The Well Tempered Record Player and Denon DL103

I'm listening to my Well Tempered Reference right now with a Zu 103 cartridge and it sounds great. I agree with the others regarding the need for more mass or more compliance.

That said, if you re-body your 103 (I remember seeing some aluminum Zu-like bodies selling here for about a hundred bucks) the results aree quite pleasing.

Clearaudio MM cartridges are fairly complinat and highly rated. If you want to go even cheaper, urban legend has it that Clearaudio cartridges are really Audio Tecnicas, so maybe you could look into those, too.

Thanks Honest1,but i'm really looking for an MC.

10-02-10: Armstrod
Johnnyb53,

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.

That's still about 6-10g short of what a DL-103 needs.

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.

Actually, I'm just arm-chairing this based on the compliance/mass formula, my personal experience with high and medium compliance cartridges with different weight headshells (Technics DD), and the reports, testimonies, and reviews of others.

Tone Publications, an online audio mag, was trying out a Technics SL1200 as a project spanning several months. The reviewers had several cartridges ranging from $200-4,000 on hand to check out, and they came away feeling that the best performance came with a Zu-103. The Technics arm has an effective mass of about 12g with the stock headshell. Zu's website mentions that the extra weight of the aluminum housing helps match the cartridge compliance to more tonearms.

Art Dudley gave it the Zu-103 a rave review in Stereophile, and he used it on Rega RB300 and Naim Arro tonearms, which are around 10-12g effective mass on their own.

Any other suggestions?
Lyra?
Benz?
Sumiko?
....???