The Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 with the lime tonewood inserts treated with beeswax & lemon-oil lime.

In my "fifth tune" report on the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge I reported to you my experiences with the lime tonewood inserts treated with beeswax & lemon oil (above).

Audio MusiKraft aluminum shell with oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts.

In this "sixth tune" report I want to tell you about my experiences with Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge using the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts (above).

I used the following oil-treatment to prepare the Jatoba tonewood inserts:

• I spread one pass of the oil onto the front side of each piece of Jatoba tonewood in the set.
• I waited for 1 hour, and then I removed the excess oil from them with a soft cotton polishing cloth.
• I then let them sit for 4 hours.
• Then I spread the oil on all of the sides of the set of Jatoba tonewood inserts so that they were immersed in oil.
• I let the set of tonewood inserts sit for one hour, and then I removed the excess oil with a cotton cloth. I then repeated this step two more times.
• Then I let the oil treated Jatoba tonewood inserts sit for 24 hours.
• After 24 hours I removed the excess oil with a cotton cloth.

After the Jatoba tonewood inserts were finished with their oil treatment, I stripped down the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 cartridge and removed the treated lime tonewood inserts, replaced them with the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts, and reassembled the cartridge.

Reassembled Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts.

After I got the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts mounted and adjusted on the Schick tonearm on my Thorens TD-124, I put on The Alternate Blues to give it a listen.

The Alternate Blues

The Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts was by far my favorite of the treated tonewood insert sets so far, easily outperforming the treated lime tonewood inserts for my tastes & system setup in terms of overall natural tone, presence, and musicality.

In fact, listening to music with the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge using the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts was the first time I didn't want to immediately dial in some tension with the front and rear tensioning screws on the cartridge shell to hear what would happen, as I was liking what I heard so much.

Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 with oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts.

Lots of natural detail, great trumpet tone, lots of dynamic nuance, lots of presence, a big sense of recorded space, vivid imaging and soundstage, and with a richness and musicality to the overall presentation that I found quite beguiling.

Tuning screws engaged and tensioned.

When I did engage the tuning screws and tension them (eighth turn for the front, quarter turn for the rear) I did like the result, which I thought gave even better overall tonality than with them not engaged, which is really saying something, because the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts sounded fantastic without them engaged.

However, this time I would say the difference between tensioned and not tensioned was not as great as I heard with the lime or black walnut tonewood inserts, perhaps because the overall tone and presentation is converging move closely to my tastes and system balance with the oiled Jatoba inserts.

Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts.

One thing that is very apparent as the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge gets more dialed-in to match my preferences and system balance, is how much detail is being extracted from the recordings.

While a lot of detail is recovered with the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge using the oiled Jatoba tonewood inserts, it's not in a lean or overly analytical sort of way, so it adds to the overall musical experience in a meaningful way.

Next up is a listen to the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge with an oiled set of maple tonewood inserts, and we'll get to find out if Bobby's prediction that it will be my favorite turns out to be true! (It wouldn't surprise me, Bobby!)

I become more and more impressed with the the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge's tunability features as I go.

In addition to having a super stable and good sounding Audio MusiKraft aluminum cartridge shell, the ability to be able to fine tune the Denon DL-103 with the front & rear tensioning screws and the tonewood inserts is a really powerful combination that I think a lot of listeners will find really liberating and satisfying.

I've been writing up the introductory part of the review of the Audio MusiKraft Denon DL-103 phonograph cartridge for Positive Feedback over the last few weeks, and I've got everything done now except for the final listening impressions, summary, and conclusions sections of the article.

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