Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

AnthonyI said:
I'm going to give the Denon DL-103R another bump in terms of how well it sounds, more specifically, with used albums. Over the last few days in efforts to burn in the Linton's I've just continued to play through my collection, 4-7 hours a day, just one album after the next, and enjoying the time completely. But man, with each album I'm truly surprised how well these older pressings sound at this point, it's not a little better, it's ears perk up and notice better.

Anyway, giving credit where credit is due, loving this cart a lot.
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Awesome. I hear great things about the 110 as well. Same soundstage with a higher output, correct?
 
HiFi Guy said:
I’ve had a DL-110 and liked it a lot.
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I had a DL-110 for a while on my U-turn. I found it clear, detailed, and lifeless. I couldn't put my finger on any specific problem. I just found that spinning vinyl wasn't worth the hassle of digging records out of their sleeves, and thus, the vinyl didn't spin.

Once you go Grado, you'll never go back, I guess.
 
apholden said:
I had a DL-110 for a while on my U-turn. I found it clear, detailed, and lifeless. I couldn't put my finger on any specific problem. I just found that spinning vinyl wasn't worth the hassle of digging records out of their sleeves, and thus, the vinyl didn't spin.

Once you go Grado, you'll never go back, I guess.
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I appreciate the feedback! I haven’t found anything that satisfies my ears in the low end department like a Grado, that’s for sure, but I do find myself missing a wide open, crystal clear top end with it. Particularly when things get aggressive, it can get a little grainy and pokey up there. The 2M Blue had that in the top, albeit perhaps a little TOO much, but it’s pretty lackluster in the low end in comparison. I seem to be zooming in on the AT-VM95ML or the DL-110 to try next, going to come down to what I ultimately want to spend. @HiFi Guy gave a heads up that the AT is reportedly getting a price increase next month, so I’m thinking I may try to finagle a pre Valentine’s coupon deal from one of the bigger gear outlets, as much as I really shouldn’t!
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
I appreciate the feedback! I haven’t found anything that satisfies my ears in the low end department like a Grado, that’s for sure, but I do find myself missing a wide open, crystal clear top end with it. Particularly when things get aggressive, it can get a little grainy and pokey up there. The 2M Blue had that in the top, albeit perhaps a little TOO much, but it’s pretty lackluster in the low end in comparison. I seem to be zooming in on the AT-VM95ML or the DL-110 to try next, going to come down to what I ultimately want to spend. @HiFi Guy gave a heads up that the AT is reportedly getting a price increase next month, so I’m thinking I may try to finagle a pre Valentine’s coupon deal from one of the bigger gear outlets, as much as I really shouldn’t!
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I really liked the sound quality of the AT-VM95ML when I had it on my PLX, again, it's one of those great "Bang for your buck" carts.

I don't know if you saw this when I posted it, of course take it with the usual "youtube playback" grain of salt, lol
 
apholden said:
I had a DL-110 for a while on my U-turn. I found it clear, detailed, and lifeless. I couldn't put my finger on any specific problem. I just found that spinning vinyl wasn't worth the hassle of digging records out of their sleeves, and thus, the vinyl didn't spin.

Once you go Grado, you'll never go back, I guess.
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On a UTurn, that would be the expected result. The arm mass is too low to get the most out of the Denon.
 
HiFi Guy said:
Look at a DL103 or 103R. They are way lower.
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Yeah, the Denon I was referring to is the 103R. I don't know a ton, but the "5" in the 5 x 10-6 cm/dyne spec is the lowest I've come across. The Grado Opus is at 20 if I'm reading it correctly, which is a huge difference.

While I enjoyed the sound of the Grado Gold3 on my Mofi, the thing was super bouncy and honestly kinda irritating. No fault of the Grado, just not ideal dancing partners with the Mofi. I always felt the Grado / Technics combo had better synergy, and that's a better compliance match.

@AnthonyI Did you ever notice any issues with your Opus on the Mofi, that might be compliance related?
 
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Splunders said:
Yeah, the Denon I was referring to is the 103R. I don't know a ton, but the "5" in the 5 x 10-6 cm/dyne spec is the lowest I've come across. The Grado Opus is at 20 if I'm reading it correctly, which is a huge difference.

While I enjoyed the sound of the Grado Gold3 on my Mofi, the thing was super bouncy and honestly kinda irritating. No fault of the Grado, just not ideal dancing partners with the Mofi.
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I’ve got no issues like that with my Grado. And it actually checks out perfectly as far as resonance frequency with a test record. I certainly wouldn’t go any more compliant though.

The big thing to know is that you can’t compare a Japanese cartridge to an American cartridge directly when it comes to compliance. Americans test at 10 Hz, Japanese at 100 Hz. So (according to A/T) you take the Japanese value and multiply by 1.5 so you get a direct comparison between the two. No idea how European manufacturers do it.
 
HiFi Guy said:
I

I’ve got no issues like that with my Grado. Abs it actually checks out perfectly as far as resonance frequency with a test record. I certainly wouldn’t go any more compliant though.

The big thing to know is that you can’t compare a Japanese cartridge to an American cartridge directly when it comes to compliance. Americans test at 10 Hz, Japanese at 100 Hz. So (according to A/T) you take the Japanese value and multiply by 1.5 so you get a direct comparison between the two. No idea how European manufacturers do it.
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The Japanese difference in the measurement got me going down some incorrect rabbit holes when looking at new carts for myself. Something I thought might be juuuust low enough turned out to be too high actually. There's always more to learn in this hobby I guess
 
HiFi Guy said:
I’ve got no issues like that with my Grado. Abs it actually checks out perfectly as far as resonance frequency with a test record. I certainly wouldn’t go any more compliant though.
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AnthonyI said:
Not at all, and if I hadn't gotten the MC itch it would still be on my table. It's by far my favorite Grado cart without going way up the ladder.
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Well, what the heck was my problem then? I recalibrated everything a few times, and no matter what, it was always really jumpy. Super prone to footfalls. Whenever it hit the run out groove, it would jump back into the last track, and keep doing it over and over. I'd put the Mofi Ultratracker in, and those issues would go away. I chalked it up to compliance issues. Maybe something else was amiss?
 
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