The Well Tempered Record Player and Denon DL103

If you're going to pair a low compliance cart like the DL-103 with a low-to-mid effective mass tonearm like what's on the Amadeus, you need to get the tonearm's total effective mass up to around 30g. The easiest way to do this is to get the Zu-103 version, whose solid aluminum body bumps its weight up to 15g, and thus brings the effective mass up into the range you need.

The Zu-103 is available at $439 for the base model and only $499 for the 1% tolerance version, still a low cart investment relative to the cost of an Amadeus. Not only do you get the extra weight, you get a nuded stylus and a resonance-busting aluminum body.

The heavy effective mass requirement of the DL-103 is probably the primary reason some people can never get this cartridge to sing for them.

Johnnyb53 brings up a viable alternative, but I'll say that I tried adding mass at the headshell via Blu-tak and that still, IMO, didn't make the DL103 work on the WTRP arm. It's possible the aluminum body does things other than add mass; I haven't tried one.

I had great success with Shure V15, ZYX Bloom, and Empire EDR.9. Check out Raul's MM thread for lots of suggestions for medium to high compliance carts at all price levels. They should all work well with the WTRP arm.

My experience with high compliance carts like the Shure was that very little damping fluid was needed, just enough to cover about half the paddle.

David

I had great success with Shure V15, ZYX Bloom, and Empire EDR.9. Check out Raul's MM thread for lots of suggestions for medium to high compliance carts at all price levels. They should all work well with the WTRP arm.

The DL-103 is a very LOW COMPLIANCE cartridge. It needs a tonearm effective mass of at least 30g, and a blob of Blu-tack isn't going to cut it.

Johnnyb53,

I used a pretty big blob! :-)

Seriously, I added up to 10 grams in 1 gram increments before I gave up; this was in the days before the aluminum and wood bodies that add so much mass, so it was mostly uncharted waters. I'm not sure that adding so much weight right at the headshell is a very good substitute for a true high mass tonearm.

Seems like the Zu/Uwe bodies are aimed at the Rega, which is medium mass and maybe closer to the goal to start with. Have you tried the Zu 103 with any low mass tonearms and gotten good results? If so, which ones? Maybe I just didn't go far enough.

David

So,no DL103,and i'd like to leave the arm as it is.
Any suggestions.