Cartridges

[Dave the bass]

Originally Posted by stevef

btw - there are some good cartridge reviews on 10 Audio (http://www.10audio.com/reviews.htm) including the Shelter 901 and 501

Thanks Steve, thats a nice read, he REALLY loves the 103R doesn't he.

DTB

Hi Dave - yes he does love the DL103 (which I know will please many on the forum!) but read the final comment from the 10 Audio editor...

Quote:

Editor's note: The high rating of this budget cartridge has generated many inquiries, all asking the same basic question, "If this product got a "10 LP" rating , where does that put other cartridges such as the Zyx UNIverse or Shelter 90x?" Please stay tuned for my answer to that question. As always, thanks for your patience.

[Gerry]

Interesting reading the 10audio.com reviews.

Well I have a Shelter 501 MKII along with Denon 103R (I've probably bored you all in the past with my thoughts on this cartridge) and Goldring Eroica Denon 304 and a few others.

At the moment the battle is between the Shelter & 103R.
It is something I'm struggling with as the 103R is proving to be a hard one to beat.
The Shelter has a lot more, in fact, it is very forward. Funnily enough something the Denon has been accused of. The 501 has massive bass slam and attack. I'm finding the Denon the subtler of the two at the moment!

The Denon has a HUGE soundstage, much bigger than the Shelter and this has a big bearing on my perception of which is the better. You close your eyes and there is a 20ft wide wall of sound with instruments and vice dispersed and moving throughout the soundstage, both in width and depth.
The Shelter on the other hand is rock solid with the focus in between the 2 speakers. There is width to the soundstage but no where near as wide as the Denon. The Shelter’s soundstage has greater height, floor to ceiling, and is more forward sounding.

Now there are reasons for this, so I believe. I’ve spent a lot of time playing with the loading on the Denon; this has made a huge difference. I have yet to find the sweet spot for the Shelter when it comes to loading. (I’d love to know where you ended up Steve on your 901?).

Like wise I’ve played with alignment and VTA etc. If you read Roy Gregory’s column on their demonstration at the Boulder Show in HiFi+ this month he explains how important this is. Again this is something I’ve spent a long time playing with on the Denon, but not so on the Shelter. On the Denon it is at it’s best using Lofgren protractors with an overhang of 17.2mm. I’ve got the Shelter set up on Lofgren at the moment, but will experiment.

Arms play a huge roll in all of this as well. The Denon sings when on high mass unipivot. It is not so good on other arms, and positively **** (IMHO) on Rega derivatives.
The Shelter is more forgiving of arms; that is for sure.

I believe the Shelter will come to life and shine, I just need to find the elusive sweet spot, I’m close, but not close enough! I think it is a fantastic cartridge and well worth the money…I have no regrets.
The Denon…well what can I say that I haven’t before. For the money, on the right arm with the right loading, I don’t think there is anything to beat it at the price!

Right time for me to put my tin hat on, and duck.

[david counter]

here's a 103 I haven't seen before,
http://cgi.ebay.de/DENON-MC-TONABNEH...QQcmdZViewItem
anybody know anything about it

I notice in that 10 audio review that he used a roksan nima which is a fairly low mass u/p arm, this rather flies in the face of everybody's ideas that you need high mass arms, maybe had he used a different high mass arm he would have been even more enthusiastic

[soulminer]

Denon DL103-SA (2006)

Type Moving Coil

Output (1Khz 50 mm/sec) 0.25mv

Freq Response 20Hz - 45kHz

Output Impedance 14 ohms

Load Impedance > 100 ohms

L/R Separation 1kHz > 25db

L/R Balance 1kHz < 1db

Stylus Tip 0.2mm Special Round

Cantilever Special Aluminum Pipe

Dynamic Compliance 5 x 10-6cm/Dyne

Static Compliance???

VTF 2.5 +/- 0.3gm

Mass: 9.7gm

Price: $750 USD

Coil purity made from 99.9999% (6N) high purity copper wire. Metallic blue fiberglass composite body. Limited production run of 2000. *Denon publishes their dynamic compliance specifications relative to 100Hz . The actual compliance at 10Hz will be higher. Click here to see photos of Denon cartridge production.

It's in the cartridge database David. Looks like it's just a 103R with a fancy body and a limited number of production units.

http://www.cartridgedb.com/

Cheers

[david counter]

so possibly not worth the extra money then?

think I'll just buy the bog standard one,

[Andrew]

Ah, but we want to know if you've got a pipe and slippers? :p

Seriously, I'm in need of a new 103R, what's the best re-tip advice, failing that who sells in the UK that can be recommended?

many thanks,

-- Andrew

[Shian7]

I can recommend expert stylus co for a re-tip....did an excellent job on my Linn Klyde a few years ago.

Cheers,
Mike.

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Seriously, I'm in need of a new 103R,
-- Andrew

Try having a word with Gerry-he used to be able to get them in the past.

Philip

Andrew - does this help?

http://www.idealo.co.uk/compare/4796...n-dl-103r.html

or this

http://www.hifix.co.uk/sku.lasso?ite...a237496b63826b