Ultimate, reading your description of its construction I was most struck by the notion that your modified Denon must be very heavy, since the DL103 is already in the heavy category to begin with. What does it weigh, and what is the effective mass of your tonearm/cartridge? Two more points: aluminum is certainly not nonresonant compared to plastic, and Namiki is one of only two companies that manufacture pretty much every cantilever/stylus in use in the world. So nothing unique about the Namiki bits, although I’m sure they work fine. Aluminum re-body on DL103 is also not new, I think.
Another review of a tweaked Denon DL-103R ??? Oh no! Boring? Surely not! Please read it!
*First of all: I'm not affiliated with ANY of Companies mentioned in this post. Above all, I'm an enthusiast of state of the art audio analog components...*
This is my second post on Audiogon Forum and I would like to share with you, fellow audiophiles, my thoughs about a GREAT tweaked Denon DL-103R Cartridge: The "Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge"
Being a Senior Electronic / Acoustic Engineer and worked with many Audio Companies in Germany and Japan, this led me to listen to all kind of analog components, from turntables to tonearms and cartridges since the 70's... the golden years of the analog sound!
Thanks to Siemens AG (in Germany) and Matsushita Electric (known as Panasonic) (in Japan), that I have worked for many years, I have had the opportunity to experienced all sorts of hi-end Cartridges, tonearms and turntables... for audiophile and professional purposes and although many components led me to great satisfaction, only a few them passed to my restricted test of building quality.
For tonearms, Fidelity Research (FR-66 and it's variants, made in Japan) and our own Technics EPA-100 showed perfect bearings... and Cartridges (EMT, made in Germany) among very few others that have the most perfect cantilever/stylus alignment.
For my surprise and great enjoyment, I ordered a modified Denon DL-103R (The Denon DL-103R is a venerable Cartridge in production for many years with a strict quality control), called Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge, (from Terence Robinson), that has been tweaked to perfection.... (please go to www.paradoxpulse.com for more details).
After removal of the original resonant plastic body, Terence mount the motor in an special aluminum body, including about 40 micro lead dampers and then finally fill all the gaps with a kind of epoxy to kill all resonances. After this, Terence do the "break in" process (for the wire and suspension of the brand new, selected DL-103R for matched channels) for about 100 hours. After that, he send the wholly cartridge to change the original aluminum cantilever/conical stylus for a Saphire cantilever/MicroRidge stylus. This is done by Andy Kim at www.phonocartridgeretipping.com
After years of triyng expensive Cartridges like Phasemation / Phase Tech (great cartridges!), Ikeda and many others, I mounted the Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR cartridge in the (very rigid) Ikeda IS-2T headshell in conjunction with the (also very rigid) Sorane SA-1.2 high mass tonearm and the results? OUSTANDING!
I NEVER heard piano notes with such lifelike realism! Vocals have palpable presence and the soundstage and depth above any criticism. The exceptionally perfect Saphire cantilever / MicroRidge stylus (made by Namiki, Japan) alignment (Thanks Andy and Terence, for your state of the art job) are so perfect that I ever seen only with such perfection on my EMT TSD15 (and a very few others), but the Paradox Pulse takes the sound reprodution to another level of refinement. Air between massed vocals and bass notes are to die for...This is the cartridge that satisfy me at a reasonable price, without breaking the bank!
This is Heaven & I'd die for it! The Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge installed in the Sorane tonearm, Ikeda Headshell, through the fabulous Hashimoto HM-7 Step Up transformers, with a reflective load of 512 Ohms, took my System in another level of realism and satisfaction.
Would you like to share with me, fellow Audiogon members, your impressions and thoughs about your phono system?
Cheers!,
Jose.
This is my second post on Audiogon Forum and I would like to share with you, fellow audiophiles, my thoughs about a GREAT tweaked Denon DL-103R Cartridge: The "Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge"
Being a Senior Electronic / Acoustic Engineer and worked with many Audio Companies in Germany and Japan, this led me to listen to all kind of analog components, from turntables to tonearms and cartridges since the 70's... the golden years of the analog sound!
Thanks to Siemens AG (in Germany) and Matsushita Electric (known as Panasonic) (in Japan), that I have worked for many years, I have had the opportunity to experienced all sorts of hi-end Cartridges, tonearms and turntables... for audiophile and professional purposes and although many components led me to great satisfaction, only a few them passed to my restricted test of building quality.
For tonearms, Fidelity Research (FR-66 and it's variants, made in Japan) and our own Technics EPA-100 showed perfect bearings... and Cartridges (EMT, made in Germany) among very few others that have the most perfect cantilever/stylus alignment.
For my surprise and great enjoyment, I ordered a modified Denon DL-103R (The Denon DL-103R is a venerable Cartridge in production for many years with a strict quality control), called Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge, (from Terence Robinson), that has been tweaked to perfection.... (please go to www.paradoxpulse.com for more details).
After removal of the original resonant plastic body, Terence mount the motor in an special aluminum body, including about 40 micro lead dampers and then finally fill all the gaps with a kind of epoxy to kill all resonances. After this, Terence do the "break in" process (for the wire and suspension of the brand new, selected DL-103R for matched channels) for about 100 hours. After that, he send the wholly cartridge to change the original aluminum cantilever/conical stylus for a Saphire cantilever/MicroRidge stylus. This is done by Andy Kim at www.phonocartridgeretipping.com
After years of triyng expensive Cartridges like Phasemation / Phase Tech (great cartridges!), Ikeda and many others, I mounted the Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR cartridge in the (very rigid) Ikeda IS-2T headshell in conjunction with the (also very rigid) Sorane SA-1.2 high mass tonearm and the results? OUSTANDING!
I NEVER heard piano notes with such lifelike realism! Vocals have palpable presence and the soundstage and depth above any criticism. The exceptionally perfect Saphire cantilever / MicroRidge stylus (made by Namiki, Japan) alignment (Thanks Andy and Terence, for your state of the art job) are so perfect that I ever seen only with such perfection on my EMT TSD15 (and a very few others), but the Paradox Pulse takes the sound reprodution to another level of refinement. Air between massed vocals and bass notes are to die for...This is the cartridge that satisfy me at a reasonable price, without breaking the bank!
This is Heaven & I'd die for it! The Paradox Pulse Guard R SMR Cartridge installed in the Sorane tonearm, Ikeda Headshell, through the fabulous Hashimoto HM-7 Step Up transformers, with a reflective load of 512 Ohms, took my System in another level of realism and satisfaction.
Would you like to share with me, fellow Audiogon members, your impressions and thoughs about your phono system?
Cheers!,
Jose.
- ...
- 22 posts total
Dear @lewm8 : Thanks for your inquiry. I use the SORANE SA-1.2 high mass tonearm. The Denon 103 and 103R sounds better in massive tonearms. The Sorane is a very high quality tonearm made by IT Industries, who produces the IKEDA Tonearms, all hand made in Japan. This modified Denon DL-103R is massive and the weight is about 16 grams. I use the highest rigidity IKEDA IS-2T headshell that weighs 20 grams. The results are outstanding. |
I had talked to Terence regarding his cartridge and decided to get the modified Zu Audio 103 Mk II instead after I found out that Andy Kim did the install for the saphhire/microridge stylus (he held my ZYX hostage even though he broke the stylus and retipped it without my permission and did such a bad job, I'm having it re-retipped). I got the grade 2 premium version and paid $1100 for it. Same concept, Zu Audio added mass to it and isolated the cartridge. The weight of the Zu Audio modded 103 cartridge is14 gm. I have a Kuzma Stabi R table and the 4P tonearm. The cartridge has not yet been broken in and I'm enjoying it quite a bit - more like pleasantly surprised. Both my carts, the ZYX Universe II X and Ortofon Anna are being retipped (talk about bad timing), but I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. The same Zu Audio modded cartrige made it to Class B Stereophile list for 2020 - fwiw. I'm not saying that the Zu Audio cartridge is as good as the Universe II X or the Anna, but based on its price tag, it punches way above that. If saving money was my top priority, I would definitely chose the Zu Audio modded 103 over the more expensive (> $5k) cartridges, now that I know. I needed a cartridge fast, and that was the reason I made the purchase. Terence is using the same concept as Zu, but in addition, also replaced the original cantilever/stylus with the sapphire/microridge combo as some have said that the 103's weakness is it's conical stylus. For the price I paid for the Zu with the original 103 cantilever/stylus, Terence is offering a retipped 103R cartridge with sapphire/microridge stylus and his shell (Paradox Pulse Guard). His ad is USAM is at - https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649625677-paradoxpulse-guard-r-smr-new-denon-103r-based-motor-sapphire-cantilever-micro-ridge-diamond/ Give Terence a call, if you have any questions - he can probably do a better job of explaining his cartridge better than I can. There's also another company called Musikraft that does also modifies the 103, but is more expensive (starting at $1959). Their version made it to Class A Stereophile list in 2020. They also do not modify the original stylus/cantilever of the 103. To me, the $1959 was harder to swallow, although their technology seems to do more and might try it out in the future sometime. Their website is https://audiomusikraft.com/ |
- 22 posts total