Analog Gear News

We’ve always been fans of fruitful collaborative partnerships, so we’re happy to see Denon and Devon Turnbull of OJAS have joined forces to produce the limited-edition Denon DL-103o moving-coil cartridge.

As many of you probably know, the Denon DL-103 cartridge has been a mainstay in our analog universe for 60-plus years. Originally designed for professional broadcast use in 1962, the DL-103 has remained a longstanding staple of the company’s cartridge line, with its current iteration being the DL-103R.

Carrying on with that tradition, the limited-edition DL-103o MC cart is built by Denon and styled by the above-noted audio innovator/upstart Turnbull (a.k.a. OJAS). According to Denon, Turnbull wanted to “create a special edition of the legendary cartridge, [and] he knew he didn’t want to change its sound. Instead, he styled the exclusive special-edition DL-103o with a transparent casing that reveals the artistry inside.”

Turnbull’s clear-casing design for the DL-103o provides direct insight into the cartridge’s inner workings. Don’t just take our word for it — see what Turnbull himself has to say about the making of the DL-103o in the official YouTube clip below.

In general, Denon MC carts feature a low-mass design and stylus assembly. The DL-103o offers a conical tip, its fine-gauge 99.9999% pure 6N copper wire coils are hand-wound “with precision” to the cantilever shaft, and the stylus itself is 0.2mm square solid diamond.

Specs for the DL-103o cart are as follows. Output voltage is given as 0.25mV (1kHz, 50mm/s horizontal direction), channel balance as 1dB max (1kHz), channel separation as 25dB min (1kHz), frequency range as 20 to 45,000Hz, electrical impedance as 14ohms ±20%, load impedance as 100ohms min (40ohms when using a transformer), tracking force as 25mn ±3mn (2.5g ±0.3g), and its weight is 8.5g (0.3oz).

Finally, the Denon DL-103o limited-edition MC cartridge has an SRP of $549. In comparison, the current cart in this line, the aforementioned DL-103R, has an SRP of $499.

For more about Denon, go here.
To order a Denon DL-103o MC cart direct, go here