Denon DL-103 vs. DL-160?

Denon's 5-mm/N compliance number for the 103 is specified at 100 Hz. That is dynamic compliance and can't be compared to the lower static compliance specs from other manufacturers. The 103's static compliance at resonance appears to be in the range of 10 to 12-mm/N. That's been confirmed by observations using the resonance test bands on test records and arms with known mass. The widely used resonant frequency formulas use static compliance, so any calculation performed with compliance = 5 is wrong. There's been a lot of discussion about this subject on Vinyl Asylum; a search there on "103" and "compliance" will return dozens and dozens of posts, if not hundreds.

07-03-08: Tvad
I agree the AT150MLX is a better value because of the replaceable stylus, as long as one likes the sound as much as the Denon. I gave it a try for this exact reason.

In my case, I think I got lucky--the AT150MLX fed into the Cambridge Audio 640p phono stage is an excellent match, especially at the price. I didn't experience the surface noise problem you did; one thing I noticed is that the 640p drops the surface noise compared to what I was running before.

Any chance the extra surface noise you encountered in the AT150MLX vis-a-vis the Benz Micro Ace is a VTA issue? Maybe the arm needs to be lowered a little bit for the AT?

The surface noise was not the issue.

The arm was already at it's lowest possible position.

I'm curious, if one removes the 103 from the stock body and puts it into a different body, how does that affect the formula?

Do you simply weigh the difference of the two bodies and adjust?

James, the compliance remains the same. The weight difference plays a minor role in the final resonant frequency. Plug the numbers in and you'll see.