Denon DL-103 -- Was it a mistake?

Yes, you need to get all of it broken in and settled before making any types of changes, so that you can have a baseline; you might just fall in love right off. I did not say that the Denon is bright, but that there is a brightness in the upper midrange/lower treble, which makes up for a lack of resolution in this area, this is matched by a bit of conceit in the midbass and low bass that makes the whole affair sound quite balanced, with good weight and snap. The Denon is far from being neutral, but in the right rig it will sing like few others.

Also do not forget the Denon arms! You can find these relatively inexpensive arms and if you put the 103 on it...you got it!

Also do not forget the Denon arms! You can find these relatively inexpensive arms and if you put the 103 on it...you got it!

I could not agree more! I have a friend who uses the Denon arm and a Thorens BTD12-S (I also have this arm)and the Dl103 sound superb!

I read many post using DL-103's with unipivot or gimbal arm at around 12 and below effective mass and claim that it sounds good. I have no problem with that but I truly believe that there's more to it. Similarly, people post that it sounds horrible and to this I would say that the Dl-103 did not have a chance to shine because of the arm being use.

regards,

Abe

What are you tracking at? Don't be afraid to dial in some tracking force.. min 2grams. The 103 NEEDS a high mass 12' arm... then it will sing. It really is a great cartridge, and seems to sound best with idler driven tables..

Well here's an update. I've put about 21-22 hours on the cart so far, and it has settled down a bit, but the sound still isn't right. I took the advice of many and put some sticky tack at the head shell to increase the tonearm mass, and of course moved the counter weight back to readjust the tracking force to 2.5. This seems to have helped the bass, but for some reason I can't get rid of this aggressive lower treble sound. It isn't fatiguing on classical, but is definitely noticeable. But on heavy rock with a lot of cymbals, it is just way too aggressive. It's a shame because I do love the midrange sound of this cart, but the intrusive treble makes it hard to enjoy it. I'm not so sure I'm going to be able to get this to work with my setup. And I'm not about to go buy a new table and/or tonearm to fit this cart. My goal was to get a good enough replacement cart to use while I send my Virtuoso in for repair. This current Denon setup has me REALLY missing the Virtuoso. This just isn't doing it for me. The overall sound seems a bit "forced" at times. This makes it sound much less musical than other carts I've heard. It seems as though there is a lots of detail, but it sacrifices musicality to get this detail. I am not a fan of that.