Hi Stephen,

Quote Originally Posted by worrasf View Post
The NWA 103 was very detailed with a lovely mid range and tracked great - musical presentation was “effortless” but for all that it lacked a certain “presence” and sounded a little “thin and recessed” - no matter how I played with the setup and SUT’s (didn’t have the AU-S1 then) I couldn’t “flesh it out” to the sound I was after.
Indeed, and that's the problem with fitting a fine-line stylus to a 103, as whilst detail retrieval is increased and distortion lowered, you lose 'body' from the sound and some of that rather infectious 'phat-bass authority', which provides the foundation for it to boogie like a bastard!

Essentially, fitting a fine-line stylus 'sanitises' the sound too much, diluting the 103's renowned fun-factor in the process, and robbing it of some bass weight. In that respect, an AU-S1 would've solved little, as the 'damage' has been done earlier in the chain.

The S1 changed all that. It does everything the NWA did but sounds so much bigger and more lifelike. There’s no doubt the AU-S1 brings out the best in it particularly with better/faster bass and detail yet it still has the sort of presentation you could listen to for extended periods without fatigue.
You'll get zero listening fatigue with a DL-S1, simply because its balance has been so well judged, therefore it can extract all the detail from recordings, whilst sounding very spacious and open at the top end, and in that respect perform like a truly high-end MC, but without ever sounding 'etched' or analytical.

One of the main things responsible for its addictive musical sound is the use of high-purity gold wire (mixed with 6N copper) in the coil windings, similar to that found in the DL-103GL (Gold Limited), but there are other important aspects to the design of the DL-S1, such as the construction of the 'special elliptical' stylus, which behaves in a similar way to a fine-line, but without its disadvantages (such as you've outlined).

It really is a fabulous thing, which has been very cleverly engineered by a company with the knowledge and wherewithal to make truly great cartridges at sane prices, and I'm so glad that I bagged one before they were discontinued!

Regarding antiskate I’m following the Soundsmith approach and setting so the stylus ever so slowly drifts inwards when “playing” grooveless vinyl. With all other carts I’ve used this usually translated to anti skate between 1.5 & 2.5 but with the S1 it’s about 0.5. It tracks the HFN disc with ease. No issues with the cantilever.
As long as all is well, that's cool.

The SUT is stunning - built like a battleship. There are regularly a few on eBay (I got mine from Samurai electronics in Japan - reasonable price but the import duty stings
Yeah, I've bought stuff from Samurai before, and he's excellent. I know how good the AU-S1 is, so will no doubt treat myself to one at some point soon. My reluctance up until now is because I've gone down the head amp route in recent times, with great success, but it might be time to add a top-notch SUT to the equation that I know is specifically designed to optimise the DL-S1, which is what employing the use of an SUT is all about!

Marco.