Denon DL 103 modifications and re-body questions thread

I ran modified Denon 103R's for close to five years and moved on to other cartridges about 3-4 years ago. 

The Denon generator is indeed very good. The weak spots in the cartridge are the body and cantilever/stylus.

I ended up running 103R's in both aluminum and ebony bodies; I had Peter L at Soundsmith epoxy both of them into the bodies-there should be information online about safely doing so, although one has to be careful doing this.

Alternatively, one can use a very small amount of acetone to secure the top of the cartridge after the body has been removed into any of the friction fit bodies without actually "potting" the cartridge with epoxy into the body.

I ran an aluminum body with Soundsmith's standard ruby cantilever and line contact stylus and an ebony body with Peter's OCL stylus (also on ruby).

Retipping costs have unfortunately risen with cartridge prices in the past 5-6 years. I remember the first retip I did with Soundsmith was $250. Now you're looking at $350-$400 for those options and $450 for boron. The $300 sapphire option appears to be Peter's high value option at this time I would say.

Aluminum bodies are cheap-you can often pick them up on Ebay for $50-$60 and they make the most sense (and sound very good) as compared to the usually more expensive wood bodies.

So you can do a stock 103 in an aluminum body pretty inexpensively (probably around $300 if you shop), then run it for 800-1000 hours and retip it if you like. 

At $300, if you have the right arm and phono preamp, the cartridge will offer a lot of value and while it may not be perfect (what is for $300 anymore?) it will do a lot of things right and will be a pretty enjoyable cartridge to listen to. Errors of omission kind of stuff. 

Even with higher retipping costs, now that cartridge prices have gone through the roof, a retipped 103 or 103R with a better stylus profile/cantilever in an aluminum body will hold its own with most sub $1000 cartridges. It will not be perfect, but I can't think of anything that is in that price range anyway, and it will have a character that is somewhat unique and very likeable if partnered carefully. 

And you'll have had the opportunity to listen pretty extensively to the cartridge to see if you like its strengths before having to decide on whether or not to put more money into it in the form of a retip.

But both the body and a good retip significantly improve the cartridge. The body is the higher value proposition because of its lower cost but improvements from the stylus/cantilever really elevate the performance as well. 

I think you have done the right thing buying the generic. The one I would recommend would still be available at $42 U.S. on ebay. Very slightly different than the one I used in the past but these bodies are all CNC machined and very similar in mass-they will typically weigh about 7 grams. 

I was experimenting with re-bodying the Denon even before Zu brought their cartridges to market. To a certain extent I think the proliferation of bodies at higher and higher prices is kind of a "cashing in"/jumping on the bandwagon on the popularity of modding the Denons and the prices have followed the general trend in audio and cartridge prices over the past few years.

They are more "bling"-that's for sure but I really doubt there would be significant audible differences between most of these bodies (although I do think they will all significantly outperform any of the "caps" and similar items which leave the existing plastic body in place and simply wrap around it).

The Musikcraft seems like silly money to me and at that price one definitely has to ask the question of simply spending more money on another cartridge initially. The "tuneability" seems gimmicky to me.

So unless you are totally hung up on the appearance of a cartridge, I'd stick with the generic and put the savings toward a retip at a later date after you've run the cartridge for a bit and decided on whether or not that is an option you'd want to pursue. 

https://www.audioasylum.com/reviews/Phono-Cartridge/Uwe-s-Wood-Body-Denon-103-103R/Ebony-Wood-Body/vinyl/69/694577.html

I wrote that review in 2007. Used a Uwe ebony body, a generic aluminum body and another body in clavellin from Uwe. Found the ebony and aluminum to sound pretty similar. The ebony was perhaps just a touch warmer, the aluminum a bit more dynamic. 

Did not like the clavellin. Found it to be a bit thin and tipped up compared to the other two. So different woods will sound quite different. It should be noted that there are different types of ebony and an ebony from one wood body seller might be considerably different from another. Aluminum is aluminum. 

The other advantage of aluminum is that there is no chance of stripping the mounting holes, which is what happened to my ebony body after a number of years of use/dismounting & remounting.