Review on Enhance Your Audio Experience with the Denon DL-103R Moving Coil Cartridge by Michael Caste

Like Grado cartridges, Denon cartridges are divisive in the world of consumer reviews. I personally like both brands and have Grado Gold II in my shopping cart. A little over a year ago I decided to rekindle a long forgotten passion for audio. I really liked it and now I have three dedicated two-channel systems. I bought two turntables and five cartridges. My latest pickup is the Denon DL-103R MC. I heard this cassette at my local audio store and was quite impressed. Compared to the more expensive MC carts I've listened to, I keep coming back to the DL-103R for its smoothness, soundstage, crisp playback and well-rounded tone. After some time I decided to buy a 103R. When I first received the cartridge, I knew I wanted to buy a step-up transformer. I have a ProJect Tube Box S2 with gain control, but with the gain set to +63dB the listening experience wasn't very comfortable. I tested my cartridge and the performance was higher than advertised. The left output was tested at 0.31 mV and the right output at 0.30 mV. (Different from assembly test output) With an output voltage of 0.30mV I was able to use a Rothwell MC1 step-up transformer which saved me a few hundred bucks. I set the Tube Box DIP switches to 100pF and connected it to the preamp. The sound has improved a lot and I was very satisfied. Then, as another reviewer noted, after about forty hours of listening, the pickup actually worked. The bass in particular improved dramatically and everything else became tighter. The articulation of vocals and jazz was amazing. This is a great cartridge for the money. I recommend it at any price. I think it should be noted that this is my setup: Denon DL-103R (obviously) ProJect Tube Box S2 phono stage with Mullard 12AX7 tubes Rothwell MC1 Merrill Gem-Dandy Poly Table step-up transformer Jelco TK-850S 13.4g Middleweight arm PrimaLuna Prologue Premium tube preamp class Prima Luna Dialogue Seven monoblock tube power amps Klipsch Forte III speakers This combination offers a fantastic listening experience. I would say if you are hesitant to buy the Denon DL-103R this is a great value with excellent performance.