TIME to break in a Denon 103R

I have no experience with the "R" version of the venerable Denon, but the plain 103 takes about 50 hours to fully burn-in, though reported hours vary from 20 hours to 100 hours, probably a synergy thing going on here. And I agree with Patrickamory on the subject of the Denon anyway: it is one of the finest MCs or cartridges of any stripe available, period, full stop, the end. It's bass, sense of rhythm and timing, palpability, vivacity and most of all gestalt/"organic wholeness" is right up there with the very best, if not better. Can you spell "M-U-S-I-C"? Detail isn't everything. As for the theory that a conical tip precludes detail, one has to hear a Denon on a top-flight 'table to hear what it can REALLY do, which, due to price, is a very rare occurence. Though it may not be state of the art, one would never guess in a blind test that one was hearing a conical tip, and it easily bests most if not all MMs in this category in my experience, and I'm a very serious self-avowed MM-man. All kinds of theories/myths out there which are just waiting to be verified by experiment ;-). So play that baby on something serious if you have the chance, and it appears you do, Larry, and trust your ears, you'll have an instructive blast!

Psychicanimal, the vintage Audio Technicas sound nothing like the new family sound of overdamped bass and leaning-towards-the-bright current crop (which has advantages in too-warm or flabby systems however): they are rich, smoooooth and very very musical. The first of these superb vintage cartridges is likely the AT13 with various tips (Shibata/stereohedron, hyper-elliptical, elliptical, conical), moving through the AT-14, AT15 and then the AT20, each of which is superb, with the '20 likely being the best of the bunch. They still have a "neutral" flavour as compared with other vintage MMs like the ADCs. All of these are worth seeking out and trying, if one is into MMs. They also had a "TK" line (TK-9, TK-7, TK-5) which sounds rich and excellent. I haven't heard the latest '150, but I assume anyway it will have the current traditional A-T sound.

Hi Dan, while in Berlin recently I discovered an elliptical-tipped Denon DL-103 which I bought along with a new plain 103. I'll be comparing the two to see what pluses and minuses there are relative to each other, since there is some buzz that the conical tip is in fact responsible for its great sense of gestalt/organic wholeness. Phonophono in Berlin sells these retipped by a German fellow and orderable for 147 euros (!) from www.phonophono.de, though it isn't on their website (you'll have to ask for it specifically in an e-mail or phonecall). They are apparently modified from trade-ins by a man they call The Needle Man (apparently not many names for cartridge builder/modifiers). They claim this Denon DL-103"E" is greatly superior to the "R" version, to add to the confusion ;-)! In the meantime, I continue to be a great admirer of the plain DL-103. If the elliptical tip adds without subtracting I'll be one mesmerized fellow!