The Well Tempered Record Player and Denon DL103

If you're going to pair a low compliance cart like the DL-103 with a low-to-mid effective mass tonearm like what's on the Amadeus, you need to get the tonearm's total effective mass up to around 30g. The easiest way to do this is to get the Zu-103 version, whose solid aluminum body bumps its weight up to 15g, and thus brings the effective mass up into the range you need.

The Zu-103 is available at $439 for the base model and only $499 for the 1% tolerance version, still a low cart investment relative to the cost of an Amadeus. Not only do you get the extra weight, you get a nuded stylus and a resonance-busting aluminum body.

The heavy effective mass requirement of the DL-103 is probably the primary reason some people can never get this cartridge to sing for them.

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.

The DL-103 is a very LOW COMPLIANCE cartridge. It needs a tonearm effective mass of at least 30g, and a blob of Blu-tack isn't going to cut it.

10-02-10: Armstrod
Johnnyb53,

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.

That's still about 6-10g short of what a DL-103 needs.

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.

Actually, I'm just arm-chairing this based on the compliance/mass formula, my personal experience with high and medium compliance cartridges with different weight headshells (Technics DD), and the reports, testimonies, and reviews of others.

Tone Publications, an online audio mag, was trying out a Technics SL1200 as a project spanning several months. The reviewers had several cartridges ranging from $200-4,000 on hand to check out, and they came away feeling that the best performance came with a Zu-103. The Technics arm has an effective mass of about 12g with the stock headshell. Zu's website mentions that the extra weight of the aluminum housing helps match the cartridge compliance to more tonearms.

Art Dudley gave it the Zu-103 a rave review in Stereophile, and he used it on Rega RB300 and Naim Arro tonearms, which are around 10-12g effective mass on their own.