While it'll be a while before I get a full formal review written for Positive Feedback about the Audio MusiKraft ‘Tunable’ Denon DL-103 phono cartridge I received from Guy Pelletier (it's a ways down the review queue), I want to keep you appraised of developments along the way about this interesting phono cartridge here at Jeff's Place.

The very nicely packaged Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 cartridge kit.

As Guy and I were discussing the particulars of the Audio MusiKraft Denon 103 kit he was going to send me (there's lots of potential options), I mentioned to Guy that I thought I should leave it to his experience on the choice of shell material and the choice of wood inserts.

I offered only that my tastes tend to run to the warm, information rich, and dimensional side of things, rather than to the neutral, lean, or analytical side of things, and suggested he include wood examples that would demonstrate the range of voicing that the various woods can provide, as it would make for interesting listening sessions and discussions.

Guy can also help you with recommendations that will best match your system's voicing, and what you're trying to achieve tonally.

The wood tuning kit: maple, lime (basswood), black walnut, jatoba (Brazilian cherry), and oil that can be applied for a damping treatment of the wood inserts.

Guy sent me an Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 cartridge kit with an aluminum shell and wood inserts of maple, lime (basswood), black walnut, and jatoba (Brazilian cherry), with an oil that can be applied for a damping treatment of the wood inserts. Very nice!

At the link you can see the choices of the various kinds of woods that are available for damping use.

Top / end view of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103. The aluminum shell is beautifully machined and fitted to the DL-103.

Guy put 70 hours of run-in time on it before sending it to me, so I wouldn't have to wait for it to run-in for comparisons, which was very thoughtful. Thank you, Guy!

Front / top / side view of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103.

Guy told me:

"The MusiKraft kit I sent you is presently set up without any wood inserts (nude), and there is no applied tension yet on the three "tuning" set screws. I suggest you start listening this way. This could provide you some sort of baseline reference between the original DL-103 and our straight modified version."

"Then after getting some listening time in, I recommend you play with tension in the setscrews to hear what adjusting the setscrew tension does."

"Then later take the adventure with the wood inserts to get familiar with that aspect of tuning, and then finally try the oil dampening treatment to hear what that does"

Side / bottom view of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103.

Sounds fun!

Much more to come!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!