About The Denon DL-103R Moving Coil Cartridge
The DL-103R is an updated version of the classic DL-103. It provides improved sound over the DL-103 by using high purity 6N (99.9999%) copper coils wound with precision to the cantilever shaft. Sonic improvements over the DL-103 include heightened detail-extraction, more bass depth, and enhanced clarity across the frequency range.
The sound of the DL-103R is outstanding. It has the characteristic of allowing the music to come across as a composition, and not as a group of disjointed parts.
Many other cartridges will give great separation of instruments and holographic imaging and detail, but they never seem to merge as a musical whole. The DL-103R excels in this area of making the parts merge into a full musical presentation, and still retains the detail and delineation of the instruments and voices.
Denon DL-103R Reviews
"The DL-103R just rocks my Thorens TD-165. I listen to Jazz and Pop vocal and it blows me away. My amp and speakers both deliver, but this cart - it just stuns me. A great cart to own for the price!" TheNeedleDoctor.com
"Music simply sounds more right through this cartridge. Yes, it has prodigious bass when called upon to display it on a thunder of a track like Prokofiev's Russian Overture, from an unopened Living Stereo recording I found waiting for me one late winter day in a dusty old shop in the Hudson River Valley. This is definitely better bass than my reference. Not more in an absolute sense, just more richness." 10 Audio
"Many carts will give great separation of instruments and holographic imaging and detail, but they never seem to merge as a musical whole. The Denon carts excel in this area of making the parts merge into a full musical presentation, and still retains the detail and delineation of the instruments and voices. This is one of the major reasons why the DL-103R is such a desirable cartridge." Audiogon
Our Take On The Denon DL-103R
There have been many variations of the classic Denon DL-103 cartridge over the years but this is the only one that is still in production. The only difference with the DL-103R is the type of wire used in the coils. Instead of being normal pure copper (99.3%) it is 6N copper which means it has a higher purity rating of 99.9999% (6 Nines). Sonic improvements over the DL-103 include heightened detail-extraction, more bass depth, and enhanced clarity across the frequency range. Just like the DL-103, the DL-103R works with most tonearms, is easy to set up and align and seems to play almost any music without mistracking. All you need is a reasonably good phono preamp where the load resistance can be set at 100 Ohms and you're good to go. Compatibility wise, we would recommend the Rega Planar 3 or Planar 6 turntables and the Rega Fono MC MK4 phono preamp. Alternatively, we would also recommend the ProJect Debut Pro turntable and the ProJect Tube Box S2 phono preamp. Any of these combinations will give you great sound at a very fair price.
Main Features & Specifications
- Design: Moving Coil Cartridge
- Superior stability
- Double layer cantilever construction
- One point suspension
- Coils Hand-wound at Shirakawa Audio Works, Japan
- Technical
- Recommended Pin Pressure: 2.3g~2.7g
- Output Voltage: 0.3 mV
- Output Impedance: 40 Ohms
- Recommended Resistance: 100 Ohms
- Compliance: 5×10-6 cm / duvet
- Channel Balance: 1 dB
- Channel Separation: 24 dB 1 kHz
- Frequency Response: 20-45,000 Hz
- Weight: 8.5 g
- Physical
- Cantilever: Aluminium
- Pickup Body: Plastic
- Coil Material: High Purity 6N Copper (99.9999% pure)
- Magnetic Material: Ferrite
- Stylus Tip: Spherical Diamond
- Grinding: Spherical / 16.5 Micron round tip
- Made In Japan
Note: Features & Specifications Subject To Change Without Notice. E&OE