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New cart came today!


lwhaples

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One should never drink wine and go on this forum. Needless to say I bought one of the zu audio 103s last night. I have a 103r that I have yet to mount and am currently using the Shelter 901. Once I get the zu audio Ill do some comparisons.

Josh

That's funny.

It's still at the funny stage. I am not hiding hi fi equipment under my pillow yet!

josh

If it does get beyond the funny stage, at least cartridges are easier to hide than speakers! Look forward to hearing what you think of the 103R and Zu. I'm think about trying a Shelter of some sort this year. My dynavector 20XH is getting some long hours on it and my turntable could probably use a step up from that anyway.

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Mike, What does he do? How is it different than the DL103R? Just wondering.

Larry

The DL-103R uses 6N copper coils wound with precision to the cantilever shaft, whereas Zu Audio uses their own nuded machined body with a dual compound epoxy potted motor assembly. They increase the weight from 8.5g to 14.2g, so make sure your tonearm can handle this added weight. Also, the DL-103R's output is .25mv whereas the DL-103's is .30mv.

Mike

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Mounted up the 103R today. I had forgotten what a PITA mounting the Denon is because of the non-threaded mounting slots. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Denon, they are considerably shorter in height than a standard cartidge today. This can cause VTA issues. Joesportster made me a little metal shim that is designed to go between the cart and the tonearm thereby eliminating the need for a TT mat in order to set the proper VTA. The zu audio version, I believe has threaded mounting screws which on its own would be worth the price differential.

I was using a standard 103 for sometime and found it to be a remarkable sounding cartidge. Very musical with a somewhat lush sound that is incredibly engaging. I switched it back and forth with my Shelter and ultimately stayed with the Shelter in favor of the detail provided that was not part of the 103 presentation. I have to say the 103R delivers on all that was wonderful with the 103 with way better delivery of the detail that I found lacking in the 103. Great bass extension- realistic and musical. Hi end detail that is not harsh at all. Overall the 103R is a winner in my book. I will not be re-installing the Shelter. I look forward to getting the zu audio 103. I have a hard time believing that it could best what I am listing to now.

Josh

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I was using a standard 103 for sometime and found it to be a remarkable sounding cartidge. Very musical with a somewhat lush sound that is incredibly engaging. I switched it back and forth with my Shelter and ultimately stayed with the Shelter in favor of the detail provided that was not part of the 103 presentation. I have to say the 103R delivers on all that was wonderful with the 103 with way better delivery of the detail that I found lacking in the 103. Great bass extension- realistic and musical. Hi end detail that is not harsh at all. Overall the 103R is a winner in my book. I will not be re-installing the Shelter. I look forward to getting the zu audio 103. I have a hard time believing that it could best what I am listing to now.

Josh

Yep... that's about how I would describe it as well. The 103 is a great cartridge, especially for the money. The 103R, however, does everything a little better, and with the added details. I too will be sending my 103 off to Zu Audio and will see if the modded 103 betters the 103R.

Mike

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  • 3 weeks later...

The zu audio Denon 103 arrived about a week ago.Mounting it was a breeze. The new threaded aluminum body makes it way easier than a standard 103. This is replacing a Denon 103R which had replaced a Shelter 901. The 103R is magnificant but I think that this zu audio 103 is my favorite. Same wonderful midrange as the 103R with the same improved high and low end that over the 103. I would have to say that this is a very (believe me I hate it when people say this but I dont know how else to describe it) musical cartridge. The music is just more involving. Greater depth around the edges of the notes, greater sustain. More realistic piano. I would compare the improvement to tube rolling - say about 5 % but it is a real 5%!

Now I just cant help but wondering what the 103R would sound like denuded and mounted in a new heavy cover!

josh

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The Zu mod is certainly interesting and SHOULD be sonically superior to the 103R. The problem is entirely practical - it is a naked cart - all the bits exposed and I have broken too many of those in the past to consider them.

Note - I said SHOULD above - not IS - it may not be and certainly its relative performance will vary from implementation to implementation.

As regards the match of the 103 (in any of its guises) to Rega arms it does work fine - as others have testified, BUT you need to hear it on another arm to ascertain as to whether it is an ideal match or not. I have heard the standard 103 on many arms over the years. The best non-linear implementation I have heard was on an Origin Live (Silver I think) which is a high apparent mass, heavily modded Rega.

Interestingly - for reasons I am not sure about, it was a better match for the Project 9 arm than the Rega 300 when both are in standard form. I think the Project 9 may have a slightly higher apparent mass than the Rega but as to whether that accounts for the difference or not I am not sure.

If I ever get some funds together I will grab a 103R and have a play on my arm. The 103 I have now was always supposed to be temporary anyway (an experiment) - it just stuck because it plays so well and is the reason the Shelter 901 is in the drawer.

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The zu audio Denon 103 arrived about a week ago.Mounting it was a breeze.

Cool ! That was fast! The nude part still scares me,but I really like the cartridge.Seems to work really well on the Linn. I just mounted a Ortofon OM40 on the Thorens with a Rega RB250 arm and run the two tables back to back. Maybe I should try the Zu on the Thorens and see. Glad to hear you are happy with the Zu.

Larry

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ALL carts should come with stylus guards IMO. The Benz's I played with did not, and I was very nervous in mounting them. In contrast, Transfigurations and many others do. It takes designing it in -- Transfigs have little grooves on the side of the cart for theirs to slide into and hold it. The Benz's had nothing and made it impossible anyway with a hexagonal shape as seen from above.

It's not reasonable to expect an installer or owner to always be perfect around a stylus or exposed cantilever when mounting or adjusting the cart, working with the pins on the back, etc.

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You run 2 turntables ?? Looks like 2 different ones to me ....................

Yes, I have three TT's Two Thorens TD160 MKII's one with the Rega arm and one with an SME arm. Then theres the Linn LP12. M/C M/M on the Blueberry so I can run two.Neat to have one ready while the other is just finishing.

Larry

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This is good to hear, Josh! I love my DL-103R, but am curious to see how the Zu 103 compares. Our impressions up to this point have been similar and I am sure I will love the Zu like you. I need to check my SME arm to see how it will handle the extra 6 grams of mass (14.5 vs 8.5), and run the numbers on it before sending off my 103.

Mike

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I just ran the numbers with eff mass of the SME 3009 II tonearm being 12.5g, the mass of the ZU DL-103 cartridge being 14.5g and a compliance of 9 on the DL-103 (the stated compliance of 5 is at 100hz), and that puts the resonance freq just over 10 hz, so that is almost perfect (this number should be between 8 and 12 hz, with 9 - 11 hz being preferred).

Mike

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