This is a Teemad Audio hand selected Denon DL 103 that has been installed in an aluminum body. Less than 4% of the 103 cartridges are built to this specification. This one measures .34 mv output on each channel. They don't get any better than that jack.The aluminum body has a cut out in front to allow for easier viewing of the stylus when aligning it. The machine work on the body isn't the fanciest as you can see, but it gets the job done. The added mass of the aluminum body allows for use with medium and lighter mass tone arms, so you don't have to add a bunch of weight. Also the removal of the plastic body eliminates resonances that obscure the low level detail the cartridge is capable of reproducing. It also has a 3rd hole tapped for the Rega alignment geometry. You can bolt it to a new Rega arm and know the alignment is correct. You also see a clear shield on the cartridge coil assembly, it looks like scotch tape but its a shield to protect the coil wires coming out, best to leave it alone. One oddity of the aluminum body is that the bolt holes are tapped a bit shallow. It takes a standard 2.5mm bolt, but you might need to shorten them. This cartridge is an affordable version of a ZU 103 Prime MK II, which sells for $820...and has a long back order for new stock. It is just hard to come by 103 that are built this well. The Teemad can no longer be had, they were a killer deal when available. But like all good things, the great deals never hang around forever. And these tightly spec'd ones are always selected out and never put up for sale through the discounted sites. I sent it into Andy Chong at Cartridge Services and it has an alloy cantilever and a hyper elliptical stylus. This will give you a significant upgrade in the ability to retrieve detail versus the old conical stylus. This is a 0 hour cartridge now, and actually it was a low hour cartridge when it got sent to Andy, so the suspension and tension wire does not have many hours on it. this is a great cartridge for a reasonable price. You will get the best bang for your buck with this one.
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