Hi Trey,

Quote Originally Posted by thankyoumisterman View Post
I also agree that the 304 is a bit "sanitized" compared to the other stars of the Denon lineup. If most of what you listen to is classical or small group acoustic music, it might, however, be just the thing for you.
I would agree with that. It could just be the ticket for Jules, as indeed could a DL-301II, which has a different presentation again that would lend itself to playing a wide variety of music, not just classical/acoustic.

The Zu Denon I have addresses some of the issues inherent in the stock 103, but that could be also be done with an aftermarket aluminum or heavy wood body and potting the internals after setting the cartridge into the new case. I can vouch for the aluminum body and stylus guard sold on Audiogon by "daiwok", who also posts on lencoheaven.net; it's a quality aftermarket modification.
Yup, that would be another option. The Zu-modded DL-103 is arguably the best of the 're-bodied breed', and up there with the 103SA. However, you're still dealing with the 103's stock conical stylus, with its inherent limitations, not best served for optimising classical music, which requires a tip with more finesse to tease out the inherent subtleties in that genre of music.

Marco, I see that you run an amp with KT120 tubes - do you find them to be a worthy successor to the various KT88s? My current amp can accept them with a bit of bias adjustment, but the transformers aren't stout enough to safely provide the full current that the 120s can put out - I just don't know if being unable to fully exploit the tube's potential would be worth the outlay over the KT88s I'm currently running.
The 120s are superb, and IMO smoke ANY KT88, but the best are the hand-selected, matched and cryo'd ones from Upscale Audio in the States (good video to watch here): http://www.upscaleaudio.com/tung-sol-kt120/

That's where I got mine from, and they are superb. The dudes at Upscale are total perfectionists!

*HOWEVER* make sure that your amplifier can SAFELY take KT120s, by FIRST checking with the manufacturer and/or a qualified electronics engineer.

I'll shortly be ordering some cryo'd KT150s from Upscale, as my Copper amp is also safe to use with those. I'm hopeful that they will kick ass even more than the 120s!!

Marco.