The Well Tempered Record Player and Denon DL103

I owned both and could never get the combination to sound right. I tried many different levels of damping fluid, alternate cartridge mountings, even an arm wrap. IMHO, the WTRP arm has too low effective mass to deal with a low compliance cartridge like the DL103, regardless of any other factors. Medium and high compliance cartridges are a much better match.

That said, some have used the same combo and liked it. Maybe they'll post here too.

David

Johnnyb53 brings up a viable alternative, but I'll say that I tried adding mass at the headshell via Blu-tak and that still, IMO, didn't make the DL103 work on the WTRP arm. It's possible the aluminum body does things other than add mass; I haven't tried one.

I had great success with Shure V15, ZYX Bloom, and Empire EDR.9. Check out Raul's MM thread for lots of suggestions for medium to high compliance carts at all price levels. They should all work well with the WTRP arm.

My experience with high compliance carts like the Shure was that very little damping fluid was needed, just enough to cover about half the paddle.

David

Johnnyb53,

I used a pretty big blob! :-)

Seriously, I added up to 10 grams in 1 gram increments before I gave up; this was in the days before the aluminum and wood bodies that add so much mass, so it was mostly uncharted waters. I'm not sure that adding so much weight right at the headshell is a very good substitute for a true high mass tonearm.

Seems like the Zu/Uwe bodies are aimed at the Rega, which is medium mass and maybe closer to the goal to start with. Have you tried the Zu 103 with any low mass tonearms and gotten good results? If so, which ones? Maybe I just didn't go far enough.

David