Jelco 750D and Denon Cartridge Compatability?

Hi. I don't have a Jelco SA-750D but I do have a Technics SL1210 with the KAB fluid damper. This means my arm has several things in common with yours; to wit:

o S-shaped
o Fluid damped
o Adjustable arm height
o Interchangeable headshells

The Vinyl Engine datasheet indicates that the 750D can handle cartridge weights from 4 to 12g. However, since the headshells are interchangeable, you can get a lighter or heavier headshell to increase the compatibility range.

For example, the Technics tonearm has an effective mass of 12g including the stock 7.5g headshell. This combo is optimum for a cartridge with compliance of 20-30. But I am currently using a 14g LPGear ZuPreme headshell which boosts the effective mass to 18.5g, and I get an excellent match with an Audio Technica AT-150 MLX, which has a fairly low compliance of 10. Furthermore, the fluid damper significantly lowers the amplitude of the cart-arm resonance peak, so even if the match is a little outside the sweet spot, the damping reduces the resonance's effect.

So if you want to use a lighter and/or higher compliance cartridge, get a lighter headshell and if you use a lower compliance cartridge, get a heavier one or get a heavier headshell. You can't make too much generalization about Denon cartridges anyway. For example, the DL-103 weighs 8.5g and has a compliance rating of 5 at 100Hz. The DL-110 has a compliance of 14 and weighs 4.8g. The DL-304 is in between with a compliance of 14 and weight of 7.0g.

The damper on your 20g eff mass 750D allows you to use carts that wouldn't ordinarily be recommended. Changing to a lighter or heavier headshell will effect mass, but not quite as a direct addition or subtraction. Only the change at, or further forward of the cart will directly change mass. So a change of 5g might change eff mass by 4.

I suspect you'll get best results with a 103(D) that has low cu and is often paired with the 750D. With the damping, I've read about people using relatively high cu carts like the AT-OC9II and 150MLX. These both have 100HZ cu of 10 which is equal to about 18cu at standard 10Hz. Denon also uses 100Hz cu and the conversion isn't straightforward. A 100Hz cu of 6.5 = 15 @ 10Hz. The DL-110 is the next lowest cu, it's 8 @ 100Hz. With some damping you could probably use this with no problem. Although the rest of the line has much higher cu, they seem to do best in med mass arms. You could probably get pretty good results with any of them. You might want to get a lighter headshell and use the damping for some, but the 750D and the 103 is a marriage made in heaven, if you believe what you read.
Regards,

I am using the DL-160 on the 750D with the stock headshell with damping. I think it sounds great, but now I'm getting a little paranoid about it. Maybe I should be using a lighter headshell. I did use a lighter headshell with the V15VXMR.

750D with DL103R. Works great. Reminded me of my old SME 3012 that came with my 40 year old Thorens TD125.