Albert, good to hear from you again. Unfortunately, my dog, "Lucky" has been taken with bovine spongiform encepolopathy, mad cow disease, no doubt from too many McDonald's hamburgers. Oh right, to the subject at hand. Decca, wow, that's a long time ago, do I remember that it is a unipivot? Or is it captured bearing? Tom swears that the Denon's do not do well with unipivots and has more experience with the other Denons. I have actually had good luck with my Denon in a Morch UP-4 with a heavy arm wand and in an Audiocraft AC-300 as well as a Grace 714. I think that the 103D is more compliant than the 103. Which brings up a point. The 103 has a conical stylus. In this day and age I really don't think that it will track worth a darn. This was the rap on it across the pond and it makes sense. The Shure is very forgiving of setup. Everyman's cartridge. The compliance is high. The brush, if you use it, acts as a shock absorber for less than well damped arms and the output is well judged for most MM input stages. The V15Vxmr, which I have also used, is a bit rounder and richer than the V15Vmr that I currently use; it may be the best of the lot for most setups. The only Goldrings that I have tried were the inexpensive MCs and they were not for me. Too bright and uncontrolled. Audio Technica makes a great cheapie, the ATML-440 that is pretty bright, but very good in other respects. It is high compliance and works quite well in a lot of systems. Of course, the venerable Grados will present a totally different sonic picture. They paint the music as if everything was opera (Joe Grado's love) and are very seductive in the right system. Don't let anyone tell you that they are not fully competitive, just in a different way.
Marty
Marty