Denon DL-103R Wood Body Mod

Yes, and many others as well. I've been using a wood bodied 103R for about 3-4 years now. You won't find many people that don't think it is a major improvement on the stock Denon (I believe Dave Pogue is the one person I know of that does not).

IMO it is a very significant improvement. If you go in stages, you can do the wood body and then do a Soundsmith retip with a line contact stylus and you will have a cartridge that can compete with some very exotic and very pricey cartridges. An aluminum body is another alternative and some have reported great results with those as well; be aware, though, that the aluminum will be a fair bit heavier. With an ebony body, you're looking at a cartridge weighing in around 11-12 grams, with the aluminum you are in the 14-15 gram range so be sure you are capable of balancing out a cartridge that heavy.

I'd suggest the Ebony body and that is Uwe's favorite as well (the man behind the wood bodies and he's had a chance to experiment with them all); I much prefer the ebony to a clavellin body I have and the ebony has a strong synergy with the Soundsmith retip if you go that way as well.

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

The link above is to a review I wrote on the Ebony body about 3-4 years ago.

I've used both the stock 103R and Soundsmith retipped 103R in ebony and clavellin bodies and the benefits of the wood body are clearly apparent with both.

A rebodied 103R with a Soundsmith retip (can be done for around $800 in total, possibly less) is an astonishingly good cartridge that can compete with the very best at a fraction of the price.

Pat: I had Peter Lederman pot my 103R in an ebony body when he did the line contact retip (I opted for the $250 retip as opposed to the really extreme $350 retip).

Ultimately, I think, the different woods offer different presentations, and whether one has a stock 103 vs. a 103R may well result in a preference for a different wood body depending on, subjectively, what a listener wants and also whether their system is drifting toward being cool and lean or warm and full. In the end, the whole wood body/retip thing with the Denons is kind of like wine: very subjective.

As the 103R is purportedly (I actually have no experience with the stock 103) more extended and detailed than the stock 103, I think the ebony (or a wood that imparts a warmer balance-perhaps your cherry fits that character) may be the better choice for the 103R. I definitely found that with Ebony vs. Clavellin with the 103R. Clavellin may be the better choice with a stock 103, who knows?

With respect to the Soundsmith retip, the ruby cantilever is, as you say, pretty quick and the LC stylus digs out an incredible amount of information that the stock concical stylus simply misses.

IMO, with the 103R, the weightier presentation of the Ebony is a perfect match with the speed and detail retrieval of the ruby cantilever and LC stylus from Soundsmith.

But I track at 2.6 grams, which is exactly what I tracked at previously with the conical. Took me 2 months to figure it out as there are all kinds of zany reports from guys with Soundsmith Denons tracking at 1.5, 1.8 etc.

I found that even tracking at 2.45 grams resulted in a bit of a screwed up tonal balance with the Soundsmith LC retip. Tons of detail and speed, as you say, but etched and without the drama. Lower than that and you get lots of audiophile wannabe attributes: detail galore, air, speed. The problem is that the music, or, as you put it, the drama, is gone.

At 2.6 with the LC, all the power and drama is there, along with a lot more information, at least for me.

Tobes: It's been almost 3 years since I replaced the plastic body on my 103R with an ebony and I still remember those improvments.

I have no experience with the A90 so can't say how it would compare, but I would say that, from my perspective, the SS retip improves things in a very big way above and beyond the wood body. In two areas in particular which you mention, mid band clarity and HF refinement/extension, the SS retip probably equals or exceeds the jump in performance you experienced moving to the wood body. The SS retip brings about a huge improvement in the "hear through" quality in the mid band. It's quite amazing how much information the conical is actually missing.

It's pretty astonishing how much more detail it digs out of the grooves and it does tend to move the cartridge well into the area of being able to "satisfy those who want to count individual players of an orchestra at the rear of the stage" without really giving up that "musical rightness" IMO.

Tobes: I felt exactly as you did for a long time before I did the retip. In fact, I may well have posted almost word for word either here or at the vinyl asylum about my reluctance to lose that "Denon magic" by doing the retip.

If you have the ebony sitting around, I think that is the perfect one to send off. As I said earlier, the ebony has a darker, weightier less detailed presentation than many of the other woods that I think is a really synergistic match with the line contact. Kind of a yin and yang thing.

My clavellin body was a bit lighter on its feet and more detail oriented than the ebony but that combination (clavellin with line contact) may well be one that might be a bit over the top and a bit too hi-fi-ish in presentation.

I have a clavellin bodied 103R in a drawer here. Perhaps I should sent that one off to Soundsmith for a simple aluminum cantilever and elliptical as per Pat's suggestion.

I really like the ebony though; when the time comes I believe I'm just going to pop for another ebony body to replace the clavellin and then send that one off to Peter Lederman.