Denon 103 with a twist

[REM]

Sounds good!
What does it sound like with 'The Atomic Mr Basie' Ralph, have you tried?

Chris, this cartridge could have been made for the Count, it swings like the most swinginest thing ever made and the tonal colours from all the horns are just so vivid, you need shades to listen to this thing

The weird thing is, all afternoon as a record comes to the end I keep thinking, right now for some whatever, it's as though it's telling me what to play next, right after trying out the Basie something told me to play Dusty in Memphis, absolutely perfect, the two albums just complimented each other so well, I would never really thought of that until now, spooky.

There really is something very special about the Zu.

[Barry]

Well well, how about this for a bit of serendipity, as I read this post at around 11 this morning there was a knock on the door and there was a nice Parcel Force lady with my nearly new (50 hours) Zu 103 Grade 1 that I picked up from eBay on Tues!

On it went and although still very much first impressions to say I'm blown away is such an understatement, this thing is seriously good, seriously. It has all the hallmarks of the standard 103 and adds extra everything, instruments have real body and a gorgeous rich tonality. The bass is even better than the stock item, not that the standard 103 is lacking but this just moves everything up into the next dimension, totally amazing.
Complex mixes like Steely Dan seem so much easier to follow, everything is simply laid in front of you with such clarity and definition but you never have any sense of stress, music just flows with a deep feeling of 'naturalness'.
This is one astounding cartridge

Regards

Goodness that has got my juices flowing (oops! that sounds rude, and as this is family forum I will restate that: 'it's making my mouth water'). One cannot really ask much more of cartridge than what you have stated in your peneultimate sentence (highlighted).

We'll let you 'bed' the cartridge in, and await further report on your impression with anticipation.

Regards

[Barry]

Barry,

Mpingo is one of the few tropical hardwoods that I have a reasonably good knowledge about as I did some specialist study of it when I was doing my degree.
More serendipity!

It's use in musical instruments came about because of the increasing rarity of true Ebony, and it is sometimes marketed as such, though it's in fact a completely different species.

The instrument trade has depleted stocks of naturally occuring Dalbergia melanoxylon - East African Blackwood and it's only in recent times that there has been an interest in growing it commercially.

The trees themselves don't grow very large and they have fluted stems & quite a lot of occluded bark. Like this...........


So that means finding a log which meets the quality standards and yields a reasonable amount of timber is hard. You can't really tell what sort of quality the timber is until the tree's felled. This means there is a lot of waste - made worse by the fact that they only want the deepest black colour. The tribes that live in it's natural range use the timber for carving ornamental goods & do not have the need for such high quality. A single tree can keep the carving industry of a given village going for months, so their use is rather more sustainable.



It's an incredible timber, being so dense that it won't float & can be machined like steel. The guys who fell the trees for carving have to work in teams of three - one guy banging away at it with an axe, one guy resting after his exhausting spell at cutting & the third guy sharpening the axe that's just been blunted!
If you make charcoal from it and try to cook over an Mpingo fire, it will melt your iron pot, so high is the calorific value.

Instrument grade Mpingo sells for ~$15,000 - $20,000 per cubic metre as a log & ~$44,000 per cubic metre as sawn timber. Compare this to UK Pine or Spruce logs selling for ~£30 and maybe £1000 for exceptional quality hardwood for the instrument trade (such as 'fiddleback sycamore' which gives what guitarists call 'flamed' figure).

I can't comment on the effect of it in hi-fi as I've not heard the products in question. However, I think there are plenty of other woods that would have a similar effect to what the likes of Shun Mook are touting for Mpingo.

But what's more important? The survival of the species in it's natural habitat or the musical gratification of a handful with more money than sense (and ecological responsibility)? I know which comes first for me & I think the use of it in instruments, and especially hi-fi, is criminally frofligate & it should be stopped completely from non-plantation sources. If plantations are managed by the carving tribes in a participatory forestry management arrangement, then we can all benefit. - We get the wood at a lower price, & they get the income from us.

As things stand at the moment, who can blame the villagers from felling their wild trees to sell the wood to the white man with big wads of cash in his pocket?

In the case of instruments, the use of Mpingo is purely for aesthetics & kudos - almost any dense wood will do the job equally as well. In an instrument without a reed, it's the column of air within the tube which is vibrating, & not the wood. It's been suggested that a concrete flute sounds the same as a wooden one!

See this link for a lot more on Mpingo in participatory forestry:
http://www.mpingoconservation.org/index.html

Serendipity and access to the Collective Unconciousness is a little understood phenomenon of AoS.

I happen to be a closet dendrophile, and am entirely sympathetic to your opinions. Initialy this was purely aesthetic - I just like trees, but now with the world going mad and cutting down the Amazon rainforest like there's no tomorrow, as well as clearing the Indonesian forests for palm oil plantations, I am becoming more vocal in my concern. Not that it will do much.

Is Dalbergia melanoxylon the same as 'iron wood'. I have an African head carved in ebony; a souvenir of a months trip in East Africa. Initially it was quite black in colour, but with polish and exposure to twenty years of light it is now a dark brown with a lovely grain structure.

As to the use of mpingo pucks to improve the listening enviroment, well I have no experience of this and it sounds like 'Belt-ism' to me. I'll just rely on the use of strategically placed crystals to channel the qi and realign my chakra.

Regards

[alfie2902]

I'm blown away is such an understatement, this thing is seriously good, seriously. It has all the hallmarks of the standard 103 and adds extra everything, instruments have real body and a gorgeous rich tonality. The bass is even better than the stock item, not that the standard 103 is lacking but this just moves everything up into the next dimension, totally amazing.
Complex mixes like Steely Dan seem so much easier to follow, everything is simply laid in front of you with such clarity and definition but you never have any sense of stress, music just flows with a deep feeling of 'naturalness'.
This is one astounding cartridge

Regards

I've been using one of Uwe from Sound Lab's Rosewood bodied 103's for a couple of months now & pretty much echo what REM says.

Take a 103 & make the whole presentation even more solid, more focused, add better defined bass, a fuller sounding midrange & cleaner highs with a little more suble detail & you got a wooden bodied 103

Adding the wooden body to the 103 seems to make it more in control & the differences aren't subtle! I'm very happy with mine But it does make me wonder how much more 103 i'd get with a wooden 103R!!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Is Dalbergia melanoxylon the same as 'iron wood'. I have an African head carved in ebony; a souvenir of a months trip in East Africa. Initially it was quite black in colour, but with polish and exposure to twenty years of light it is now a dark brown with a lovely grain structure.

Ironwood is really just a name given to any wood that doesn't float - and there are many. It just needs to be dense & a specific gravity of over 1.0 can be achieved by some rather humdrum woods given particular growth conditions. Probably the best known ironwood is Lignum vitae, which as well as being very dense is also indefinately self-lubricating and hardly rots at all (even when used as sea defences and jetties) & because of this, it's still sometimes used for bearings in ship propellor shafts, but the bearings in some of the famous Harrison watches were also made of it.

True Ebony comes from the species of the genus Diospyros & there are several. These woods generally have a more matt-black appearance than Mpingo and are very much more brittle. African Ebony Diospyrus crassiflora, is the most valuable but other African varieties and those from Asia & Indonesia are also sold as Ebony.

Mpingo can be worked into fine detail better than pretty much any other wood & probably also takes the finest polish.

[Marco]

I've been using one of Uwe from Sound Lab's Rosewood bodied 103's for a couple of months now & pretty much echo what REM says.

Take a 103 & make the whole presentation even more solid, more focused, add better defined bass, a fuller sounding midrange & cleaner highs with a little more suble detail & you got a wooden bodied 103

Adding the wooden body to the 103 seems to make it more in control & the differences aren't subtle! I'm very happy with mine But it does make me wonder how much more 103 i'd get with a wooden 103R!!

Guys, this is all great news, and another viable road to go down to truly hear what the 103 is capable of.

I know exactly where you're coming from because what's described above (and by REM) is EXACTLY what I get with the 103SA

I'm not sure though which is more expensive or the most cost effective solution. How much is it for one of these wood-bodied models?

Marco.

[Barry]

Guys, this is all great news, and another viable road to go down to truly hear what the 103 is capable of.

I know exactly where you're coming from because what's described above is EXACTLY what I get with the 103SA

I'm not sure though which is more expensive or the most cost effective solution. How much is it for one of these wood-bodied models?

Marco.

Marco, if you click on the links quoted in my post (no. 2), you will find:

The Sound Lab 103, fitted in either a rosewood or an ebony body cost 329 Euro (= £282). Either housing alone is 199 Euro (= £170)

Uwe housings alone are 100 Euro (= £86). Uwe offer a choice of Pazerholz, Ironwood, Ebony, African Rosewood (Wenge) and Clavellin (?).

Refer to AoS's resident wood expert for further advice.

I am looking forward to more in-depth reviews of the Zu aluminium housed and Uwe wooden housed 103. Does anyone have any experience of a 'nude' 103, that is one in which the generator has been removed from the plastic housing? I believe there was a post or two somewhere on this.

Regards

[jonners]

Does anyone have any experience of a 'nude' 103, that is one in which the generator has been removed from the plastic housing? I believe there was a post or two somewhere on this.

More than a post or two - a whole thread: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...ght=103+nuding

I denuded mine a while ago and I thought the improvement was stunning. The naked stylus makes cueing easier too. Why add another body that will add a new set of resonances?

[Barry]

More than a post or two - a whole thread: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...ght=103+nuding

I denuded mine a while ago and I thought the improvement was stunning. The naked stylus makes cueing easier too. Why add another body that will add a new set of resonances?

Thanks Jonners,

I have just read the thread and am somewhat emmbarassed to say that I contributed two or three posts to it - Lord I must be getting old! Knew I had seen it somewhere before.

So the upshot of the matter would seem to be, why bother with a re-housed 103?, if 'nuding' a 103 brings about all the benefits that either an aluminium or hardwood housing do, but without the extra expenditure of the later.

I don't have the courage to denude mine, though since I only paid £50 for one with less than 10 hours use, it wouldn't be the end of the world if it was damaged. Even so, I'll leave it alone for the moment.

Regards

[Barry]

Ironwood is really just a name given to any wood that doesn't float - and there are many. It just needs to be dense & a specific gravity of over 1.0 can be achieved by some rather humdrum woods given particular growth conditions. Probably the best known ironwood is Lignum vitae, which as well as being very dense is also indefinately self-lubricating and hardly rots at all (even when used as sea defences and jetties) & because of this, it's still sometimes used for bearings in ship propellor shafts, but the bearings in some of the famous Harrison watches were also made of it.

True Ebony comes from the species of the genus Diospyros & there are several. These woods generally have a more matt-black appearance than Mpingo and are very much more brittle. African Ebony Diospyrus crassiflora, is the most valuable but other African varieties and those from Asia & Indonesia are also sold as Ebony.

Mpingo can be worked into fine detail better than pretty much any other wood & probably also takes the finest polish.

Lignum vitea - that was the name I was trying to think of!

My carving must be in African Ebony, as I bought it in a craft market in Tanzania where you could watch them doing the carving. Ebony sometimes has parts of a pale cream colour, and it was fascinating to see how artistic use was made of this effect. Also, sometimes the carver would leave the bark in place, for example in figurines where the bark served to represent the cloth of the simple togas of the Masaii.

Looking at the map showing where Mpingo grows, I have visited 10 of the countries within the gowing area, so must have seen a Mpingo tree, yet I don't think I have - certainly it was never pointed out to me. The map does not include Madagascar, but then the Malagasy sadly seem to have a very simple attitude to their enviroment: "If it moves, kill it and eat it, if it doesn't, chop it down and make charcoal from it".

Regards