I've been MC curious for a few years now but have been put off by the
high prices and all the talk about how you don't really experience what a
true MC cart does until you get above the $1000 price point. So it's
always been on the back burner as I will never be able to spend that
sort of money for a cartridge.
Of course I still read post about them and wondered if a lowly Denon DL-103 might make me happy. Along the way I picked up a Denon AU-320 SUT, just in case, it was on a gear trade.
I finally bit the bullet after reading several post by audio geeks that had gone down the rabbit hole and worked their way up to multi thousand dollar MC carts.
Seems several of them over the years had started on the lowly DL-103 and still had one in their stash so when their expensive high dollar cart when in for service they put the DL-103 back on to keep their TT up and running.
Not one of them had anything bad to say about the DL-103 after mounting it. Sure it didn't offer the super high resolution of the mega dollar cart but they all said it was just so much more musical and really enjoyed it.
After reading several accounts of this over the years I finally purchased one and am glad to say that I'm delighted with it. It make music sound the way I want to hear it, very musical, not sterile.
My MC "Rabbit Hole" is getting a few broken DL-103 carts and modifying them. I have a DL-103S with a fine elliptical and a wood bodied DL-103 with a hypereliptical sitting here to play with.
I've been using this DL-103 on a fairly new to me JVC QL-A7 TT. That was a revelation switching to that TT in itself.
BillWojo
Of course I still read post about them and wondered if a lowly Denon DL-103 might make me happy. Along the way I picked up a Denon AU-320 SUT, just in case, it was on a gear trade.
I finally bit the bullet after reading several post by audio geeks that had gone down the rabbit hole and worked their way up to multi thousand dollar MC carts.
Seems several of them over the years had started on the lowly DL-103 and still had one in their stash so when their expensive high dollar cart when in for service they put the DL-103 back on to keep their TT up and running.
Not one of them had anything bad to say about the DL-103 after mounting it. Sure it didn't offer the super high resolution of the mega dollar cart but they all said it was just so much more musical and really enjoyed it.
After reading several accounts of this over the years I finally purchased one and am glad to say that I'm delighted with it. It make music sound the way I want to hear it, very musical, not sterile.
My MC "Rabbit Hole" is getting a few broken DL-103 carts and modifying them. I have a DL-103S with a fine elliptical and a wood bodied DL-103 with a hypereliptical sitting here to play with.
I've been using this DL-103 on a fairly new to me JVC QL-A7 TT. That was a revelation switching to that TT in itself.
BillWojo