Thread: Denon 103 Pro and his step up

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27-03-2009, 12:45 #11
Marco

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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

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I've not heard anything better *so far* than the A23 and HA-500 with any 103 - 'R' , 'Pro' and 'SA' included, but I'm expecting great things from Dave's SUT when it's born

One I've not heard is Denon's own AU-S1, but I'd imagine it's quite similar in balance to the HA-500 head amp. A future project is to upgrade the HA-500 with high-grade modern caps, resistors, etc, and the PSU to something beefier in a separate case, all of which I'm sure will improve its performance further.

To be honest, I'd be very surprised if the AU-S1 is better than the A23, given the latter's 'provenance', but you know me, I might import one some day just to find out

Marco.

Main System

Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & regulator mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat with Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight. Isonoe feet & boots. Ortofon RS-212D tonearm with Denon DL-103GL, in a Denon PCL-300 headshell, fitted with Funk Firm Houdini and Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp and Denon AU-310 SUT.

Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp, fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.

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