Denon DL-110 Phono Cartridge performance evaluation
I am not going to bore you with details of its frequency response, specs or other information. I am here to tell you how I “feel” the cartridge performed. I played various types of music on various qualities of LPs over a three-week period.
Break-in
The first thing I did after mounting and aligning it was to put on a great quality record and put a bunch of hours on it before doing any critical listening. I broke in the turntable over a week period and was able to put approximately 20 hours on the cartridge before I started listening. I have a repeat function on my turntable so I enabled it to auto-repeat and let it go while I worked on various projects around the house.
How much force to use
I started the listening project on the 15th of the month and ended on the 31st. I tried three different VTF (Vertical Tracking force), the amount of force pressing down on the stylus (needle) playing the record. You want this to be within manufacturers specifications. The range of force was from 1.5 Gram to 2 Grams. I tried three settings within that range, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 Grams of force. I felt that the 1.5 Gram weight produced a more noisy sound, this was still extremely slight, but I could pick it out from the recording I was listening to. When I adjusted it to 2.0 Grams, I noticed that there was more pronounced bass and a more warm sound, I knew there should be more performance that this cartridge could provide, so I tried 1.75 Grams of force. I was rewarded with a very nice sound, extremely low, if any noise when playing excellent quality LPs. The high-frequency material was nicely presented and sounded excellent, there was quite a bit of bass present as well. It was a very-nicely balanced sound. I found this to be my favorite sound produced by this cartridge, so I have left it at 1.75 for the entire test from that point on. I also never removed the stylus from my turntable during the test.
Listening
I started listening with some old favorites that I know pretty well. The first LP that I mounted was a near mint, original pressing of Alan Parson’s Project’s Greatest Hits. I like this LP because of all the electronics in the mix. The sound was awesome; I immediately noticed the absence of any surface noise. I liked the sound. I also noticed that the sound provided by this cartridge sounded larger than my actual speakers. I was pretty happy overall and this was the first LP! I then threw on a VG+ copy of Boston’s first LP. I like to use this LP, because of the dynamic range of the recording; it starts very quietly and works its way up to loud. I appreciated the extra low surface noise with this record quite a bit. It was not even as near perfect an LP as the Alan Parsons LP, so I was pretty happy indeed. I read in the manual that clean records are a must with this cartridge. So I cleaned the records pretty well before playing each. Over the next few nights I spent some time listening to some of my favorite LPs. Dire Straits – Communiqué, Triumph – The Sport of Kings, Yes – 90125, The Cars, Styx – Crystal Ball. These are some of the comments that I made while listening. “Sound six feet wider than the speakers”; No extra noise on quiet parts and pauses in the music”; Hardly any pops or clicks, WOW!”; “ Some deep scratches cannot be avoided”. I spent some time listening with my daughter and she said it “sounded awesome”.
Impressions
I loved the cartridge! I read on websites that it has a sound of its own; I did not find that to be the case, I believe that I was hearing the record itself instead of the cartridge. The sound was very nice, especially on very well kept and clean records. The cartridge does NOT like scratched up records. I have a lot of records from G+ to NM- to LPs that have been played only a few times. As good as this cartridge is I still need to have a variety of them to choose from. (For an in-depth discussion see my Blog post regarding the need to have more than one cartridge to choose from). It has dethroned my former best aligned cartridge, it sounds fantastic! The sound is much bigger and more precise than my Shure M97xE, all of my Grado Prestige series, (with the exception of the mono cartridge), and it sounded quite a bit better than my Shure V15RS. I realize that I don’t have a truly expensive MM cartridge to really do a comparison, although I believe that $150 for the Denon is comparable in cost to what the Shure V15RS cost back when it came out in 1982. I would also put this in the same category as the Shure M97xE that I have a few of. Again, I will need other needles for listening to crappy records, or when I need a change. I believe that I will be getting another MC cartridge down the road. My pre-amp has a setting to switch my Phono input from MM to MC, so I will be set at least in that respect.
I loved the cartridge! I read on websites that it has a sound of its own; I did not find that to be the case, I believe that I was hearing the record itself instead of the cartridge. The sound was very nice, especially on very well kept and clean records. The cartridge does NOT like scratched up records. I have a lot of records from G+ to NM- to LPs that have been played only a few times. As good as this cartridge is I still need to have a variety of them to choose from. (For an in-depth discussion see my Blog post regarding the need to have more than one cartridge to choose from). It has dethroned my former best aligned cartridge, it sounds fantastic! The sound is much bigger and more precise than my Shure M97xE, all of my Grado Prestige series, (with the exception of the mono cartridge), and it sounded quite a bit better than my Shure V15RS. I realize that I don’t have a truly expensive MM cartridge to really do a comparison, although I believe that $150 for the Denon is comparable in cost to what the Shure V15RS cost back when it came out in 1982. I would also put this in the same category as the Shure M97xE that I have a few of. Again, I will need other needles for listening to crappy records, or when I need a change. I believe that I will be getting another MC cartridge down the road. My pre-amp has a setting to switch my Phono input from MM to MC, so I will be set at least in that respect.
Lessons Learned
I learned how crucial alignment of a phono cartridge can be. I watched a video to learn how to align it properly. Michael Fremer, vinyl aficionado, explains the how to and the way to do it of turntable setup. I followed the instructions, used the tools I had and worked for a while on aligning the cartridge. (This made me go through nearly all of my current cartridges and re-do their alignment if needed, quite a few did!). I learned that my perception of the “hype” surrounding MC cartridges was not “hype” but in this case, an eye (ear) opening performance to behold.
I learned how crucial alignment of a phono cartridge can be. I watched a video to learn how to align it properly. Michael Fremer, vinyl aficionado, explains the how to and the way to do it of turntable setup. I followed the instructions, used the tools I had and worked for a while on aligning the cartridge. (This made me go through nearly all of my current cartridges and re-do their alignment if needed, quite a few did!). I learned that my perception of the “hype” surrounding MC cartridges was not “hype” but in this case, an eye (ear) opening performance to behold.
Alan Parsons Project - Greatest Hits, NM-
Boston - Boston, VG+
Dire Straits - Comminique, VG++
Triumph - The Sport of Kings, Just Opened
Yes - 90125, VG+
The Cars - The Cars, VG++
Styx - Crystal Ball, VG+
The Association - and then along comes the Association, VG++
Sonny Rollins - Pure gold Jazz - VG+
HSAS - Through the Fire, Just Opened
Judas Priest - Turbo, VG++
The Great Hits of Ray Charles Recorded on 8-Track Stereo, VG+
Styx - Grand Illusion, VG+
A few assorted 45rpm records, ranging VG+ to NM
Comments
Post a Comment