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denon dl 103 w/ origin live silver mk II: help

I recently purchased a rega p3 with a origin live silver mk II tonearm mounted on it. It is hooked up via a musical surroundings mk I preamp. I had previously had a planar 3 with a denon DL 110 and was very pleased with the sound. So with the new deck I figured that I should go with a new cartridge. Enter the denon dl 103. No matter what I have tried (changing load settings, adding mass to the head of the tonearm), nothing improves the sound. It is shrill, sibilant, and fatiguing. I have had quite a bit of experience with mounting cartridges and always produced excellent results. I have been very pleased with rest of system sound wise. Is it just a bad match with my tonearm or do I just need to let it burn a lot longer. Suggestions???
micah79

Showing 3 responses by johnnyb53

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Another way to lower the VTA is to add a thin turntable mat to the one you already are using. A lot less trouble than the tonearm-based alternatives.

Also, you didn't say how much weight you added to your tonearm. The DL103 is both light and VERY stiff (compliance of 5). That's one reason the Zu103 works so much better--it adds about 10 g of effective mass to the equation. You need close to 30g effective mass to get the DL103 to hit optimum cartridge/arm resonance capability.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
09-05-12: Tbromgard
I think Johnnyb53 is correct. If the Denon is that light you could have compliance issues.
I may have overstated the difference a bit. The DL103 is spec'd at 8.5g; the Zu
103 at 14g. Still, 5.5g is significant, especially when we're dealing with a
compliance rating of 5 at 100 Hz. With the Zu103, if you have a 12g effective
mass tonearm and a 14g cartridge plus .5g mounting hardware, you're at
nearly 27g total effective mass which is an advantage over the stock cartridge.
I've read somewhere that Denon's rating at 100 Hz may not be equivalent to
other cart vendors who specify at 1000 Hz. By that standard, the DL103 may
have a compliance of more like 7 or 8, maybe even 10.

Even with that consideration, if you look at this cartridge compatibility chart, it's a challenge to get a DL 103 at 8.5g on a 12g arm to get into the green area.

I'm pretty sure that if the compliance of the cartridge is too stiff relative to the
arm's effective mass, you won't get much bass response.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I believe the 103 likes a heavier arm, at least medium mass...?

If you run the DL103's factory specs (e.g., dynamic compliance of 5) for arm/cartridge resonance, you'd need a tonearm with an effective mass of 30g or so. Apparently this is not the case and Denon's compliance spec may have been derived from a different methodology than others. Although I have no direct experience with the DL103 series, I have an audiobuddy who has used one quite successfully on tonearms with an effective mass of 12g. This forum also has plenty of confirmations that the DL103 series works very well with medium-mass tonearms.

12g is a very mainstream effective tonearm mass, shared by the Rega RB30x series and even the tonearm on the Technics SL12x0 series.
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