Technics SL-23 TT opinions.. mated with Denon DL-103?


I was looking through Craigslist and found a Technics SL-23 for sale for $150.00.  Would this be a good table to mount a Denon DL-103?
128x128coachpoconnor

Showing 5 responses by millercarbon

coachpconnor,
Just to further counter the inexperience based misinformation above, here is what Origin Live has to say about the relevance of compliance matching:
Cartridge compliance calculations are an overrated simplification of complex problems. For example the vertical compliance is sometimes different to the horizontal compliance but this is not stated. As far as compliance issues go – Origin Live and many dealers find theory bears little or no relation to reality. This view is now increasingly held. There are too many surprising experiences where theoretical optimums mis-track and theoretical mismatches track perfectly.


That's Origin Live. https://www.originlive.com/cartridge-compliance-tonearm-effective-mass-cartridges-work-well-origin-l...

Its not that what they're telling you is wrong. Their harmonic resonance theory is perfectly valid... theory. Its just that this is the real world. 
See what I mean?

I would just go check out the CL table. Ideally mount your cart and play a record. But if for some reason you can’t, then check it out. Pull the platter, turn the bearing by hand feeling for smoothness and slop. Check the belt for suppleness and signs of age like cracking. Replace the platter with the belt disconnected, give it a little spin and watch how long it takes to stop. Watch carefully when it stops- did it stop smoothly? Or abruptly at the very end? Or worse, stop and then go back as if the bearing were falling into a notch? Because that may be exactly what’s happening.

Handle the tone arm. It should move freely and without slop of any kind. Adjust VTF and anti-skate to zero and the arm should float and drift freely without ever sticking any one place. Bearing in mind this is an older budget level rig, and these tests check out, then for $150 you got yourself a $300+ table. I would take it and run.




coachpoconnor,
One thing you got to learn around here, lotta guys with next to no actual experience perfectly content to blow smoke throwing terms around trying to sound good. Classic knows just enough to be dangerous scenario. Now at this point, believe me, I could launch into a kilo-word dissertation but as educational and fun as we all know that would be the previous two sentences are all you really need to know.
Whatever.
I must say though, having read the reviews, VERY impressed with your cartridge!
All the cool guys have one. At least one. Really cool dudes have like three or four. Sometimes, you even meet a girl who uses a Denon DL-103, but she is invariably extremely hot. Her name is Charlie or Ingrid or Scarlett, or some crazy crap like that. She owns more records than you do. She’ll eventually want to move your furniture. If you’re smart, you’ll let her. And when you’re done moving furniture, you’ll sit down with a glass of gin and a smoke, and you’ll drop the needle on Dexter Gordon’s Our Man In Paris. You’ll take the stairway to the stars and spend a night in Tunisia.—Stephen Mejias
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/denon-dl-103-phono-cartridge#EgW5JePFE3TAiL9y.99

Yeah sure, why not? Sounds like a really nice vintage combo to me. Clean it up, lube it up, slap a nice new belt on and enjoy!