I feel really lucky, proud and excited at the same time while writing this for the reason that, I had never imagined that I would be writing about servicing (complete refurbising) of my beloved Denon DL-103 cartridge, which I have constantly been using since last many years, and I have many of them, including a Paradox Pulse aluminum body, and a 103R.
I had an earlier experience of retipping which is not worth mentioning about.
I had a NOS DL-103 which was decades old (probably had alnico magnets) and unused, around three years back I installed it and it sounded beautiful but accidently I broke the cantilever, and lost the broken part.
When I removed the broken cartridge, I noticed that the plastic body had got seperated, may be the glue dried over the years, the coil leads were visible.
Another cartridge a DL-104 (yes, 104), very few people know about it, it was a Japan only mono cartridge built for broadcast, with 6 gms tracking force and 20ohm internal resistance. When I installed it, I noticed the cantilever had a sag looked like the suspension was probably disintegrated.
Around a year back, I got to know that someone in Nagpur is working on developing a moving coil cartridge, It was really exciting to know, I called the gentleman - Mr Sacheen Mahurkar, he is an Engineer by qualification and works in a reputed IT company, he sounded very humble and told me everything about what he is doing as a hobby and it sounded really surprising that he is winding coils for MC carts, and experimenting with making his own cartridges, I asked him how did he get into all this, he shared the story that one day he broke his cartridge and that led him to do this, according to me this work is not for the faint hearted people, I really got impressed hearing this.
One day when I saw both the cartridges lying in the box, it struck me that I could ask Sacheen if he could do anything about them, I called him and he told me to send the cartridges and he would check them.
After inspecting Sacheen told me for DL-103, one of the coil is bad, and along with a new cantilever and stylus new coils also need to be wound installed, for the mono 104, he told me he would fix it quickly and send back.
He sent me back the mono cartridge within a week, which I installed and played, it sounded amazing, first time I heard a mono cartridge and you need to hear it to understand what a mono cartridge does with mono records playback.
After month or so he sent me the other one as well, with new 6N pure copper coils, an aluminum cantilever and elliptical stylus, coil resistance 9 ohm, and tracking force of 2 gms. I was surprised that all this is done in India.
Meanwhile Sacheen had shared a couple of videos of the cart playing, and it sounded pretty good, however I had thought it would sound different than DL-103.
Once I received the cartridge, I installed it and for next few minutes I sat in surprise and disbelief, as I was finding myself hard pressed to identify the differences from the Denon tonal qualities, what I figured out that it has the same character of the Denon, sounds a bit more open and detailed with absolute clean vocals, and wonderful tracking capabilities, and musically very engaging.
More I listened to it, the more I appreciated it and the workmanship behind it.
I feel really happy to see this level of passion and dedication for a hobby from someone from our own country.
A few audio samples of the cartilage in action:
Thank you Mr Sacheen, I really
appreciate your work!
Thanks for reading & Happy listening
-sann
I had an earlier experience of retipping which is not worth mentioning about.
I had a NOS DL-103 which was decades old (probably had alnico magnets) and unused, around three years back I installed it and it sounded beautiful but accidently I broke the cantilever, and lost the broken part.
When I removed the broken cartridge, I noticed that the plastic body had got seperated, may be the glue dried over the years, the coil leads were visible.
Another cartridge a DL-104 (yes, 104), very few people know about it, it was a Japan only mono cartridge built for broadcast, with 6 gms tracking force and 20ohm internal resistance. When I installed it, I noticed the cantilever had a sag looked like the suspension was probably disintegrated.
Around a year back, I got to know that someone in Nagpur is working on developing a moving coil cartridge, It was really exciting to know, I called the gentleman - Mr Sacheen Mahurkar, he is an Engineer by qualification and works in a reputed IT company, he sounded very humble and told me everything about what he is doing as a hobby and it sounded really surprising that he is winding coils for MC carts, and experimenting with making his own cartridges, I asked him how did he get into all this, he shared the story that one day he broke his cartridge and that led him to do this, according to me this work is not for the faint hearted people, I really got impressed hearing this.
One day when I saw both the cartridges lying in the box, it struck me that I could ask Sacheen if he could do anything about them, I called him and he told me to send the cartridges and he would check them.
After inspecting Sacheen told me for DL-103, one of the coil is bad, and along with a new cantilever and stylus new coils also need to be wound installed, for the mono 104, he told me he would fix it quickly and send back.
He sent me back the mono cartridge within a week, which I installed and played, it sounded amazing, first time I heard a mono cartridge and you need to hear it to understand what a mono cartridge does with mono records playback.
After month or so he sent me the other one as well, with new 6N pure copper coils, an aluminum cantilever and elliptical stylus, coil resistance 9 ohm, and tracking force of 2 gms. I was surprised that all this is done in India.
Meanwhile Sacheen had shared a couple of videos of the cart playing, and it sounded pretty good, however I had thought it would sound different than DL-103.
Once I received the cartridge, I installed it and for next few minutes I sat in surprise and disbelief, as I was finding myself hard pressed to identify the differences from the Denon tonal qualities, what I figured out that it has the same character of the Denon, sounds a bit more open and detailed with absolute clean vocals, and wonderful tracking capabilities, and musically very engaging.
More I listened to it, the more I appreciated it and the workmanship behind it.
I feel really happy to see this level of passion and dedication for a hobby from someone from our own country.
A few audio samples of the cartilage in action:
Thank you Mr Sacheen, I really
appreciate your work!
Thanks for reading & Happy listening
-sann
