I have a Denon 103R mounted in a Linn Ittok LV11. To get it to track cleanly on level 3 on HFS75 the tracking force has to be set to 3grams (using an electronic scale calibrated with a 5g weight) it should track at 2.5grams. The cantilever does not collapse, but I am concerned that it wasn't intended to track this heavily and may cause damage to the cartridge and or the records. I wonder if the Ittok (mounted in a Sondek) is heavy enough for this cartridge, or whether I should expect it to track band 3 anyway?
Ensure the arm end bearing is free and not binding.
Have a look here; Denon DL-103 tracking force- Vinyl Engine
Have a look here; Denon DL-103 tracking force- Vinyl Engine
2.8g is the recommended upper level. But I would not fear at 3g. However very few if any real records will need the tracking of that test band. I would back off 0.2g and listen to some records.
Looking up the 103R its very disappointing to find Denon going for the 99.9999% copper nonsense! And they don't even mention if the coils are annealed after winding, which would have a definite effect on resistance, nor do they use silver which would reduce the resistance a bit more. I mean if you buy that 99.9999% makes a difference, your only logical approach is 99.9999% silver (annealed after forming), not any kind of copper (its not as if the cost matters for a few milligrams of wire).
But as noise goes with square root of resistance and as there are many more important mechanical aspects of MC cartridge design, 6N comes across as cynical marketing BS to me.
Rant over!
Back to the point I would worry about such a high tracking force, period, I'm used to 1.5g being a good spec for this, but then the Denon is a spherical, not elliptical stylus I think.
But as noise goes with square root of resistance and as there are many more important mechanical aspects of MC cartridge design, 6N comes across as cynical marketing BS to me.
Rant over!
Back to the point I would worry about such a high tracking force, period, I'm used to 1.5g being a good spec for this, but then the Denon is a spherical, not elliptical stylus I think.
Thanks for the reply Mark. Yes there are some obvious short comings in the construction of the 103R (not least the plastic body), but at £300 it does sound very musical to my ears and I don't think many MCs at this price use silver windings.
Toast?
Ray K
"Annealed after winding", really? The annealing temperature of copper and/or silver is dark red to red hot. Before you get even close to that temperature the enamel insulation on the wire will have boiled away, thus destroying the coil.
Ray K
I've been using the plain 103 at 2.5 gr for almost half a century without any problem with recordings of music (not test records). The spherical stylus doesn't "plow" the groves as savagely as the elliptical ones.
OTOH, mistracking is something to be watched out for: I've ruined a couple of prized records after just a few play with an old Ortofon SPU/E which was terrible at tracking, even at maximum down force.
OTOH, mistracking is something to be watched out for: I've ruined a couple of prized records after just a few play with an old Ortofon SPU/E which was terrible at tracking, even at maximum down force.