Counterfeit DL103?


I decided to finally see what all the DL103 fuss was about and try one in my office system. Bought one on USAM that was admittedly priced surprisingly low but I snagged it very soon after it went up and the photos showed a cart that looked exactly like every DL103 I've ever seen including the identifying sticker with serial number. So I figured the gods had smiled on me and left it at that.

When I finally got around to mounting it, I ran it through my Allnic AUT2000 step up tranny which I brought into the office from my home system while I'm waiting on some replacement tubes. Into the Allnic and then the MM stage of my Marantz integrated it sounded very lively but with a surprising amount of gain, so much so that it was annoying, got loud very soon after zero on the volume pot and WAY too loud pretty soon after that. Using the remote to adjust volume was a non-starter, had to do it by hand in the tiniest increments.

But, like I said, it sounded good, sparkly, a lot of detail. I also know the DL103 has a strange output impedance so I figured it wasn't mating well with the Allnic and didn't think about it.

A while ago I made a trade with a guy for some records and also got a Denon SUT from the 70s, a 310 that I believe was actually made for the 103 (when I took it from the guy I did so thinking eventually I'd get around to trying a 103). So I dug this out (bit of a project, couldn't remember where I put it) and brought it into the office. Now the 310 has a passthrough button so you can disengage the transformers if you choose. When I hooked it up I discovered that with the transformers engaged I still had way too much gain, and with them disengaged, well, the cart sounded good and loud.

So I put on a Shure m97xe, another cart I run here at the office. A-B'ing it against this cart purporting to be a DL-103 with the trannies disengaged I found that at the same volume setting on the Marantz the "DL103" played a little louder than the Shure.

And, as I'm sure most of you know at least vaguely... that ain't right. The m97xe has an output voltage of 4mv. A true DL103 has an output voltage of in the country of .3mv.

So... it's gotta be a fake right? There's nothing I'm missing here? It's not a bad sounding cart at all whatever it is, but it can't be a DL-103.
davelarz
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Yeah I should have known - this is another one for the ever expanding file of "man if you think you got a crazy good deal you probably didn't fool"
Putting the xenophobia aside for a second, and accepting that it is a faked cartridge, I can only ask why?

The 103 is one of the cheapest cartridges made, the same amount of effort to pirate it would allow you to fake a much more expensive cartridge. Then again most thieves are not getting invites from the Mensa Society.
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Just to be clear I'm not trying to impugn anyone based on ethnicity. The guy who sold the cartridge to me lives in New Jersey and clearly sold me a fake. Whether he knew this or not I could never prove though I certainly suspect that he did because he sold it well under market value and expressed zero surprise when I wrote him about it. But I only say that "I should have known" based on that very fact - generally when such a deal has come my way in audio it's proven to be some kind of ripoff. I personally don't want to be associated with an "asians are scumbags" line of argument with this.