Affordable Mono Cartridge For VPI Scout

Plinko, I will try to answer your question and address your comments to the best of my limited ability.

1- re: the Soundsmith cartridges - I do not believe that there are any differences besides the coil detail. Having said that, since Soundsmith is also offers a premier cartridge re-tipping service there are opportunities for customization. One can select between a variety of stylus tips.

2- I think that we can both agree that the DL 102 was designed to output a single channel (mono) signal. As you have suggested, the common practice is to connect both channel leads to the single signal pin on the cart. The problem with this, of course, is that by passing the high output of a single channel to both channels of a stero preamp you are effectivey reducing the output by half. So it then becomes necessary to increase the output of the phono stage, by either increasing the gain or the volume at the preamp. This leads to more noise. This same problem exists if you utilize a mono switch on your preamp. The dual-coil design of the Soundsmith (and other) mono cartridges mean that you have a seprate mono signal generator for each phono stage channel. This would not be preferred if you were using a single-channel (true mono) system.

3- re: the DL 102 page - I saw the same text that you copied. I can't explain it because I didn't write it, but it seems to be in contradiction to what Denon claims is the intended purpose of the cartridge (mono playback of stereo LPs). Also, if there is no output in the vertical plane why does Denon bother to publish a vertical compliance figure for the cart?

I use the 103 in both the 9" and 12.7 VPI arms, the recommended arm mass for the 103 is 6-16 grams, both arms fall well within this range. When it was tested by HiFI Choice in 1985 they estimated the actual compliance as 13 both lat and vert., which is higher than the figure of 10 or so often given. I doubt that they have changed the construction in the intervening years.

Stanwal, as I recall we (and others) had a discussion about this subject a few months ago. All I can tell you is that I did not find the DL 103R to be the best match for my original JMW (10") tonearm. Admittedly, I have not tried a DL cart on a 9 or 9.5 arm. But in general I find that the JMW unipivot arms seem to do better with lower mass cartridges. But I am glad that it's working well for you.

Br3098,

1. Good point on customization. SMM3 with larger stylus profile of the period might be something to try!

2. What is louder? Two speakers with each speaker having half output or one speaker with full output? I don't have any gain issues using the 102 this way into my MM stage. I do not use a step up transformer.

3. Because the 102 has vertical compliance. Since you read Murray's site, I'm sure you know that the published specs by Denon for the 102 are an afterthought and/or incorrect. For example, the 102's frequency extends well beyond 10Khz yet Denon says this is the limit.

I have yet to read about the reasons why Denon offered this cartridge to radio stations. My only guess would be that in the advent of the stereo era, AM and other radio stations did not need to broadcast in stereo and the Denon 102, with only one coil, was cheaper to produce and thus a cheaper option for the radio stations yet it had vertical compliance to allow for stereo lp playback. Also, during this time of transition, producing a cartridge that was mono but could play stereo lps without damaging was a logical development from a marketing standpoint.

I'm not sure this is of any interest to Mark so I hope we didn't get off track.

Miyajima has a newish mono cart out for just less than $400. Their $1000 model has reviewed well, and their stereo carts are considered to be very good.

Myself... I run a denon DL102 and a Decca 78c for my 78s for mono.