Review on 🎶 Enhance Your Vinyl Experience with Denon DL-301MK2 Moving Coil Phono Cartridge by Alexis Bishop

After 8 months of use this cartridge was defective. When the record was played, the stylus holder's elastomer failed and the stylus simply fell into the cartridge. It turns out that the manufacturer's warranty is only 90 days. The seller (Huppins) handed the responsibility over to Denon support and Denon helpfully suggested I buy a replacement. Well I'll have to do it, but of course never again anything Denon does. After using this cartridge for a month I have to lower my rating. My first impression (below) was of a system with fairly bright speakers. to LP with higher frequencies. However, as I play more of my library I find that the frequency response is not very flat. From around 2 kHz, the frequency response gradually decreases, around -3 dB at 10 kHz. It's not a dip, so the extended frequencies are still there, but they just don't shine. There is also a noticeable hump in bass response below about 36Hz, but this may be a resonance in my tonearm and not the cartridge's fault. I've experimented with VTA and downforce adjustment but couldn't fix this issue. . I was also hoping that the sound would improve after breaking in, but I've had over 30 hours with the cartridge with no sign of improvement. The other statements I made below are still true - the sound remains consistent from the outside in. Grooves, which is nice, and even when I apply a bit of EQ to compensate for the drop in response, the vocals remain clean and not sizzling. ****** Original review ****** and turntables Denon DP-30L-II and Thorens TD-160. I almost bought the DL-103R but realized the pickup has a lot less compliance - it's designed for mainstream tonearms. This model should be better suited for light tonearms. It replaces the 30 year old DL-207. Sounds very similar, deep, smooth bass, great mids and crisp highs, but with a huge improvement in vocal noise (probably due to a worn-out needle from the old one!) Low distortion right into the internal grooves.