Better than you may have heard but not as good as you may think!

For those looking for the TLDR: The Denon DL-103 MC cartridge is probably the best cartridge available for higher mass arms at the low $400 asking price and is one of my favourite budget cartridges. It’s very good, great in fact for the money, on the right tonearm. That said, it isn’t well-suited to many turntables and tonearms, nor is it anywhere near as good as the very best carts available when we remove the price restriction.

Physics

The Denon DL-103 was designed to work properly on longer, heavier arms, bolted to a nice heavy headshell. That’s because the 103 is an old-school low-output, low-compliance cartridge with a conical stylus. The DL-103 needs a little more mass for the suspension to work properly. Don’t know what this means? You need to because it’s important.

Understanding cartridge physics is vital to understanding how cartridges interact with headshells and tonearms. Cartridge-tonearm compatibility comes down to simple math and becomes intuitive with experience and a good technical understanding of the mechanics/physics involved.

Whatever else you do, make sure whoever supplies and fits your cartridge can explain this and verify compatibility with your equipment. Anyone telling you that “this isn’t important” or that “the DL-103 will work on any arm” or is “the best cartridge available” should be viewed with an appropriate amount of scepticism. Comments like these merely highlight the need for better advice.

Perspective

The DL-103 is a beautifully made and presented low-output moving coil cartridge that sounds great in the right rig. It’s a classic-sounding cartridge because it was designed in a classic time, long ago. Tonearm design philosophies have changed since then though.

We’ve had the era of super low-mass arms, to which a DL-103 should never be fitted. We are now in a medium-mass tonearm era and the DL-103 isn’t very well-suited to many of these, but can be used with medium-mass arms as long as the resonant frequency is known and the necessary mass adjustments are made.

How good is the DL-103 in the right set-up? It’s a very good cartridge, especially for the low asking price. The Denon DL-103 sounds balanced, clean and powerful, with no obvious issues anywhere. The DL-103 offers higher resolution than similarly priced MM carts when partnered with a suitable high-gain phono pre-amp (critically important).

Overall, the DL-103 is better than similarly priced MM carts, but perspective is important. People have told me they’ve never heard better than the DL-103 but that’s only because they haven’t heard better, possibly only owning a couple of budget cartridges previously! I’ve fitted dozens of 103s over the years and hundreds of cartridges. The DL-103 is a solid performer but there are significantly better-performing cartridges available and I’m sure this won’t be a shock to anyone.

I think everyone loves the idea that a $400 cartridge with an aluminium cantilever and conical diamond might be as good as cartridges costing thousands, but in reality, this is just whimsy. If the DL-103 was even nearly as good as my Ortofon MC-A90, MC Jubilee, Supex SDX-1100D, or even my Fidelity Research MC-202 or FR-1 Mk3, I’d probably only use Denon DL-103s.

Variants

There are some specced-up versions of the DL-103 available, like the DL-103R for example. The DL-103R is certainly a better-sounding option for most people, though having heard most of the variants available, I think the best bang-per-buck version is the Denon factory original.

Other manufacturers dress up DL-103s in fancy aluminium or wooden bodies and charge hundreds more for them. Does that sound like great value to you? You can take a basic cartridge and wrap it in a fancy metal box, and it’s still a basic cartridge in a fancy metal box, so be mindful of this.

Salespeople NEED to sell you things, like DL-103s and plenty much worse. Once the sale is complete, in most cases that’s it. For many owners, even if the set-up is sub-optimal, the result will often be better than the crappy sub-$100 MM cartridge most are stepping up from, even if it’s still way out.

Whatever variant you buy, make sure that your retailer explains that the DL-103 is a very low-output moving coil cartridge, and the implications of this. If you’ve not been told that it needs a top-notch high-gain phono preamp and/or a step-up transformer, how much these elements cost, or how critically important they are in extracting the most from a good MC cart, then I suggest finding a different retailer.

The Bottom Line

The DL-103 will never be the most resolving, airy or articulate cartridge, but it is honest, beautifully made, and it will smack around Ortofon 2M Reds, Audio Technica VM95Es and worn-out old-school magnets and make them look as bland and uninvolving as they are. It will deliver a better balanced and resolved result than many sub-$1000 MM carts, and even some coils.

A $1500 cartridge though, an Ortofon Quintet Black S for example, comprehensively bests the DL-103. Even at $699, Audio Technica’s AT-OC9XEN is better in most setups. As good as the DL-103 is for the money, it’s a stepping stone for anyone seriously invested in vinyl playback and in advancing their playback performance. Once you’ve heard a better cartridge properly installed on a suitable arm/deck, you’ll appreciate this.

On the right turntable/tonearm and used with a quality MC phono preamp though, nothing else you can buy new for the price will touch a DL-103.