I do not usually post on forums anymore as I am a professional and I do not want to tamper with end-users, but I feel that some of the questions raised here need some answers.
Thomas Schick did provided services for our company in the past. It is not the case anymore. We have now a team of engineers working around the repair / tuning / transformation and building of our own cartridges. We are still Thomas Schick dealer / distributor in France and we do still appreciate his works.
Our team is composed of broadcast engineers with our lead engineer having more than 40 years in broadcast and hifi cartridges repairs allowing us to have access to a wide variety of technics and the experience of repair ing ancient broadcast cartridges like Neumann DST but also the latest cartridges. We also have some tools and batches of original parts coming from main original European brands, Japanese parts as well as a selection of coil wires of different periods in order to use parts that are of the same quality and aging as original. We are also able to rebuild coils either by machines or on our high end models with a 100% hand winding process.
Just a few factual remarks on what was previously said :
- the compliance of the original Denon DL-103 103 is of 5.10^-6/dyne in static but we measure our on all of our La103 range of cartridges rebuilt at 12.10^-6 in dynamic… making it a medium compliance cartridge. But please check out the dynamic compliance of a standard Denon DL-103 (and it’s original tracking ability) : you might be very surprised.
- we do not just "glue in a cantilever" to realize our La103 range (or any of our repair works). And we have access to a wide variety of "standard" cantilevers and diamond tips, like most builders and rebuiders of cartridges. We also still have to follow vinyl engraving norms and much more... as other builders also have to do in order to provide a mechanically coherent phono cartridge. One thing we can tell you is that we do ask for specially tight tolerances on our batch of parts and that we do have some additional processes after receiving them (surface high polish is one of them).
- Installing a new cantilever/diamond tip is not enough to repair a cartridge. Even if it is the same exact models as original. A cartridge is affected by time and playback conditions. Dampers alter with time, fixation screws get loose, piano wire tension alters, coils can move on the coil former or even the coil varnish can migrate over time, magnetic flux can also alter (especially with AlNiCo magnet). We cannot repair every cartridges for instance we will never add additional mass on the moving assembly of a cartridge which means that we are never going to add a tube on the remaining part of the cantilever holder (or cantilever itself) in order to install a new cantilever. What we do is remove/drill out the remaining cantilever parts from the original cantilever shaft in order to adapt a brand new cantilever of the same exact diameter to the original one. Not a so simple process.
- In addition to installing a brand new cantilever in the original cantilever shaft with aim to keep the same or if possible even smaller moving effective mass of the coil former/coil/cantilever/diamond tip assembly. If it is not possible : we will rebuild completely the cartridge with a new coil former, etc... or simply refuse to perform the repair as we will not be able to provide repair specifications and rebuild that will suit our standards.
But back to our La103 range, we also perform different operations, of which I will name only a few :
- Coil re-adjustements and optimal centering of dampers + piano wire tension ajustements to optimize mechanical response (tracking, bandwidth, and enhancement of the position of the coil former in a as close to ideal position in the magnetic flux). For this we use technical procedures and measure instruments.
- Fine tuning each of our work by adjusting the setting of the cartridge in order to get get the overall best sound performance possible combined with best tracking measurements. This is absolutely crucial for us. Keep in mind that from our our La103 .deux range and above : effective tracking measured is of a minimum of 80micron at 315/Hz in both lateral and vertical.
As a reminder the Denon DL-103 is/was a broadcast cartridge that was indeed built for the first time more than 50 years ago, it might sound archaic for some of you but they do have something special that makes them not only an iconic item but also a standard cartridge in order to evaluate a system. Modifications on the 103 has been going on since the beginning of the cartridge production and... never stopped. I had, we had quite a few of thee iterations around the 103 and from these experiences we developed our own version.
I hope these few lines will have answered some of the question raised in this thread. I do realize that this post has some commercial content and intent and this is why (I repeat myself) I try to avoid answering on forums.
Best regards,
François Saint-Gérand - Ana Mighty Sound
