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Denon DL-110... arrived in less than a week from Comet Supply!

Treker

Treker

Super Member
So, after a lot of thought and procrastination, I decided to go ahead and order a Denon DL-110 HOMC cartridge from Comet Supply. I figured that for only $87 plus shipping, even if I had to wait a couple of months for it to arrive, it was worth the savings. Well, to my great surprise, what do you think showed up in my mailbox on Friday, less than one week after I had ordered it? The Denon DL-110 from Comet Supply!



I have it mounted in a genuine Denon headshell playing on my Denon DP-1200 turntable right now. So far so good. I'll let it break in a bit first before I give it a good, critical listen though. I am curious to see how I like it long term, especially in comparison to my Shure M91ED/JICO SAS combination, as well as my Ortofon OM-30, which are currently my 2 favorite carts.
 
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Treker said:
I have it mounted in a genuine Denon headshell playing on my Denon DP-1200 turntable right now. So far so good. I'll let it break in a bit first before I give it a good, critical listen though. I am curious to see how I like it long term, especially in comparison to my Shure M91ED/JICO SAS combination, as well as my Ortofon OM-30, which are currently my 2 favorite carts.
Click to expand...

That was fast! I always keep a new spare in inventory. My last order took 2 months, but it didn't matter because it is a back up. I have used the same combination DL110 / DP1200 with the same headshell for the last three years. Sounds great to me.
 
The Denon DL-110/DL-160 have always been my favorite budget cartridges. Too bad they discontinued the DL-160.
 
Nice shot! Here's mine on the exact same turntable!

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I have one and like it a lot...found the sweet spot at 1.9g. Also got rid of that ugly stylus guard...but that's my risk :)
 
I will rain a bit on DL-110 parade. I also got it from Comet no problem.
And I remember now people saying that it doesnt handle well surface noise on old vinyl.
True that. Most of my vinyl is less than mint and as a result my new DL-110 hardly gets any play.
Surface noise with Shure M97HE is way lower.
 
ScaleAutoArt said:
I have one and like it a lot...found the sweet spot at 1.9g. Also got rid of that ugly stylus guard...but that's my risk :)
Click to expand...

I am running mine at 1.8g right now, and it seems to be right in there. I may play around with it a bit if I hear any distortion associated with the tracking force being set too low.

I was also thinking about loosing my stylus guard, because as you say, they are a bit ugly. We'll see...
 
Qsiris said:
I will rain a bit on DL-110 parade. I also got it from Comet no problem.
And I remember now people saying that it doesnt handle well surface noise on old vinyl.
True that. Most of my vinyl is less than mint and as a result my new DL-110 hardly gets any play.
Surface noise with Shure M97HE is way lower.
Click to expand...

Low surface noise is one of the reasons I really like the JICO SAS stylus on my Shure M91ED. Same thing for my Ortofon OM-30. In my (admittedly limited) experience low surface noise seems to have a lot to do with stylus cut. It may be that the simpler elliptical cut of the stylus on the DL-110 is not able to deal with surface noise inducing imperfections as well as the more advanced styli cuts of my other cartridges. I'll certainly be listening for this when I am doing my cartridge comparisons.
 
I do not hear excessive surface noise with the DL 110.

The SAS on my V15-III picks up everything though. Not so bad with surface noise but it does not like scratches at all.
 
bobins08 said:
I do not hear excessive surface noise with the DL 110.

The SAS on my V15-III picks up everything though. Not so bad with surface noise but it does not like scratches at all.
Click to expand...

I also find the DL-110 to be comparable to the M97xE with SAS stylus when it comes to surface noise on older secondhand LPs (even marginal VG grade). Both are much quieter than the M97xE with OEM stylus. I like the Shure/SAS combo a lot, but now that it costs >2.5 times what Comet asks for the DL-110, it's hard for me to justify the price difference. As always YMMV.

BTW, I also recently received a new DL-110 from Comet Supply in less than a week from the order date. I figured I would get a spare while the price remains low and wasn't worried if it took a month or two to arrive. If I had been in a hurry, I'm sure it would have taken much longer to get here :rolleyes:
 
IMO, surface noise has as much to do with the turntable and arm as it does with the cartridge itself. The better the table/arm, the less surface noise you'll hear from any given cartridge.

Mount a DL-110 on a low end, cheap, plasticky Japanese turntable and then mount it on a high end Well Tempered, Sota, Linn, VPI, etc. and you'll notice the difference immediately. Even going from a Rega P3/RP3 to a Linn LP12 is fairly dramatic.

I have had both the DL-110 and DL-160 mounted on a VPI Scout and did not find surface noise to be objectionable.
 
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My limited comparison was with vintage M97HE, bought NOS a year ago.
I dont have modern M97xE. My turntable is Technics SL-1210M5G.

With mint records DL-110 outperforms HE in detail and range.
With less perfect vinyl surface noise on DL ruins listening experience for me.
Specifically I did swapping and comparing the two while playing original 30 some year old Joni Mitchel "Ladies of the Canyon".
Very pleasant with HE, too noisy with DL.
 
Surface noise is very low with the 110 for me. I consider it a cartridge forgiving of less than perfect records. :scratch2:

Maybe your setup needs work, or maybe it does matter what table/arm combo it is mounted on.
 
DL-110 for only $87!? The 'best' price on ebay is $130 + shipp.
I have purchased DL-160 on sale for about $120 three years ago, and the prices of 110 are everywhere now ridiculously high.
Shame is that shop does not accept international orders :thumbsdn:
 
Qsiris said:
I will rain a bit on DL-110 parade. I also got it from Comet no problem.
And I remember now people saying that it doesnt handle well surface noise on old vinyl.
True that. Most of my vinyl is less than mint and as a result my new DL-110 hardly gets any play.
Surface noise with Shure M97HE is way lower.
Click to expand...

Not sure what arm you have it on but it does do better on higher mass arms...being a low compliance cartridge. I had a light s arm and added mass...big difference in sound quality.
 
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