DL 110 in the nude

[r-l-b]

I like the Denon DL110 for its honest forward playing style but it has always been in the shadow of my Denon L 103 and my ortofon SPUs and Ortofon MC20 Supreme - but considering the low price this is only logical!

Today I stripped a 110 from its red plastic cover - glued the inner to at metal plate and painted the inner bronze (just for looks)

It is like getting a new at much more expensive pickup ...

It still have the forwardness,  dynamic and "careless" style but its like its turned into a much more detailed and "airy" performer - The Leningrad Symfoni by Shostakovitch and the Cello Concerto by Elgar were both reproduced with much better control than the denon 103 - and Ben Webster - Ballads on Storyville label just became very "live" and was reproduced almost as good as the DL 103 ( the dl 103 is my overall favorite when it comes to jazz saxophone)

As the 110 is rather cheap I think its a great way to get a lot of bang for the bucks (oh by the way its mounted on a belt driven Pioner PL 12 D from the recyckling station)

Here is a picture of the beast in the nude

[simonbrown]

Interesting.  Midas body next ?        In the UK the DL110 is now generally more expensive than the DL103, the days of it being dirt cheap are well in the past, it seems.

[r-l-b]

thats strange - in Denmark the Denon prices are as follows:

110 = 799 =  £ 90,89
160 = 999 = £ 113,64
103 =1299 = £147,76
103R= 2599 = £ 295,63
304 = 2999 = £ 341,13

all prices includes 25% vat

I don't think I will spend on a Midas case - I'm working on a shell in "black oak??" for one of my 103 (with black oak I'm referring to a piece off oak that has been in a swamp? for very long time - very dark and very hard wood - I don't know the English word for it

Needledoctor in the US has the 110 for 139 $ and the 103 for $ 229 -

[rho]

For good prices on the Denon DL103 and DL110 you could check out www.phonophono.de .

Do you have pictures of the nude DL110 before you painted it and attached it to the metal plate?
How much weight does the metal plate add?

[willbewill]

(with black oak I'm referring to a piece off oak that has been in a swamp? for very long time - very dark and very hard wood - I don't know the English word for it

Bog wood.

[jagisagi]

I like the Denon DL110 for its honest forward playing style but it has always been in the shadow of my Denon L 103 and my ortofon SPUs and Ortofon MC20 Supreme - but considering the low price this is only logical!

Today I stripped a 110 from its red plastic cover - glued the inner to at metal plate and painted the inner bronze (just for looks)

It is like getting a new at much more expensive pickup ...

It still have the forwardness,  dynamic and "careless" style but its like its turned into a much more detailed and "airy" performer - The Leningrad Symfoni by Shostakovitch and the Cello Concerto by Elgar were both reproduced with much better control than the denon 103 - and Ben Webster - Ballads on Storyville label just became very "live" and was reproduced almost as good as the DL 103 ( the dl 103 is my overall favorite when it comes to jazz saxophone)

As the 110 is rather cheap I think its a great way to get a lot of bang for the bucks (oh by the way its mounted on a belt driven Pioner PL 12 D from the recyckling station)

Here is a picture of the beast in the nude

What do you think, what`s the reason of this effect? (I like the DL 110 too)

Juergen

[r-l-b]

Juergen: some kind of resonance perhaps? the empty outer shell is a bit like a cheap Lego-brick

The 110 looks like the picture its just cream-colour - its surface is a bit rough (like who cares - we are hiding it inside a shine red shell)

The metalplate was stamped 0.8 - i surpose it is gsm ? - I needed the plate as it had the two ½ inch holes so i could fix it to a standard headshell

The red 110 shel is 2.05 gsm - the inner body is 2.80 gsm with needle and the black plastic with the colour codes on

The one on the photo below is a practice 110 I found with out a needle - Thomas Shcicks as a good instruction video on how to part the outer and inner






sorry about the image quality

[rho]

Picture quality is good enough to see it's quite an ugly cart without the shell.
Good thing you painted it bronze.

I noticed the lack of mounting holes without the shell. Can you mount it snug enough with the small metal plate? (maybe even better then with the original shell?)

[r-l-b]

rho: the metal plate and pickup is glued together with a very thin layer superglue = really good contact = I think that the overall contact to the tnearmheadshell is improved by stripping the red plastic house

[simonbrown]

You need to take the plastic sticker on the bottom off first.  I worked it out afterwards 

[rho]

I hope it didn't come loose when playing a record.

[taskerc]

I have nuded my 2 DL103s and it really does make a difference.  But, and this is a big but, I have also murdered the same 2 DL103s (cantilevers) since the nuded body no longer works with the stylus protector thingy.  So I am now committed to no more nuded and Denons but will be clothing and protecting them in the future.

[Daz55]

I didn't know you could nude the 110, I have a 160 and was considering this move.

will the 110/160 fit the 103 ally shell that they sell?

Just wondering.

[patomalley]

I was able to nude a 110 mounted to a bit of ebony. It was a nervous piece of work getting the works out of that plastic housing. But worth it. This is running on a Technics SL-1200. I glued on of screw-on 4gram weight to the headshell as well, to make up for the loss of body weight.

I can appreciate the difference in sound and always like the looks of these hot-rodded things.

[jawaligt]

If only there were a way to save the stylus guard I would contemplate doing this. It would be a shame to ruin a €100,- cartridge in the blink of an eye.

What might be even better is to use some kind of push-on stylus guard such as the ones used on the Ortofon OM series. This is a simple plastic thing, but you need to remove it to play. So it won't produce any unwanted resonances.