Turn Table Talk

Well I decided to upgrade my stock DL-110 cart to a ZuAudio DL-Zu-103. Its a Denon DL-103 modified by Zu Audio.

I might be doing something wrong and need some TT guys to help me set it up. It is a MC cart like the 110 so I did not make any changes to the Pro-Ject phono preamp. When setup this way it has very low output/gain. With the sunfire cranked wide open its just barely at listening level.

Maybe I need to look at putting ohm jumpers on the back of the phono preamp?? Brian?? I can switch the phono pre to MM and it picks up lots of gain....really too much. Maybe It has such a lowered noise floor Im just not used to it...lol

Next issue. There is a twist dial on the rear of the tone arm. It is graduated 0.0/0.1/0.2/0.3 etc. Is this .1 gram increments or 1 whole gram increments.

PROBABLY .1 gram increments, but they are all different.

MC should be set to Moving Coil input.

cannot remember what the output mv of the cart is,, you may need a step up,,i am not familar with your pre-- but when I had my 103 I did have to use the sut-- good luck--let us know.

http://www.project-audio.com/inhalt/en/ ... boxusb.pdf

is this what you have?

Thats close, mine is the Tube Box SEII.

Well I decided to upgrade my stock DL-110 cart to a ZuAudio DL-Zu-103. Its a Denon DL-103 modified by Zu Audio.

I might be doing something wrong and need some TT guys to help me set it up. It is a MC cart like the 110 so I did not make any changes to the Pro-Ject phono preamp. When setup this way it has very low output/gain. With the sunfire cranked wide open its just barely at listening level.

Eric.

I hate to inform you, that your Denon DL110 is a HIGH OUTPUT MC, that is normally run on the MM settings. The output is 1.6mv.
If you have been running it on the MC setting, and I think thats how I set it up for you, you have been giving it an extra 20db gain.

The Denon DL103 is a true low output MC 0.3mv, so your phono box should be set for a MC set up with a load Impedance of 100 ohm (the jumpers on the back) with a tracking force of 2.3 to 2.5 gram
for the DL110 you should have your phono box set on MM with the Load Impedance set at 47K ohm with a tracking force of 1.8 gram

While I had your phono box at my house, I did try it out on a system that has a Denon DL103R on it and I had no problems with the volume.
What tubes are you running in you phono box, are they 12AX7 or a variant that has lower gain.

hope you solve you problem.

Brian

OK disreguard alot of things I said in my first post. You are correct Brian, you had me setup on MM and no jumpers with the DL-110.

I am now correctly setup for the 103 with MC setting and 2.3 grams tracking force, all I need now is to find those darned little jumpers and install them for 100 ohm.

Will it hurt anything to run as above without the 100 ohm jumpers?

Found the jumpers...cant believe I found them, but I did.

Everything sounding real nice, thanks for the help!

Congratulations Eric! I love a success story!

Found the jumpers...cant believe I found them, but I did.

Everything sounding real nice, thanks for the help!

Eric

Real glad you sorted it out, is nice to have buddies.
BTW. if you can return the DL-103, do your self a BIG favour and get the DL-103R

Brian

Another success story courtesy of Carver...YEAH!!!! ...P.S....and good people!

Such great help guys! Good to hear you got that little problem whipped Eric! Enjoy the vinyl

MRHP -The DL-110 just gave you a little "taste" of MC.....phono cart's are much like tubes, throw money at it (increasingly better quality)and watch your system grow "sweeter"!

MRHP -The DL-110 just gave you a little "taste" of MC.....phono cart's are much like tubes, throw money at it (increasingly better quality)and watch your system grow "sweeter"!

Once again Dan is correct. There are so many cartridges out there it will make your head spin. Research well and check with your buddies but before you drop big bucks.

I already have tube fever, the last thing I need is cart fever

Thanks to everybody for the help, its good to have friends who know what they are doing!

Well here is my quick review of the new cart. A little too dark at first but after some run time it lit right up. It has a nice warm musical sound and I hear aluminum is supposed to sound that way where wood has more detail. The detail is there but this cart has more of a want to shuck and jive. Somehow it seems to put focus on rythm and melodies. Also noticed there is less scratching and poping annoyance. I like it.

Here are a couple pics.

The underside is exposed.

DSC03839.JPG (59.34 KiB) Viewed 566 times

Quite heavy at 14 grams.

DSC03842.JPG (59.08 KiB) Viewed 566 times