Links (analog style) and downloads
Further tuning notes and a custom Ebony body for the DL-103r.
The doing: For this exercise I needn't offer a photo essay on the procedure of plastic body removal and wooden body installation. This has already been done in an online video produced and offered freely by Thomas Schick. I merely watched his video a couple of times, which, by the way, is really excellent, and then I knew enough to carry out the procedure. Below is a link to the video at Thomas Schick's website.
link: http://www.thomas-schick.com/Denon103.htm
My experience proved successful and very similar to the process outlined in the video. Thanks to Thomas Schick for creating and sharing this experience.
Mandatory Disclaimer: Be forewarned, it is very easy to destroy one of these cartridges with one mistake.... or a slip! The DL-103R costs approximately $270 direct from Japan at the time of this writing. Don't blame either him or myself should you find yourself in possession of a 'dead' DL-103. It is a risk you take on your own. 'nuff said, I hope.
Preliminaries:
The previous experiment of adding mass to the otherwise standard DL-103R, in
order to better mate it to the Expressimo/Rega tonearm, had proven to me that
this cartridge really wants a fairly heavy tonearm before it will begin to sing
its song good and proper. To review, I had gone to some length to add mass
to this Expressimo/Rega tonearm and that I really liked the end result with the
plastic bodied DL-103R. But now I'm adding the Ebony body which is
advertised at 4 grams by itself. 
From what I'd previously learned, I anticipated that I would want to retain the
headshell weight along with this weightier Ebony body. So far, more mass =
better.** Btw, using the hfnrr test record, my horizontal arm/cart resonance
is still between 10 - 11hz. Even with this added weight the arm/cart
resonance is easily within the optimal zone. I'm beginning to suspect that
the Denon DL-103R might work best on an arm with an effective mass of between 16
to 20 grams. If so there is room to go heavier than it is now.
The fit up was easy. The Ebony body contains threaded holes for M2.5. (m2.5 x .45mm (dia. and pitch)) Ergo.....no nuts. Two hands can do it. Even though the Denon stylus protector is no longer functional on this custom Ebony body, its blocky shape proved helpful in safe handling, and I managed to keep my thick fingers and thumb off the fragile cantilever. A quick alignment session to set overhang, zenith angle and check azimuth was straight forward and successful. Using a small mirror it was evident that the new body did not present any apparent issues of azimuth alignment. A critical factor since the Rega arm offers no adjustment for this parameter. Great. That was easy. Now for some listening.
Listening:
The removal of the thin plastic body and the replacement of it with a more substantial one in Ebony. How much should this affect the sound quality of any cartridge? My ears tell me that in this situation it nets a pretty significant difference. In short; The overall sonic character of the cartridge remains but is enhanced. High frequencies become more extended while gaining clarity and definition. There is a greater sense of ease and flow combined with cleaner details. There is more air around each note. While not an analytical, detail extracting cartridge, it does dig out some fine, faint details not previously heard. Unexpected. There is a touch more weight to the lower frequencies while improving definition of timbre and texture in that area.
What I really like about this cartridge is that it is not at all ruthless or revealing of the recording quality of any Lp. In fact it seems to ignore poor recordings and simply dig out the music in a very enjoyable presentation. I love it for 60's and 70's pop/rock albums. An excellent, play-it-loud, rock and roll cartridge. And yet it does justice to acoustic instruments and the human voice making these performances intimate. I find myself playing jazz Lps with this rig quite often. And for now I think I'll forget trying to analyze the sound and and just enjoy the foot-tappin good music. You can lose yourself in it.
In short summary it seems as though this budget cartridge has been transformed into one very enjoyable music machine for less than $400 total invested.
Caveats:
This design is from 1962. And was matched to quality tonearms of that day. In today's terms It wants a medium-mass to medium-high-mass tonearm and, like all low output MC cartridges, it requires either a purpose made active MC phono stage, or it will need a passive step-up transformer in line between the cartridge and any 47K ohm phono stage. This area of the setup will have a profound effect on the sound quality that is heard!!
Coming soon:
Future tuning: Optimizing phono stages and the step-up transformer.
The DL-103R in this article was purchased from http://www.audiocubes2.com This firm is in Osaka, Japan and ships worldwide. So far I've purchased 2 items from them and service has been good. The first time I had to await for their stock to replenish but once they had the item, shipment was quick. The 2nd time the item was on hand and I received delivery from Japan in less than one week!
The exotic wood body was purchased direct from Uwe in Belgium who machines these. To reach Uwe use this email: Anette.Bretschneider@post.rwth-aachen.de
To view a pdf of Uwe's current brochure of exotic wood bodies link here.
Footnotes:
** Denon lists compliance of its DL-103R tubular aluminum cantilever to be 5x10-6cm/dyne (tested @ 100 hz) On paper this seems rather stiff!! This has been a source of confusion for audiophiles who relate to stated compliance values that are tested at the more common 8 - 12 hz resonance testing range using test records such as the HFNRR test record. What has been found by many current users of this cartridge is that when paired to today's medium mass tonearms the DL-103R will test to be within the optimal 8 - 12hz zone noted for arm/cart resonance. The indications are that the cartridge more likely has a compliance of around 10-11 x10-6cm/dyne when resonance tested at 11 hz. This is fairly normal and works with medium mass or heavier tonearms.