FAQs

Very good, actually great, for the money, and on the right tonearm.

TLDR: The Denon DL-103 MC cartridge is, in my opinion, probably the best cartridge available for higher mass arms at the ridiculously low $400 asking price. That being 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. It’s important to understand this bigger picture or the results could be less than you hoped for.

Cart/Tonearm 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 design with a conical stylus. The DL-103 needs a little more mass for the suspension to work properly.

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.

Make sure whoever supplies and fits your cartridge can explain this and verify compatibility with your equipment. Walk away from anyone who tries to tell you that “this isn’t important” or that “the DL-103 will work on any arm” or is “the best cartridge available”. Comments like these merely serve to highlight the need for better advice and FAQs like this one.

The DL-103 is a beautifully made and presented low-output moving coil cartridge. The 103’s status is legendary and she sounds great – on the right rig. It’s a classic-sounding cartridge because it was designed long ago. Tonearm design philosophies have changed since it was designed though. We’ve had eras of super low-mass arms, to which a DL-103 should never be fitted. We are now in a medium-mass tonearm era. The DL-103 can be used with many medium-mass arms, as long as that all-important physics is kept in mind, and headshell and counterweight mass are adjusted accordingly.

Realistic Expectations

OK, so we’ve established that the DL-103 is designed to work with certain tonearms and therefore turntables. On the right arm and turntable then, how good is the DL-103? It’s good, very good for the money. Whilst there are significant improvements available with better designs, 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, as long as the aforementioned conditions are met.

Looking at the bigger picture, 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 of course, this is just whimsy. If the DL-103 was as good as my Ortofon MC-A90, MC Jubilee, Supex SDX-1100D, or even my Fidelity Research MC-202 or FR-1 Mk3 for example, I’d sell them and only use Denon DL-103s!

Good as the DL-103 is for the money, once you’ve heard a better cart properly set up on a deck that can support it, there’s no going back. Broaden your vinyl horizons if you love vinyl but haven’t heard a killer high-end cart. The DL-103 will never be the most resolving, airy or articulate cartridge, but it will of course smack around Ortofon 2M Reds, Audio Technica VM95Es, etc.

Knowledge

Remember, stores only want to sell these things. They don’t care about how well it is going to work in your set-up. For many, once the sale is complete and if it plays a record, that’s it! And, for many, even if the set-up is sub-optimal, the result might still be better than the crappy cartridge most step up from when spending $400 on a cartridge.

Has the retailer explained that the DL-103 is a very low output moving coil cartridge and that means it will need a high gain phono preamp and/or a step-up transformer? Have they mentioned how much more a good high-gain phono pre or transformer costs or how critically important they are in extracting the most from a good MC cart..?

This is why context, common sense and knowledge are so important, and why I am always talking about knowledge being the most important upgrade one can make. Better knowledge and understanding lead to better choices, better matches and better results.

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.

The Bottom Line

So, can you do better than a DL-103? Of course. A good $1500 cart like an Ortofon Quintet Black S crushes it and even at $699, Audio Technica’s AT-OC9XEN is better in most setups. A better question would be: Can you do better than a DL-103 for $400, on the right tonearm? Probably not, and not unless you pick up a really good second-hand cart. Nothing else will touch a DL-103 for the money, in the right setup. Just don’t expect great results on an SME 3009 or Technics SL-1200, the DL-103 is a bad choice on those and many other arms.

PS

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Other things being equal, a longer tonearm is always better, with one exception: linear tracking arms.

The reason you want a long conventional arm, or a linear tracker of any length, is to eliminate tracking error and therefore tracking distortion.

When a tonearm moves across a record, it does so in an arc, because the arm is fixed at a point that becomes the radius for arm motion across the record. Ideally, the tonearm would move in a straight line across the record. That isn’t possible, except in the case of the linear tracking arm, seen on decks like the Technics SL-10 for example.

For conventional arms, the stylus will scribe an arc across the record, the curvature of which is determined by the length of the arm. The longer the arm, the greater the radius, the gentler the arc and the lower the tracking error, and therefore distortion.

This is the single reason why many of the best tonearms are 12 inches long in the old money. Very good arms are usually 10 inches long or close to it and the standard length is around 9 inches. There are some excellent 9-inch arms, but this is about as short as you want to go before tracking error causes significant tracking distortion.

You’ll occasionally find turntables with short tonearms, mostly sold in department stores. I’ve worked on a few Gold Notes for example with 8-inch arms. Short arms allow for small turntables, but the compromises are too great and I strongly suggest you avoid anything with a less than 9-inch tonearm.

A very good question, with no simple answer, other than no, often they are not.

This varies due to many factors, but remastered records are often worse than early pressings, and very occasionally better.

Here’s what we know about analog recordings made on tape (as almost all analog recordings are): they offer the highest resolution, but deteriorate over time. The very best versions of the masters, mix-down masters, sub-masters and various analogs that make their way to the record pressing facilities are the ones made as close to when the original analog recordings were made.

What this means for records is that the early ones or those closest to the recording are often the best, all other things being equal. Better still, you want an early pressing from one of the first stampers made from the first mother – the moulds used to create the moulds used to press records. That’s because the moulds deteriorate every time they are used and the original master recording deteriorate from the moment they are made and every time they are played.

Add to this the fact that record plants, equipment, technicians and the people that operate the tape machines were all at their peak years ago, not right now, and the tendency for remasters to be produced too hot and you have a combination that renders modern remasters often disappointing. Don’t just take my word for it though, you can read more about this in many great articles online, like this good primer for example.

That being said, if you get the right album, remastered by the right engineer, in the right studio, with really good, intact analog masters as closely as possible to the originals, with good quality, clean vinyl that’s been well pressed, thick and flat, remasters can sometimes sound better than the originals, or at least as good. The problem is, there are not enough like this!

I don’t like either very much, but that being said, I’d generally recommend a good moving magnet cartridge over a cheap moving coil, for a variety of reasons.

If you have say around $500 to spend, and assuming you are chasing a medium compliance cartridge for a typical medium mass tonearm, there are lots of choices. Moving coil cartridges are technically better for a number of reasons, but at this low price point (yes, $500 is low priced for cartridges), moving coils are almost always high output types, of basic construction and generally don’t sound great. An exception is the venerable Denon DL-103, but it’s not suited to lower-mass arms.

Why? Cheap cartridges with aluminium cantilevers and spherical or elliptical styli don’t sound amazing, whatever the flavour. A nice moving magnet at this price probably has a better diamond, and better cantilever and is going to sound warmer, punchier and probably a little easier on the ear, even if it does lack resolution. There are no surprises here.

Much beyond $500, moving magnet cartridges don’t get a lot better because they are technically limited by the mass or inertia of the moving elements. Low-output moving coils start to come into their own at around the $750 mark. From here, the advantages of moving coils become critically important and this is why most cartridges I recommend from $750 are MC type. The equally legendary but better Audio Technica AT-OC9, in affordable XEN configuration is available at this price point and crushes most similarly priced MM carts.

This is why basically all high-end cartridges are coils. It’s also why all of my serious carts are and have been moving coils. listen to any good system and you’ll hear it, but it creates that age-old equipment problem of wanting to spend more and more money! Keep in mind though that you need an altogether better playback chain to get the most out of a low-output MC cart.

A classic rookie error involves listening to a good low-output MC cart on a phono preamp that isn’t good enough to extract the best out of these designs. You’ll never hear all that the low-output MC cart can do because of the limited resolution of the phono preamp. The best solution is a better preamp and/or high-quality step-up transformer.

Easy – either a good step-up transformer or the very best active MC gain stages.

Almost nothing does a better job of taking extraordinarily small signals from a moving coil cartridge and amplifying them than a step-up transformer, with maybe one exception, which we will get to.

A Perfect Match

Technically there’s a bit to know, but step-up transformers are good because they are completely passive, require no power and have no electronic or moving parts to degrade sonics or add noise.

They match the impedance of the cartridge to the input impedance of the next stage almost perfectly. They can also be chosen to provide a precise level of gain to suit the cartridge and following electronics.

These virtues combine to reveal a level of micro-dynamic detail and resolution you may have thought didn’t exist until auditioning a good step-up transformer in a high-resolution system.

When I got my first transformer, a Fidelity Research FRT-3, in about 2005, I was amazed. Moving to an end-game Fidelity Research XF-1 after some very good advice was the game changer for me, and I’ve used, recommended and supplied many transformers since.

Some of the best phono preamplifiers, such as my Cayin Phono 1, use transformers for their moving coil gain stages because they offer the best performance and lowest noise for sensible money.

Alternatives

Whilst good step-up transformers are ideal for most people in most cases, there are a few cases where alternatives should be considered.

If you have or have access to a really ‘S-tier’ all-active phono preamp, it’s worth comparing this to the best transformers. I recently acquired an end-game Accuphase preamplifier containing a phono preamplifier so good, that it’s actually better than a really good step-up transformer. Mind you, this preamp cost as much as a car when it was new and thousands of dollars even now, at 30 years of age!

In most systems, and for most people, a really good step-up transformer is the best option. But if you can afford an Accuphase C-47 phono preamplifier, this will be the best way forward.

Lost Knowledge

Knowledge and hands-on experience with step-up transformers is something of a lost art. Most people have never even seen a step-up transformer, let alone owned a few of them. They were common in high-end systems in the ’70s and ’80s though.

These days, many discover the almost mythic status of these devices, only to hit their favourite hi-fi store to ask about them and be met with blank stares! Many are left to find someone they can perhaps borrow a transformer from, before placing an order.

I offer this service to my customers who are looking to purchase something through me. The customer who purchased this beautiful Ortofon ST-70 step-up transformer did so before ordering. I had to order the SUT directly from Ortofon and the lead time was months. There wasn’t even one in Australia.

Pros & Cons

The pros:

• Lowest noise, typically the best impedance matching
• Greatest resolution and micro-dynamic detail, except for premium all-active stages
• No parts to wear out, near 100% reliability

The cons:

• More expensive to manufacture than cheap consumer-grade gear
• Requires careful matching and should involve a specialist
• Still needs an excellent MM phono preamp

Bottom Line

As mentioned, you’ll still need a really good MM/EQ pre, so you cannot get away from this completely. The first part of the chain is what the transformer replaces, doing at least 30dB of heavy lifting.

The very best MC step-up transformers are expensive, but once you’ve heard what one can do, it’s almost impossible to use anything else, other than the very best all-active electronic MC gain stages.

This is a really good question, variations of which I hear a lot. Let’s look at this in a little more detail as there’s a bit to unpack.

Alignment Basics

First up, cartridge alignment is a technical process, but a straightforward one, once you understand it. There’s not a lot of room for opinion on cartridge alignment. It’s all about understanding the geometry and how to accurately measure and set it.

I’ve written more about the key parameters involved in cartridge and tonearm set-up, so check that out too.

We need to clarify that there is only one factory-correct alignment and that’s the one made to factory specifications. Note: I’m not saying there is only one possible alignment, I’m saying there is only one factory-correct alignment. This concept needs to be very clearly understood, yet an astonishing number of folks who ought to know better, don’t.

The Rabbit Hole

Can you believe, for example, that there is a guy in Queensland who inhabits a certain well-known turntable forum and who tells people not to use Technics’ cartridge alignment geometry and tools because he knows better?! A colleague told me about this and I nearly choked on my coffee!

How these characters can do this whilst keeping a straight face is beyond me, but an inflated sense of self-importance drives this sort of thing. The real problem here, and one that I’ve been fighting for years, is that there are too many opinions and not enough real knowledge and science in the world of hi-fi. This is just an example.

Do randoms in forums know more about the turntables and their alignment than the turntable designers themselves? Is it sensible to trust this sort of armchair expertise over the manufacturer and original design engineers? If you even have to think about your answer, you need to stop and re-evaluate your position, seriously.

Manufacturer-Specified Alignments

So, what is a factory or manufacturer-specified alignment? A factory cartridge alignment is:

• An alignment done exactly as the tonearm/turntable manufacturer recommends
• Made to exact, recommended specifications
• Achieved using an originally supplied alignment tool, overhang gauge, or protractor, or one that accurately replicates the original design and/or measurement capability.

Factory alignment usually involves setting the correct overhang and/or cartridge offset at one or two null points. This is most often achieved by setting a stylus tip distance with respect to the headshell-arm junction, which is how Denon, Kenwood, Sony, Technics and many other manufacturers do it.

I typically use manufacturer-specified alignments and tools because the design engineers knew what they were doing and I like to honour those design decisions. In rare cases where the original set-up data and/or tools are not available, I’ll select (or make) an alignment tool appropriate for the job, based on the arm design, its specifications and experience aligning and calibrating thousands of turntables, tonearms and cartridges.

Alignment Confusion

Cartridge alignment involves setting the precise geometric and positional relationship of a cartridge in a tonearm. This ensures correct geometry as the stylus traverses the surface of a record. The stylus describes an arc of a precise radius as it moves, calculated to yield the best (or a particular) total area under the curve distortion result.

The factory-prescribed alignment is designed to generate the lowest distortion at a significant place on the record surface, often an outer track, or the inner grooves where distortion tends to be higher. Change the radius or this arc and/or angle of the cartridge, ie its alignment, not to mention tracking force, anti-skate and VTA, and you will change the result, and how the turntable sounds.

At this point, I need to mention that most owners aren’t the best people to be aligning cartridges. This is simply because it’s a technical process that requires some knowledge, tools and experience to complete successfully. If you want to have a go, by all means, do, but have this knowledge beforehand, so you can make an informed decision.

Generic vs Factory Alignments

When a cartridge is correctly factory aligned, it may appear misaligned when checked with any of the multitudes of cartridge protractors and alignment gauges available. If you align a cartridge with a Shure paper alignment gauge for example, when you check with a factory tool, the alignment will very likely appear wrong.

Why? Because those others are the wrong tools for the job. The simple answer is that each tool delivers a different alignment. Don’t expect five different alignment tools and methods to get you the same alignment because they won’t. It’s actually possible that none of them may be correct for your deck.

A generic paper gauge “designed for every turntable” (which is technically impossible) cannot render the correct factory-specified alignment for many turntables. Generic tools deliver generic alignments, approximations based on a ‘generic’ tonearm length, unspecified alignment geometry, mounting distance and type of alignment. A factory-supplied template, tool or protractor on the other hand is designed to give the precise alignment specified for your deck/arm.

An example some might better understand would be getting a car wheel alignment done using data from the wrong vehicle. This actually happened to me years ago when I took my car to a supposed wheel alignment specialist who actually had no idea what they were doing. My car’s wheels were technically ‘aligned’, just to the wrong specifications for my vehicle.

Generic protractors have a role to play in ‘quick and dirty’ alignments and work well in situations they were designed for, but there is no substitute for the correct factory alignment, tools, or a custom-made gauge specified with factory alignment parameters for your deck.

Multiple Alignment Syndrome

There are three common alignments – Baervald, Lofgren and Stevenson alignments – each yielding measurably different total ‘area under the curve’ distortion. Your arm will likely use one of these alignments. These alignments each sound different, some good, some not so good and random owner and retailer-made alignments can sound really bad!

Which alignment is correct in your case? The factory alignment is technically the correct alignment, as the designers intended. It is always best set with a factory gauge, protractor or tool, or a precisely calculated and printed arc-type protractor. Other alignments are possible as we’ve discussed, but in my opinion, it’s preferable to stick with the factory-specified alignment.

Now, it’s technically true that one can improve on some alignments, in certain circumstances, but this is definitely the tweaker’s territory. Some tonearm alignments are designed to perform best on 45s and on the inner grooves of 12-inch vinyl, where classical music crescendos often appear. Maybe you don’t listen to 45s or classical?

Is it worth deviating beyond factory recommendations for most users though? No. We’re interested in getting 99% of turntables working perfectly for 99% of owners. If someone tells you they know better, ask how many tonearms they’ve designed and how many thousands of turntables, cartridges and tonearms they’ve set up before you rush into making adjustments.

Summary

There’s a bit to consider before taking a screwdriver to your headshell. You need to know what the current alignment is and that means being able to measure it and interpret the result. You should never change things without a way to get back to where you started if needed.

• A cartridge must be correctly aligned for maximum performance
• Correct alignment mostly refers to the correct cartridge overhang and offset, but azimuth, VTA, tracking force and anti-skate must also be considered and set correctly as part of the set-up process.
• The best alignment in most cases is the factory/manufacturer-specified alignment, made with the correct tools.
• You should only change cartridge alignment if you understand everything so far and can accurately assess the current alignment and any changes made to it.

Need More Advice?

No problem, check out other FAQs, and reviews for more. For those needing more specific assistance, I offer an advisory service where I can provide you with factual information, rather than opinions and pseudoscience.

Learned something? If you appreciate FAQs like this one, you are welcome to shout me a drink 🍻

They most definitely do, everything in the signal path and attached to a transducer like a cartridge makes a difference, a big difference in some cases.

Materials and construction improve as one spends more on headshells, wires and mounting hardware. This translates to better detail retrieval and micro-resolution. Naturally, the higher the resolution of the system, the more apparent these differences will become.

Wire

I think that if you are spending decent money on a cartridge, you ought to put it on a really decent headshell, with premium wires and have it aligned correctly and meticulously. I’ve found headshell wiring to be especially important and currently use SME silver headshell wires. They are the best I’ve used, out of many sets of Litz, 99.9999.% pure copper, etc wires. Silver wire is generally a game changer wherever you use it, but it is very expensive.

Other wires work well too, like Ortofon’s silver wires, Jelco’s Litz wires and some Audio Technica wires. I supply basic sets of wires which work very well, through to high-end wires, whatever you might like to use with your deck.

Headshells

Headshells, fasteners and even the rubber gaskets at the headshell/tonearm interface are important and all of them contribute to the final result. I always suggest using the very best headshell you can afford and making sure that it matches the mass of the tonearm and the range of cart/headshell weight that your arm can support.

Advice

Naturally, what ties this all together is the right advice, so getting this is critical. All too often, I see and hear about the nonsense that leads to terrible-sounding setups, so I am on a mission to move away from that. Many turntables are hobbled by poor cartridge-tonearm matching, poor headshell, wires and fasteners, and of course poor setup and calibration.

Cartridge-tonearm matching is very important!

In fact, the match is so critical that improperly matched elements can lead to a dangerous condition that can damage vinyl and even potentially break a cartridge.

Without getting too technical, as a cartridge mounted to a radially tracking tonearm moves across the record, playback distortion characteristics change with changing tracking error.

Generally, the highest distortion is found playing the innermost grooves of a record. There will be two points with the lowest distortion, where the radial arc traced by the arm intersects a radius from the centre of the record. On either side of those two points, distortion will rapidly increase.

What you may not know is that certain stylus profiles and cartridge alignments minimise inner groove distortion. In fact, you can ask me to specifically align your cartridge so that it minimises inner groove distortion, though I generally recommend using the manufacturer’s specified alignment in most cases.

Note that linear tracking tonearms don’t suffer from this positionally variable distortion as they don’t trace an arc as they move across the record surface. This is a key benefit of linear tracking arms. It’s also why longer tonearms are preferable. The arc they trace has a greater radius and is, therefore, closer to a straight line, leading to lower variation in distortion across the record.

A number of critical adjustments must be made each time a cartridge is fitted to a tonearm.

These adjustments are vitally important in getting the most out of your records and stylus. Let’s look at them in the order I normally set them, this is a sequence I apply to all turntables that visit the workshop.

Note: most end users and many retailers don’t have the necessary alignment tools or knowledge to correctly set up cartridges. This is not a judgment, merely an observation and something to be considered if you wish to extract the highest possible performance.

Cartridge alignment can be thought of as optimising two sets of parameters: geometry and forces at the stylus tip.

Geometry

The first adjustment is called overhang, which describes the location of the stylus tip with respect to the tonearm mounting point and the spindle. This specification is provided by the tonearm manufacturer and measured, on deck, with either a headshell gauge or an on-platter overhang gauge.

Next is the cartridge offset angle when viewed from above. This is usually specified as correct when the cartridge body, and/or cantilever, are parallel with the headshell’s long axis when the correct overhang has been set.

Azimuth describes the parallel alignment of the cartridge with respect to the record surface when viewed from the front. This is typically measured with a mirror under the stylus, viewed from the front.

Vertical tracking angle or VTA affects the angle of the stylus contact point with respect to the record surface. It can be thought of as approximating the angle between the cantilever and the record surface. It’s usually measured with a VTA gauge and set initially so that the headshell top surface is parallel with the record surface when viewed from the side. This is the starting point and adjustment from there is by ear.

Forces

Lateral balance is a feature offered on some tonearms and should be set at or around this point in the process.

Tracking force, which describes the downforce at the stylus tip. This is typically measured with a digital stylus ‘pressure’ gauge. Note that this isn’t technically a pressure measurement, the common name is incorrect, strictly speaking!

Lastly, anti-skate is a counterforce to the asymmetrical forces that pull the stylus tip toward the centre of the record and place added force on the inner groove wall. It is set to counteract that force as closely as possible.

There is some iteration in the set-up process and I generally go back and check everything again as some adjustments will slightly affect others.

No, a good quality, correctly set up vinyl playback system should be very quiet and exhibit no noticeable hum.

What is Hum?

The term ‘hum’ describes repetitive low-frequency tones of a constant frequency or pitch, usually 50/60Hz or 100/120Hz. Hum can be mechanical or electrical in origin and usually indicates a problem in the playback system. Whatever the origin, wherever possible, hum should be tracked down to the source and eliminated.

Electrical Hum

Bad earths or grounds commonly cause electrical hum, especially in vinyl playback systems. This is due to their high sensitivity and gain which takes tiny signals like hum and amplifies it to the point where can become a problem. The turntable/pre-amp/amplifier combination must be effectively grounded together and at least one piece ground-referenced, to ensure a quiet system.

Ground loops occur where two elements in the playback chain reference different grounds and therefore sit at slightly different potentials. This causes small currents to flow between them which are heard as hum. Bad cables can play a part here, as some do not have an effective ground linking both ends of the cable structure.

Mechanical Hum

Mechanical hum can originate from turntable motors and mains transformers. The hum from both of these sources can often be resolved with the right attention and some new parts, with specific attention paid to damping and isolation.

Cheap phono preamps, cartridges and cables will always be noisier than good ones and active preamps will always be noisier than transformers. An English brand of turntables that shall remain nameless opts to not use a separate headshell/arm ground. These decks are generally always a little noisier than similar turntables with a better, separated ground. Equipment type, set-up and installation can all contribute to hum.

Feedback

Mechanical vibration from the turntable itself or from other equipment can be coupled through a turntable, back into speakers, creating what’s called a positive feedback loop. These loops can occur through shelving for example shared by speakers and turntables, wooden floors and other resonant structures.

In these cases, the hum makes its way to the speakers, which energises the turntable, arm, and record and it is then fed back into the signal chain and further amplified. Positive feedback loops can very quickly go out of control and destroy speakers and even amplifiers, so if you have a hum that appears to be coupled through your turntable, resolve it or seek expert help immediately!

Rumble

A turntable’s spindle and/or motor bearing will also contribute low-frequency noise. This is broader spectrum LF noise, rather than monotonic hum and is called rumble. The cheaper the turntable, the poorer the mechanical quality and greater the tolerances and roughness of these bearings, and therefore the ‘rumblier’ these decks will be!

Quiet

In really good and well-set-up vinyl playback systems such as my reference system here at Liquid Audio, there is no audible hum. I don’t just mean a little, I mean NONE! The predominant noise in systems like this is groove noise, a residual component of the cutting lathe, and of the friction between the stylus and the groove itself. Some white noise from the amplification is present in all systems, but hum is absent in the best systems.

Customers curious about how quiet a really good vinyl playback system can be should let me know. There’s a chance you can listen to my set-up if I’m not too busy.

NOOOO! Not if you care about sound quality and the life of your vinyl.

Radiograms and stereograms, with a handful of exceptions, are not real hi-fi equipment. They are furniture pieces that play music, this was their original design intent and in this role, they work well, but don’t expect more of them.

The problems are varied, but generally speaking the turntables in these units range from bad to terrible. They usually use ceramic cartridges that run very high tracking forces and fat, conical stylii that don’t treat records well.

The electronics and speakers are not designed to do much more than fill the room with an ‘easy listening’ sound, typical of AM radio stations of the day. If this is your jam, cool, but you really shouldn’t play precious vinyl on a radiogram or stereogram.

Doing so is a recipe for poor sound quality and high record wear, so if you have precious vinyl, get yourself a decent hi-fi turntable with an elliptical stylus, or better. The reduced tracking force and lower groove wall pressure will extend the life of your records and produce much better sound quality when combined with a decent amplifier and speakers.

Yes, it’s a critically important part of the chain, just as important as the turntable itself.

Cartridges are transducers, like microphones, headphones and speakers. You probably already know how much these contribute to the sound you hear. These tiny little transducers are doing incredible work, converting groove modulations into movement via the stylus and cantilever, and then into tiny electrical signals, via magnets and wire. These must then be amplified, and that’s another story.

This work requires a staggering level of precision and materials engineering to achieve the best results. That’s why my Ortofon MC-A90 for example is so bloody expensive! You get what you pay for with anything that relies on precision and expensive materials. The cost vs. performance correlation is fairly linear; the more you pay, the better the results, predictably.

Cartridges can cost anything from $10 to $10 000 and their sonic performance varies from unlistenable to sublime. Spend as much as you can on a good cartridge. It’s a big part of the sound of a turntable, and better cartridges will last anywhere from 1000 – 2000 hours, compared to just 200 – 500 hours for a cheapy.

A good cartridge will also preserve your vinyl by causing much less record wear. The larger contact area of a Shibata or line-contact diamond exerts much lower pressure on the vinyl, at the interface between the stylus and groove. This causes less heat and therefore less wear.

There isn’t one best turntable, just the best one you can afford.

All the really good machines are heavy, for various engineering reasons. Therefore, aim for something solid, well built, preferably costing over $1000AUD new if you want a good first turntable. Alternatively, you’ll get better performance in almost all cases from a second-hand classic turntable from the 1970s and ’80s.

Remember, for many years, vinyl was the highest resolution source that most hi-fi lovers had easy access to. One could argue this still is the case. This is important because the golden age of vinyl and record players was the ’70s and ’80s, so that’s when some of the greatest machines were made.

There is a long-standing myth amongst some circles that belt-drive is inherently superior in some way. It isn’t.

The TLDR here is that the drive method is only one of many factors determining turntable performance. If we only look at that element, direct drive has many advantages, but as you’ll see, a turntable is the sum of many parts. As always, only the facts matter, opinions are superfluous, hence you’ll not find them here.

Science (Myths vs Facts)

This notion is perpetuated by technically uninformed mainstream media and end-users, and fuelled by the general desire to support small manufacturers, many of whom are ‘friends’. A general lack of experience with true high-end turntables on the part of many only compounds the misinformation you’ll find regurgitated in forums and elsewhere.

I should point out that, as a scientist by training, I don’t care which method is superior. The scientific process carries with it no inherent bias in any direction, only a desire for the truth, and that’s how I approach my work. That’s why I own high-end belt-drive and direct-drive turntables. They are both incredibly good decks.

One critically important goal of any good turntable is to spin the platter as close to the perfect speed as possible, with as little variation and vibration as possible. Belt-drive offers no inherent advantages in any of these areas and disadvantages in most implementations.

The best performers by these metrics are direct-drive turntables. This is science and the data is measurable. That being said, there are exceptional belt-drive and direct-drive turntables. I’m lucky enough to own an end-game example of each and I can confirm that the drive method is not the most important factor to consider.

Costs

Design and manufacturing costs are the overriding reason why you don’t see many new direct-drive machines these days. It’s cheaper to make decent belt-drive turntables and this is why most affordable decks tend to be belt-driven. This suits small manufacturers who can build a belt-drive turntable using readily available, low-cost motors. It also suits the buying public who generally don’t want to spend $20K USD on a turntable, hence the preponderance of good reviews of cheap belt-drive machines.

Direct-drive machines are much more expensive to design and manufacture, but direct-drive has advantages in terms of torque and speed consistency, so where cost is no object, you’ll generally find direct-drive. The performance advantages of direct-drive systems explain why some of the best and most expensive turntables, tape machines and cutting lathes utilise direct-drive. That being said, there are some killer, high-end belt-drive turntables too.

The bottom line of course is that you get what you pay for. A good turntable, no matter what the drive method, is expensive, like all good things.

Highest-Tier Use Cases

As I mentioned, most of your records were recorded, mastered and cut on direct-drive tape machines and cutting lathes. A) Did you know that? and B) Have you thought about why that is? More than anything else I can tell you, this dispels the misinformation about which drive type is preferable. Just think about it: people far smarter than you or I choose what’s best in cost-no-object scenarios. Record-cutting lathes ARE direct-drive

Superior methods are always used where performance is critical and cost is no option. This truth explains why many of the great turntables are direct-drive and why those machines are so highly sought after.

Many belt-drive lovers get snakey when these facts are pointed out, but most have never owned or even listened to a high-end machine like an L-07D or SP-10/SL-1000. My perspective, having worked on and listened to thousands of turntables over the years is this: show me an excellent turntable and I’ll use it, belt, idler or direct-drive. My current working reference is a belt-drive Luxman (Micro) PD-350. It’s a phenomenal turntable. My best turntable is my direct-drive Kenwood L-07D though.

Sum of the Parts

As I’ve mentioned in other FAQs, the totality of the performance of a piece of equipment is rarely defined by just one aspect of it. This is certainly true with turntables where the drive method is rarely the defining factor in turntable performance, but an element of it. One must look at all factors, including drive method, chassis construction, platter and tonearm mass and design when evaluating a turntable. Great turntables come in various flavours, belt-drive and direct-drive. You need to choose which aspects of the design and performance matter most, to you!

Ah yes, the record store guy, who paradoxically often knows very little about how to get the best out of records!

Record store guys know more about records and less about turntables. This isn’t a judgement, it’s just a statement of fact. You DO care about how your records sound, so we move on to more reliable sources of information.

There are excellent belt-drive and direct-drive turntables, it’s not the drive method alone that determines system performance. Unfortunately, most people aren’t interested in the technical details, nor have they been exposed to the range of equipment necessary to form a valid opinion on this, but some of us are and have.

How many record store guys do you think have listened to an SL-1000, PD-350 or L-07D for example, let alone owned one of these grail machines? Simply put, most people will never hear an end-game turntable and this lack of experience and knowledge lies at the heart of rumours and misinformation everywhere.

As we always say here at Liquid Audio: knowledge is power. You want the truth? Speak to someone who actually knows it, from personal experience owning and using these grail turntables!

No, not at all. I dislike overpriced, underperforming turntables. Most of them are newer belt-drive decks.

There are many amazing belt-drive turntables and one of my two reference decks is a golden-age, end-game Luxman PD-350 (ie Micro Seiki) belt-drive turntable. Yes, the other is a direct-drive machine, but I wouldn’t use or own the PD-350 if I didn’t like it, trust me on this!

That being said, the Luxman PD-350 isn’t your regular belt-drive turntable and this is important. Good belt-drive decks are excellent, but many are ordinary and far surpassed by direct-drive machines. Far too many people have spent far too long reading about hi-fi rather than experiencing it and as a result, have no clue about what’s actually good.

I really enjoy the simplicity and honesty of the lower and older Rega Planar machines. I love decks like the PL-514, SL-23 and KD-2055, just to name a few. What I don’t like is bad turntables, no matter how their platters are driven. This especially extends to overpriced underperformers and unfortunately, most of those are belt-driven, many from the famous brands you’d be familiar with…

Ultimately, moving coil, but it depends on how much you have to spend. If your limit is $150, a moving magnet is all you’ve got baby!

That isn’t to say there aren’t some great moving magnet cartridges, especially vintage models. Rather, the best solution – technically – is the moving coil design, because of its reduced moving mass and therefore greater linearity and micro-dynamic accuracy.

Lower mass means lower inertia and therefore better transient response and high-frequency performance. All of that translates to better dynamics, detail, lower distortion and more of that elusive ‘air’. I’ve written quite a bit about this here.

Marketing departments everywhere have tried to convince people that lower-cost moving magnets are “as good” or “nearly as good” as moving coils, but the fact that they even need to try to convince people of this tells you something. They still have these inherent design limitations and speaking from experience, they simply aren’t as good.

Because coils are technically better, manufacturers also tend to spend more on these designs, using better diamonds, more expensive boron or even diamond cantilevers and better coil wire. This means you can spend a ton on a good MC cartridge, but remember that a really good moving magnet cartridge will be better than a cheap moving coil. You get what you pay for.

The caveat here is that because moving coil designs generally have much lower outputs, you need higher quality electronics and even a step-up transformer to get the most from them. People who audition really good MC carts in systems limited by a basic phono preamp might say something like “it didn’t sound that good” or similar.

Don’t expect a really good moving coil cartridge to sound its best on a built-in or cheap external phono preamp. You’ll need a step-up transformer to get the most from a moving coil cartridge.