sense of flow was excellent in absolute terms, yet the British product sounded a shade more natural. Similarly, with the German transformer, the percussive sounds I described earlier were a bit lacking in sweetness and color by comparison.
The Auditorium 23 Standard performed its best with the highest-impedance sources I tried: To hear it with the Denon (or Zu) was to hear both products at their (seeming) best. Or, looked at from the other direction: To hear the Denon without this or some other very suitable transformer could be to conclude that the Denon is laid-back, is lacking in bass slam and drama, or is dull and lacking in presence and sparkle. And that just ain't so.
I haven't abandoned my belief in a system hierarchy—that the more influential component will always be the one that's closest to the source. That said, if one considers an MC cartridge and its transformer together, then the Denon–Auditorium 23 combination could emerge as a superior alternative to pairing a more expensive cartridge with a less carefully chosen device: It's difficult to imagine spending $1204 on a cartridge plus step-up and doing better than this."
Art Dudley, from Listening #58, Stereophile, October 2007
Sounds great with my Zu Denon DL-103 II Standard into a 36 dB tube phono stage.
1 small scratch (hard to see), no terminal lug on ground wire. $900 shipped to CONUS.
