I have a Thorens 203 turntable with tp82 uni-pivot tonearm, arm mass 11g.
this as 2 counter weights 1 for the tracking angle.
with the denon dl103 attached the weights do not go right back at 2.50g tracking.
the sound with a first rough setup sounds quite good.
But I have the idea in my head that low mass tonearms do not work with the Denon 103.
any ideas
this as 2 counter weights 1 for the tracking angle.
with the denon dl103 attached the weights do not go right back at 2.50g tracking.
the sound with a first rough setup sounds quite good.
But I have the idea in my head that low mass tonearms do not work with the Denon 103.
any ideas
Morning,
The DL-103 does like a medium to heavy tonearms. You can use this calculator to get a sense of the how your arm will preform with the Denon.
Cartridge Resonance Evaluator - Vinyl Engine
The compliance specs for the cart are measured a little different than others. You can assume a rating of 10-12 for reference with this chart.
There are ways of increasing the mass of the cart to make it work with lighter arms. An after market aluminum cap or body can but used to increase the mass. A quick google search will provide you some options.
The DL-103 does like a medium to heavy tonearms. You can use this calculator to get a sense of the how your arm will preform with the Denon.
Cartridge Resonance Evaluator - Vinyl Engine
The compliance specs for the cart are measured a little different than others. You can assume a rating of 10-12 for reference with this chart.
There are ways of increasing the mass of the cart to make it work with lighter arms. An after market aluminum cap or body can but used to increase the mass. A quick google search will provide you some options.
The arm will be fine with the DL103, 10-11 Hz resonance. No need to have higher mass. And 11 g arm is not low mass. 3-4 g is low mass.
Wait, 20-24 grams is a lot of added weight. That puts the effective mass of the system including arm and cartridge over 40-44 grams... that would put the resonant frequency well below 8Hz.
Remember that the low Denon compliance of 5x10-6cm/dyne is measured at 100Hz. The majority of compliance specs are given at 10Hz... So, the DL-103 is more conservatively rated at 10 to 12x10-6cm/dyne. So, adding 2-4 grams of mass may be better.
With medium arm doesn't give full perfomance, it needs high mass arms to shine.
Japanese manufacturers specify compliance at 100 Hz
European manufacturers specify compliance at 10 Hz
American manufacturers specify compliance at 0 Hz, AKA "static".
The two frequency-based measurements use a test record (played at a specified speed, the same for both methods), the static measurement is with the cartridge on the table but no moving test record.
In practice, compliance varies based on the frequency and the velocity (which ie equivalent to groove modulations; ie it will be different on the least and most violent tracks on the CBS Test Record for tracking ability).
So in the end you are best off just mounting the cartridge and seeing what happens with your arm / cartridge combo. Using a measurement process (say, an app which measures distortion with VTA) helps there.
I find the Denons work fine in many arms that are described as "poor matches", such as a REGA RB-300.
Broadly speaking, I find users tend to 'want to" set tracking force at the light end of the recommended range, feeling that it reduces groove wear. As long as the TF is within the recommended range, groove wear won't be an issue. Do not fear using the high end of the range, after all it's still recommended TF by the cartridge manufacturer.
Groove damage from mistracking (it only takes one event to damage a groove wall) is far more common than records "wearing out" due to high-ish tracking forces.
Test Records not sold to the public but used in measurement suites by cartridge and tonearm manufacturers are considered vaild for 10 plays. If you have your arm / cartridge setup properly and avoid mistracking, you should see no groove wear for 50~100 plays (as proven by ADC in the 1970's).
Changing to a different stylus profile (say, conical vs line-contact) will typically result in the stylus mating with different areas of the groove wall (higher or lower), which should, again, without mistracking incidents, be pristene and extend the useful (no visible wear under a scanning electron microscope at the new mating point) life for an additional 50~100 plays.
At some point beyond 100 plays wear can be observed, but the LPs are still usable. It's not a hard-and-fast limit, the album may be near perfect for some unknown number of additional plays.
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It is the resonant frequency that is important and should be above 10 Hz.
Dropbox - Tonearm mass and noise LP playback.pdf
(Moerch name their arms light (4 g), medium (7,5 g) and extra heavy (14 g) so what you call the arms varies between tone arm makers.)
So what is the resonance frequency?
(If you use the Hifi News test record and voice calls, not that the voice calls are not entirely correct. You will need to plot the curves to get the exact numbers. Like the 20 cu cartridge below and 17 g total mass)
You have to measure it on the arm chosen.
There are "rules of thumb" to convert compliance specs from different measurement frequencies as specified by the manufacturer, and they are often "pretty close", but if by "real compliance" you want the accurate figure, you have to measure it with your arm.
Here is one measurement of the DL-103R, which I believe is the same as DL-103:
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