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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

Showing 3 responses by lewm

lewm
6,770 posts
 
I'm with Viridian.  It doesn't make sense to counterfit a DL103.  If you're going to all the effort required to make a counterfit cartridge that actually does work (and sounds at least decent too), then why not just give it a name and charge the very same low price for it?  I suspect there is some trivial explanation for its apparently too high output voltage. 

Davelarz, What do you think the seller meant by his comment that he "should have checked it".  Do you take that as an admission that the cartridge is not what it purports to be?  Did he say any more about what it actually is?  Thx.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Perhaps you make a valid point.  The incident I described occurred about 5 or more years ago.  Maybe Paypal is offering better protection these days.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Chakster, We’ve had this discussion (about the "protection" afforded by Paypal) before. I am glad you found them to be helpful. The one time I needed to resort to Paypal for help with a dishonest seller, they were worthless. In fact, the Paypal representative advised me to seek help from VISA, via my credit card. Fortunately, VISA did help. Lucky for me that I had not paid via my own checking account through Paypal. I would have been out of luck.

Dave, I would bet that you got a high output MC Denon (forgot the numerical designation) with an outer shell that gives the appearance of a DL103. You would probably not readily discern the difference in its output from that of your MM standard, even though it’s lower in terms of voltage by half. That’s only 3db. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.
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