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denon dl 103 w/ origin live silver mk II: help

I recently purchased a rega p3 with a origin live silver mk II tonearm mounted on it. It is hooked up via a musical surroundings mk I preamp. I had previously had a planar 3 with a denon DL 110 and was very pleased with the sound. So with the new deck I figured that I should go with a new cartridge. Enter the denon dl 103. No matter what I have tried (changing load settings, adding mass to the head of the tonearm), nothing improves the sound. It is shrill, sibilant, and fatiguing. I have had quite a bit of experience with mounting cartridges and always produced excellent results. I have been very pleased with rest of system sound wise. Is it just a bad match with my tonearm or do I just need to let it burn a lot longer. Suggestions???
micah79
micah79 OP
7 posts
 
Final update. I still was not quite pleased with the sound that the denon dl 103 was producing. It sounded good, but I still was not experiencing what the fuss was about. I ordered an 8.5g cartridge stabilizer from isokinetik and a counterweight modification. Adding mass was the only thing that I had not tried with the denon as of yet. Let me tell you, I finally got to experience the full potential of this cartridge. It was literally as though a veil had been lifted. Everything was much more focused. My last question, has anyone noticed a substantial difference when switching to an under slung counterweight with this particular origin live tonearm? My current counterweight is literally almost hanging off the end of tonearm to compensate for the 8.5 grams of mass added to the denon. I think it might be time for a heavier one.
emorrisiv
313 posts
 
As usual I am coming late to the dance (this discussion).

Your experience sounds similar to what I experienced with my first 103. I will cut to the chase: what you need is A LOT more mass on the tonearm.
Go to Dicks sporting goods, but their lead tape that they have in the golf dept. Each strip is 4gm. Stick 2 on the shaft of the arm and half of one on the headshell. You will need the rest for the counterweight to counterbalance the additional weight.
It looks kind of Frankensteinis but it works great!

e
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I believe the 103 likes a heavier arm, at least medium mass...?

If you run the DL103's factory specs (e.g., dynamic compliance of 5) for arm/cartridge resonance, you'd need a tonearm with an effective mass of 30g or so. Apparently this is not the case and Denon's compliance spec may have been derived from a different methodology than others. Although I have no direct experience with the DL103 series, I have an audiobuddy who has used one quite successfully on tonearms with an effective mass of 12g. This forum also has plenty of confirmations that the DL103 series works very well with medium-mass tonearms.

12g is a very mainstream effective tonearm mass, shared by the Rega RB30x series and even the tonearm on the Technics SL12x0 series.
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