Possible stylus damage to my DenonDL103

You might try aligning the arm relative to the stylus (i.e., not straight in the headshell) and see how it sounds. At least the spherical-stylus DL-103 is less critical than carts with elliptical styli. I wouldn't try to straighten it further -- you've been lucky so far (I know, doesn't feel that way). At least you can a new one delivered for under $200. Good luck, Dave

Unfortuately your cartridge won't deliver optimum performance once the cantilever has been damaged. Even if the cantilever is bent back to position and appears undamaged, who knows how the coils on the other end are now positioned in the magnetic field.
Do yourself a favour and throw away that record cleaning cloth - they are an accident waiting to happen. I know, I've done the same thing some 25yrs ago. For basic dusting, get a carbon fibre brush.

Dear Solarcarl: Tobes is right on target: you have to send your 103 to Denon for a new catilever/stylus, there is no other option.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Yeah, it's done. When the same thing happened to me,[103r, actually] I ordered another one from Audio Cubes, and sent the old one to Van den Hul for a retip. That way you have a spare, and can compare the two.

As far as I know, Denon does not offer a retip service.

Damn and blast I did the same thing, today, except I broke the cantilever off! How much does Van den Hul charge for retip? Is there anyone else in the US who does this?

just because the cantilever become bent, or askewed, doesn't necessarily mean that the cartridge is ruined, give it the old infallible, listening test, if it sounds ok, then it's fine.

A retip from Van den Hul will cost more (tip/ship) than a new 103 will cost.

I'm with you. I do not think you should risk record damage, however, so cut and run. I broke the cantilever suspension wire off of my AT 150ML 3 or 4 weeks ago using a discwasher SC-1 (stylus cleaner. The cartridge had at most 10 hours on it. I never had this happen using the SC-1 in the past, but the 150ML has the smallest cantilever I have ever seen. It is almost too small to see. Here are some of the other cartridges I have destroyed since 1973 due to mounting, drops, snags etc:
Shure M91ED, Stanton 881 MkIIS, Micro Acoustics 2002E, ADC XLM, Denon DL-301, AT AT12XE, B&O MMC20CL, B&O MMC2 and my favorite all-time cartridge, the Ortofon M20FL Super (tears).