[lcrim]

Our UK Technics devotee, Marco has spent some bandwidth championing certain of the Denon DL-103 family of cartridges.
Well, it seems that Soundsmith over in Westchester County (NY) has begun modding and retipping these including an Ultra High Compliance mod allowing tracking down to 1 gm. http://www.sound-smith.com/denon/index.html
Please read the specs carefully.  I have no affiliation w/ this firm, but I have read numerous positive reviews, they are probably better known for their strain gauge and B&O cartridges but those don't hold the appeal for me that a LOMC w/ high compliance does.  While they are not cheap, they seem to represent good value. 

[xsb7244]

last but not least, there is the Uwe wood body mod of the Denon 103R

[jimdgoulding]

Where is the Denon 103D?

[mikef]

The Denon 103D is no longer manufactured by Denon, and has not been made for several years.

I own one, and am considering a SoundSmith re-tip.

Mike Fox

[tonyptony]

Hmm, for the price of some of these it puts it right in the range of carts like the Benz Micro Ace, Shelter 501, Dyna 17Dx, etc. I wonder how they stack up?

[Dan_ed]

I've been considering sending my 103R to them to have some mods done. I like the idea of a line contact stylus, but not so crazy about the high compliance. Soundsmith is working on my XV-1s now. If that comes back good as new I may just pull the trigger on the 103r. I've heard reports where some believe these mods take the 103r to the level of many $1500 cartridges.

I'm still a bit skeptical of the wooden body. I'm sure it is better than the plastic, but I'm afraid it will make the cartridge too warm sounding for my tastes. Wish I could hear one.

[TheChairGuy]

Sound move by those guys...the 103 is no longer cheap at those prices...they are well into the DL-304 territory new (which has very low moving mass and tracking forces) 

I have a guillotined DL-304 that I've been thinking about sending to them forever now...this might just get me off my fat, dead ass and do it finally 

John

[IronLion]

FYI: Zu also does mods to the Denon 103 at around the same price range, I have no idea how they sound, just adding this to the thread. 

[tonyptony]

I also have a 103R. The base Ruby+Line Stylus upgrade is $250. Searching around on some of the audio sites seems to show that customers who've had this done are pretty happy.

[xsb7244]

check out the web.  more and more reviews are coming out on the Uwe wood body which is not that
expensive.

[Jazz and Baroque]

Hi,

Is there a website for the Uwe wood body??

Do these mods change the transformer loads, etc. that work best with the Denon?? 

Thanks,
Mike

[TheChairGuy]

Hi,

Is there a website for the Uwe wood body??

Do these mods change the transformer loads, etc. that work best with the Denon?? 

Thanks,
Mike

It shouldn't Mike....they're only re-fitting a cantilever/stylus to the cartridge.  Compliance change should solely affect suspension issues...not change any internal impedance/resistance, voltage or inductance issues that might effect your current transformer settings for your 103.

John

[lcrim]

From what I can find, Uwe is an inmate over on the Asylum. He makes new wood cartridge bodies for the 103 line and they are highly prized.  I doubt whether he would supply more than the body but I can't be sure.
Soundsmith does undertake retipping and modification including "denuding" of the plastic outer shell.  The change to line contact stylus is a great idea.  I also like the high compliance but that does add $285 all on its own to the price.

[Jazz and Baroque]

I also like the high compliance but that does add $285 all on its own to the price.

A ways back I saw a graph of the 103 compliance that indicated it was around 9 at 10 Hz, not the 5 that is usually given.  It seems that the reference compliance listed by Denon is for a much higher frequency.  Maybe a high-compliance mod isn't that necessary. 

Mike

[blakep]

Just to clarify things, the Soundsmith mods to the Denons involve new cantilever/stylus and nuding the cartridge. The Uwe wood body mod simply involves removing the plastic body from the cartridge and inserting it into a new wood body which Uwe sells for $110 U.S. plus $5 shipping. That operation can be seen here:

http://www.thomas-schick.com/Denon103.htm

I have a Denon 103R in one of Uwe's ebony bodies and the improvements over the stock cartridge are not subtle. Some people who have done this mod have preferred the wood bodied 103R to a Shelter 901 (which was sold), a Benz Ebony LP, and compared the wood bodied Denon very favorably against cartridges like the Koetsu Rosewood and Koetsu Rosewood Sugano as well as the Myabi. So the wood bodied Denons have been fairly well received. You can do a wood bodied Denon 103 for $270 or so or a wood bodied 103R for $370 (plus the body can be re-used), so that seems like pretty good value to me.

There are very few people who have compared the nude to the wood bodied Denon at this stage and nobody that has reported on a Soundsmith re-tipped (with LC stylus and ruby cantilever) in a Uwe wood body. The one comparison of a nuded 103 to a wooded 103 (this is starting to sound like audiophile pornography ) leads me to believe that the nuded version might be a bit more analytical, possibly imparting a bit more air and high frequency emphasis vs. the wood bodied version which was described as being a bit more organic and weighty sounding. This would make perfect sense to me taking into consideration that the nude version was mounted on a brass mounting plate. This issue is probably one that is all about resonance (and the bad resonance that eliminating the plastic body gets rid of), so what you mount or wrap the nuded cartridge in is obviously going to impart its own sonic signature.

I'm about 4-5 months away from wearing out my 103R, so the question for me will be whether to send it off to Soundsmith for the re-tip or simply buy another 103R to pop into the wood body. In any event, for those on a budget, the 103 (or 103R depending on funds) in a wood body is highly unlikely to disappoint you.

[tonyptony]

The one comparison of a nuded 103 to a wooded 103 (this is starting to sound like audiophile pornography ) leads me to believe that the nuded version might be a bit more analytical, possibly imparting a bit more air and high frequency emphasis vs. the wood bodied version which was described as being a bit more organic and weighty sounding.

blakep, does this mean that a wood body 103R sounds more weighty than the standard plastic body?

[blakep]

The one comparison of a nuded 103 to a wooded 103 (this is starting to sound like audiophile pornography ) leads me to believe that the nuded version might be a bit more analytical, possibly imparting a bit more air and high frequency emphasis vs. the wood bodied version which was described as being a bit more organic and weighty sounding.

blakep, does this mean that a wood body 103R sounds more weighty than the standard plastic body?

Yup, substantially more weighty. Here is a link to a review I wrote on the wood body:

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=vinyl&n=694577&review=1

The one other very positive thing I forgot to mention in the review is that the standard Denon emphasizes surface noise, pops and ticks much more than one in the ebony body, which is another big plus. I'm not so sure that a nude version mounted on a brass plate (which seems to be the plate du jour for mounting) would offer up this benefit.

[TheChairGuy]

Hey Blake....didn't know you had migrated over yonder to AC 

Isn't it just all about critical (mechanical) damping...the nuances between nude / no, plastic and wood bodies.  When a cartridge is mechanically damped (by one means or another) the clicks, ticks and pops are supressed...along with the actual music, indiscriminately, as well 

The question probably should be does the wood body still allow the cartridge to play music as it sounds live?  The plastic and nude versions don't damp (or don't damp much at all in the case of the plastic body)...so does the wood body overdamp and make the music sound false? Wood seems to be very good at damping, but not overdamping (which is why Grado and Clearaudio, etc. likely use it as much as they do)

For me, only solo piano and classical/instrumental can decide this. Sometimes, well miked and mastered jazz. Forget pop - it's been massacred from the start, normally (I listen to it, but not critically for that reason)

There's just a whole lotta' hooey and LARGE dollars bandied about in cartridge talks - more so than any other sonic device in the chain. Flowery descriptions abound when talking about cartridges, don't they?

blake - great video by the way - thanks  John

[blakep]

Hi John: Damped vs. overdamped? That is the question, and as "quality of sound" is, from an audiophile perspective, a subjective thing unless one has perfect aural memory and was at the recording session or has a copy of the master tape, there are going to be different opinions. Resonance is a huge issue with almost any equipment as far as I'm concerned; the differences between hard and soft footers, for example are pronounced with many pieces of equipment.

In the end, for the most part, it's subjective. The damping that the brass plate on a nude denon gives you is going to be different than the damping that the wood body is going to give you. I'm, generally speaking, not a fan of what hard metal does when it's introduced into an audio system in the form of, say, a hard footer. To me, it hardens and thins the sound; sounds more hi-fi perhaps, maybe more artificially detailed, more "exciting", but less like real music and irritating in the long term. I would expect the same effect with a phono cartridge.

I'm not totally sure, but I believe that among the very high end/high expense Koetsus that the only difference is the body material. I would think that, aside from cosmetic differences, the different materials would have slightly different damping characteristics which would ultimately affect the sound (at least I would hope that they would for that kind of money ).

That being said, even though the ebony body I'm using is better in terms of minimizing surface noise, it is at the same time better in terms of extracting more detail and music (without, imo, dissecting it or hyping part of the frequency range-ie. a hopped up top end), so I don't think it's overdamped, but someone who likes a more "in your face", and what I call a "perceived highly detailed" sound may not agree with me. That listener may prefer the nude version mounted to a metal plate, and they would have it right for themself and that's really all that matters. Either way, though, I haven't heard anyone report that they prefer the standard version to either the nuded or wooded version.

[TheChairGuy]

Dang that subjectivity thh-ang...guess we have to allow for it again as we are all so different in many ways (as are our systems) 

A big thick hunk of wood has worked well for me as under-TT support and now speaker supports (both primary mechanical entities) - so I'd not doubt a whit that it would be a good / gentle damping agent for a cartridge body, too.

Thanks for the descriptions/depictions of the various 103 bodies   Somewhere, sometime, someone is gonna' cook up a carbon fibre body for this venerable, and much loved, cartridge I think 

John