The Vinyl Anachronist: Stepping Into the Light

By Marc Phillips

June 2008



Zu DL-103 – a reworking of the classic Denon cartridge

I've owned my Technics SL1200 for close to a year now, and I honestly have to admit that I've put less than 50 hours on it. I had all these grand ideas of tweaking it to perfection and turning into a 'table that even I could love, but every time I put it into my system, I can't wait to get it out. To my ears, the 1200 is one dark, lifeless sounding 'table, and even though I took a drubbing from the so-called 1200 Army over the last couple of years for being biased against it, I have to admit that up until now, owning one has not changed my opinion of it one bit.

I've been told, however, that there are three distinct ways to elevate the performance of the 1200, which is the best-selling turntable of all time (over 3 million have been sold since its introduction in 1972). First, you can employ a series of mods from KAB Electro Acoustics, including fluid dampers, new rubber feet and tonearm wiring. Many fans of the 1200 swear by the KAB mods. Second, you can replace the tonearm. Many people feel that the stock arm is the weak link in the 1200, and by replacing it with a Rega RB-250 or an SME 3009, you can make the 1200 more competitive with the some of the better belt-drive designs.

Finally, you can throw a killer cartridge on the 1200. Last year, I was able to hear an SL-1210MK5SE with an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B cartridge, and was mildly pleased with the results. It may not make sense to put a $1200 cartridge on a $500 turntable, this does prove to some extent that the 1200 is a better platform than I previously believed. I achieved a big improvement on my 1200 by replacing the Ortofon OM-10 that came with it with the new Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge, which wound up alleviating about 50% of the darkness and compression. In other words, the 2M was a step in the right direction, but I still wasn't convinced.

It's Zu to the rescue!

I think I may have finally found the perfect cartridge for the Technics SL-1200, and it comes from a very unlikely source. Zu Audio, makers of the fabulous Druid speaker (which I previously reviewed for AudioEnz a couple of years ago), have expanded their product line to include a wonderful new cartridge which is basically a modded version of the venerable Denon DL-103. Zu has taken the Denon and removed the plastic body, substituting an amazing-looking aluminum housing that makes this cartridge look more like a $4000 cartridge than a $400 one. That's right, Zu charges only US$400 for their DL-103, which isn't that much more than a stock Denon.

There are some caveats to strapping the Zu DL-103 onto your 1200. First of all, the 103s are low-output moving coils, and I suspect that many 1200 owners may not have a phono stage that will handle 0.3 mV. So while you're buying cartridge that sounds absolutely incredible for the money, you may have to lay down a bit more green to everything rolling. Secondly, the Zu is heavy at 13.6 grams, and you'll find that you have to move the counterweight on the stock 1200 arm almost all of the way back to achieve the rather heavy 2.3 to 2.8 recommended tracking force. You might want to consider a heavier counterweight (or one of those little discs that some 1200 owners stick at the back end of their tonearms) for a little piece of mind.

Hold onto your seats...

So what does this cartridge do for the 1200? Well, it removes even more of that dark, compressed 1200 sound that vexes me so. It's like someone took that nifty little pop-up light next to the platter and turned it into a spotlight. The Zu DL-103 gives the 1200 an air and a delicacy that it previously lacked. Individual instruments are fleshed out and seem to occupy more realistic spaces within the soundstage. I've always had reservations about the overall size of the 1200 soundstage, that everything always seemed to be a ¾ scale of the real thing. The DL-103 helped the 1200 to open up and fill my listening room with a more realistic presentation.

More than anything else, I simply felt that the 1200 was more fun with the Zu installed. That's why I've also been so hard on the 1200... it's a chore to listen to at times. Now, I think the 1200 is more competitive with other 'tables in its price range. No, I'm not saying that the 1200/DL-103 combination is as good as a Rega. But if I was trying to decide between a Rega P2 with a Bias cartridge and the Technics mated with the Zu, I'd go with the latter in a heartbeat, much to my surprise.

I can't resist...

I think this experience says more about the Zu cartridge than the 1200. My first instinct is to try the Zu on a Rega P2 or, even better, a new P3-24. I know that many Rega users are starting to mount the stock Denon 103s on the ends of their RB-300 tonearms with excellent results. Something tells me that the Zu will soon replace the Dynavector 10X5 as THE cartridge of choice for P3s.

So yes, I still believe that the Rega P2 and P3 are better-sounding turntables...by far. But it's nice to know that you can extract this kind of performance from the SL-1200. It's left me wondering about how the KAB mods would take this performance even further, or what would happen if I did replace the stock arm with an RB-250.

In other words, I have a feeling this 1200 experiment is going to take years!

Marc Phillips has been writing about hi-fi and music under the Vinyl Anachronist banner since 1998. His earlier columns can be found on the Perfect Sound Forever website. You can discuss vinyl with Marc at Vinylanach@aol.com

Have your say!

Tell us what you think about this article. Email your comments.

Talk about this article on the AudioEnz Forums.