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

Thanks for the tips. I am going to give it another two weeks and maybe look into a higher mass body for it. If things don't settle down by then, it's back to the drawing board.

The vta was going to be my first course of action. But given the length of the base on the origin live tonemarm was not adequate to add an aftermarket vta adjuster. At least not while mounted on a rega p3-2000 plinth.

So it has now been a week since I initially installed the denon dl 103. I changed the loading to 400 ohms and set the gain to 61 db on the Musical Surroundings pre. It seems as though it just needed some burn in time. The sound is much better. The midrange has become quite amazing. The bass has filled out. It honestly sounds like a completely different cartridge. The arm was left stock and I also did absolutely nothing to the vta. Tracking force still set at the factory recommended 2.5 grams.

I believe that most of the unpleasant sound that was being produced was a result of poor matching with the load settings and burn in time.

Thanks guys for all your help, insight, and time. I really appreciate it!

Final update. I still was not quite pleased with the sound that the denon dl 103 was producing. It sounded good, but I still was not experiencing what the fuss was about. I ordered an 8.5g cartridge stabilizer from isokinetik and a counterweight modification. Adding mass was the only thing that I had not tried with the denon as of yet. Let me tell you, I finally got to experience the full potential of this cartridge. It was literally as though a veil had been lifted. Everything was much more focused. My last question, has anyone noticed a substantial difference when switching to an under slung counterweight with this particular origin live tonearm? My current counterweight is literally almost hanging off the end of tonearm to compensate for the 8.5 grams of mass added to the denon. I think it might be time for a heavier one.