Denon DL-103 -- Was it a mistake?

My advice - move on - I did! My DL-103 now sits quietly in its box after hours upon hours of trying to find the magic some seem to have found with it.

I think the Ortofon Red will be a much better match to your system and is a more well-rounded cartridge than the DL-103.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the infatuation here and over at AudioAsylum with the DL-103's midrange, but I could not live with it long-term in my system (KAB mod'd table, PS Audio GCPH phonostage, PS Audio GCC-250 control amp, Usher X-718 speakers). As you put it - it never sounded "right" to me and I found its midrange colored despite others opinions to the contrary.

The 640P is a very good stage for most carts, but I've read that it's a horrible match to the DL-103, so I'm guessing this only added to your problems. It should, however, be a stellar match to the Ortofon. I've heard the 2M series of and they are very very nice indeed.

I find it interesting that alignment became such a focus of discussion on this thread - the conical stylus of the DL-103 is probably the least sensitive to alignment issues of any cartridge I've heard in my resolving system.

I agree... to a point... Dopogue

I tried several loadings with the DL-103 in my system - I still couldn't get it to sound "right" though, especially in the midrange. I did, however, find the best match at 500 ohms, as well.

My current Dynavector 20XL (microline edition) is so much more musical than the DL-103 was. I'd take the 10X5 or, as Jwglista did, the Ortofon 2m carts, over the DL-103 any day.

One thing that did impress the hell out of me was the Denon's ability to track inner grooves with it's conical stylus. It's the only conical I've ever heard that can do it convincingly and inner-groove-distortion is a pet-peave of mine. It tracked the inner groove almost as well as my 20XL, which is impressive.