Denon DL-103 -- Was it a mistake?

Jwglista,

When you say the alignment is "spot on" does that mean the VTA too? If the cartridge is tipped forward even a little, it can cause it to sound bright. You may be able to "tune" the sound more to your liking by adjusting the VTA a bit up at the front of the cartridge - which usually roles off the treble. If there is no VTA adjustment on the Satisfy tonearm, then you may have to shim the cartridge.

Sounds like you already tried putting some adhesive material on the tonearm head to increase the weight and dampen it a bit. Another thing to try is placing a small dot of blutack or other removable adhesive material symmetrically on each side of the counter weight and then re-balance the arm to see if it tames some of the liveliness. You could also try putting one or more dots of adhesive in different places along the length of the tone arm to see if that helps.

Don't know if you quelled the mushy bass problem, but that may have something to do with room vibrations as previously stated. Better isolation of your TT will likely help with that.

Good luck!

The Compliance-weight relationship is closer to ideal for the 2M and the Clearaudio arm than it is for the 103 - so even though the 2M Red is a more modest cartridge - it should sound a lot better without having to tweak it. And the 2M Red probably still has a little breaking in to do. With that said, it is never going to sound quite like your Virtuoso.