Needle Clinic’s Denon DL-103 Phono Cartridge

A classic and widely loved vintage phono pickup gets an upgrade that makes it competitive with some of the best contemporary cartridges.

One thing I’ve noticed about my vocation as a film editor and my avocation in high-end audio is the number of people who found their way into either field by way of other professions—more or less sideways, as it were. Before I became a film editor I was a university professor. I had written a book about a film director before I fully realized that my longtime passion was generally for storytelling, specifically for moviemaking storytelling, particularly for editing narrative films. The same general occupational pattern holds for more than a few people I’ve encountered in high-end audio: their passion for music and high-quality reproduction of same in the home leading them to abandon professions in which they trained or were otherwise educated for a career in some aspect of audio.

Andy Kim was born, raised, and educated in South Korea. After graduating with a degree in physics from Yonsei University, he embarked on a career in tech. In 1984, age 29, he relocated to the United States where he worked for a New York company that sold light bulbs to Westinghouse. Five years later he moved to San Francisco to start his own company selling mostly computer parts and related components. But he never shook his long-standing passion for audio, which “started in 1968 while in junior high school.”

I wandered into an electronics shop in Seoul. I picked up some low-end gear and took them apart to see how everything worked. In high school, my buddies were always breaking their phono cartridges and had to buy new ones. I decided to leverage my knowledge of clock repair and took those broken cartridges and repaired them for free. I became quite popular.

Over the decades he proved successful enough that by the early aughts, having grown tired of his business, he decided to pursue his passion for audio, building his own amps and speakers and renewing his “interest in repairing/upgrading phono cartridges, vastly expanding my knowledge so much that I felt confident I could open up a phono cartridge repair business.” Ten years ago, at the age of 60, he started Needle Clinic, for the retipping and repair of moving-coil phono cartridges. It’s strictly a one-man operation, the man being Kim himself. “Unlike other US-based retippers,” his website declares, with no little pride, “nothing is farmed out and everything is done in-house without sending cartridges to overseas specialists.” With over two decades experience working on pickups from entry level to those priced with five digits left of the decimal point, “We use only the highest quality components purchased directly from Japan" (more about this later) and have a “reputation for high quality workmanship and satisfied customers.” He claims a customer base exceeding a thousand and still counting, who keep returning and bringing new customers with them.

Today, business is good and while it hasn’t made me rich, it has made me rich with satisfaction: I promote my hobby, I make customers happy, and I love that they tell their friends. I expect to be doing this work the rest of my working life, not because I need to, but because I love to.

As this suggests, Kim himself is affable, invites questions, is eager to answer them, and does so forthrightly with opinions intense and sometimes unorthodox, e.g., he prefers low-mass arms regardless of compliance or mass of the pickup, and captive bearings in a gimbal configuration to knife-edged and unipivot ones. His replies to questions are brisk, unclouded by any doubts that he is right, and laconic almost to a fault—sometimes I wanted more detail. But the exchanges were always entertaining and thought provoking.

Kim/Denon DL-103

I first heard about Needle Clinic in the spring of last year when Dan Meinwald, of EAR Imports, told me about this fellow named Andy Kim, whom Dan had never even heard of before, who came up to him at T.H.E. Show in Southern California, handed him a modified Denon 103, and urged him to take it home and try it. Now Dan has more vintage vinyl equipment than anyone else I know personally, and I believe he has every Denon DL-103 and 103D version ever made by Denon and by aftermarket modifiers. It is thanks to Dan that I reviewed the stock 103, 103R, and commemorative DLA220GS for The Absolute Sound (no. 328, July-August 2022). Dan didn’t get around to listening to Kim’s 103 for a few months, but once he did, he sent him a check—the same day.

A few times a month Dan, Philip O’Hanlon (of On a Higher Note), and I gather for an afternoon of music listening (followed by drinks and dinner). Dan brought along the Kim 103 to a session this past June at my place; we listened to it right next to my stock 103, mounted in an SME M2-12R tonearm on my fully restored Garrard 301 turntable. Within less than a side, Philip and I each phoned Kim and ordered one on the spot. Inasmuch as the 103 all by itself is so good, how much better is the Kim version? Let’s begin with my summary of the stock 103, from the TAS review:

The DL-103 has five paramount virtues that account for its year by year, decade by decade staying power: (1) a smooth, natural, supremely musical tonal profile that top to bottom is exceptionally well balanced; (2) that difficult-to-define ability to make recordings come dynamically, vibrantly, intoxicatingly alive; (3) a wonderful sense of body, dimensionality, and solidity that results in a quite outstanding ability to resolve the sometimes conflicting demands of soundstaging and imaging; (4) an impression of connectedness that provides an exceptional sense of flow and drive; and (5) a sample­-to sample consistency and reliability that should be the envy, not to mention the goal of the industry. (p. 50)

The first thing that must be said of Kim’s 103 modifications is that, like the ministrations of a responsible physician, they do no harm, by which I mean that his 103 still sounds like what I’ve just described only better in certain key areas: transparency, transient response (“speed”), clarity, detail, resolution, and dynamic range. Since in the stock 103 we’re starting with something that’s already excellent, when I say “better” I’m not talking night and day, nothing of the usual ga-ga audiophile reaction where every refinement must be inflated to lifechanging proportions. Rather, the improvements are readily evident, some of them even during casual listening, yet not such as to change the basic tonal character of the 103, which is just fine as it is.

Audiophiles baffled by those of us who really love this pickup often allege the 103 is “old-fashioned” sounding. (They spread the same canard about another vintage favorite of mine, the Shure V15 Type VxMR.) When I hear things like that, I generally interpret it as code for the 103’s overall tonal neutrality, specifically its lack of a rising top end. As I reported in my TAS review, Edward M. Long, renowned for the depth, thoroughness, and accuracy of his pickup, tonearm, and turntable reviews as regards both his subjective impressions and his objective measurements, reviewed the103 way back in the September 1980 issue of Audio Magazine (Google “Audio Magazine archives”). The published graph (p. 70) of his measurements is extremely close to those supplied with my review samples, which means it’s practically a ruler-flat line from 20Hz to 1kHz, after which it inscribes a long, shallow, exceptionally smooth and linear trough—at no point more than about 1dB below the 1kHz level (maybe closer to 1.5dB on Long’s graph)—back to flat around 15kHz, whereupon it slopes down toward 20kHz. (Long reviewed the Denon in tandem with the company’s AU320 transformer, which I use too; discontinued decades ago, samples in good condition are readily available from the usual online sources and, yes, they make for a very satisfying synergy with both the stock and Kim 103.) What this translates to when “old-fashioned” is used as an invidious epithet is that the 103 is not obviously “crisp,” “etched,” “incisive,” “analytical,” or possessive of what our British brethren sometimes call “insight” (which I find about as nonsensical a descriptor for a piece of equipment as I can imagine—I assume they mean “detailed”?).

That said, however, one thumbnail characterization I grant the Denon 103 naysayers is that compared to the stock 103 in the specific areas of detail, resolution, and transparency, then, yes, the Kim sounds closer to what we typically expect from current high-end phono cartridges. But how can that be if both pickups remain neutral in the tonal sense? Better to answer that by way of a fuller description of how exactly how Kim modifies the 103. Although Needle Clinic’s main business is retipping and repairing used cartridges, Kim’s Denon modifications start with a brand-new Denon 103 he sources directly from Japan. The first thing he does is cut away the front portion of the body so that it becomes a partial-nude cartridge.

Denon 103 as modified by Needle Clinic with front of housing partially cut away. Compare to image of stock Denon at top of the review.

Kim has very strong convictions about cartridge bodies, that is, housings, most of them negative, which can be summarized as: no housing is or can be better than no housing at all. “The purpose of a cartridge body is to protect the internal generator,” he argues. “Denon cartridges can be improved by opening its body partially so that the resonating waves inside the enclosed body can escape.” Not surprisingly, he is no fan of any of the various aftermarket bodies or caps, arguing that however much they claim to dampen the stock body, it’s insufficient to address the resonance issues adequately; plus, they add expense and mass.

The next thing Kim does is replace the stock spherical stylus and aluminum cantilever with a MicroRidge stylus mounted on a boron cantilever. Kim believes that all other things being equal, the sound and performance differences among a line of cartridges from the same manufacturer typically have to do more with stylus/cantilever shapes, assemblies, and materials than anything else.

So why is there more apparent resolution, detail, clarity, and transparency without a fundamental change in the overall frequency response? Cutting away the front of the housing and allowing the resonances in effect to dissipate in the air would in and of itself likely result in the greater clarity, cleanliness, purity, and general impression of lower distortion in the Kim version. The boron cantilever is stiffer and lower in mass than the stock aluminum, which, again in my experience, translates into greater resolution and a less colored sound. Finally, there is no question that the  MicroRidge stylus sits deeper into the grooves, traces them more accurately, with greater agility and responsiveness, and thereby extracts a whole lot more information from them than a spherical stylus can.

An example from my TAS review, using the still state-of-the-art Sheffield direct-to-disc masterpiece the name is Makowicz: just after the opening cut on side one there are some orchestral bells played and captured with ravishing delicacy. The stock Denon reproduces them with a lovely, exquisite shimmering sonority. But turn to a really great contemporary moving coil, like any number of top Ortofons or Lyras, to say nothing of the DS Audio optical pickups, and the bells take on an equally lovely but more crystalline character and it sounds as if the spaces between their being struck are reproduced with greater delineation and clarity. I’m not going to tell you the Kim 103 bests the other pickups I’ve just referenced, but it comes significantly closer than the stock 103 and in its own terms is not in the least humiliated next to them.

Another example, gifted me by the late Art Dudley, consists in the five stringed instruments on The Dave Grisman Quintet’s  bluegrass/jazz album (kaleidoscope vintage) when they all get to picking and plucking at the same time: once more, I won’t tell you the Kim 103 unravels this LP as well as the spectacular Ortofon MC Anna Diamond (Google “Seydor MC Anna TAS”), but it comes a fair distance closer than the stock Denon and it holds its own more confidently. Speaking of detail, both the stock and the Kim 103 retrieve all the piano chords that bleed through Jacintha's headphones during the a cappella introduction to "Moon River" on her Johnny Mercer album (Groove Note), the Kim able to do so at a slightly lower overall volume setting (these chords are vanishingly low in level, and I've heard some pretty pricey setups that miss a few of them).

I’ve read some online reports that say the sound of Kim’s 103 is drastically changed from the original, including one correspondent who complained of considerably reduced bass. Wth all due respect, I hear it differently. For one thing, there is very little reduction in the sheer amount of bass on offer, while there is a correspondingly tighter, better-defined and -controlled bass, without sacrificing any impression of size and scale, that remains very impactful. Listen, for example, to Paul Chambers on Craft Recordings’s excellent reissue of Miles Davis’s Relaxin’, or, completely different kind of bass, the powerful organ accompaniment to the King’s College Choir's A Procession with Carols on Advent Sunday (Argo vintage), not to mention how beautifully the atmosphere of this splendid setting is reproduced (both up high and down at the bottom).

Pricing, Sources, Warranties, and a Warning

By now the alert or impatient among you are no doubt asking how much this thing costs. I’ve deliberately withheld the price because I don’t want that prejudicing anyone’s reaction. A stock Denon 103 can be had for a mere $349 from most of the usual sources, including LP Gear, Music Direct, Crutchfield, even Amazon. Kim sells his 103 for $565 all in except for shipping, a sum that, to repeat, includes a brand new 103. The stylus assembly Kim uses—for both the Denon and most of the other retips and repairs he does—come from the prestigious Namiki styli made by Japan’s Orbray Company, which specializes in precision processing technology. Until its recent name change, Orbray was known as the Adamant Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd., has been manufacturing styli since the second world war, and are the OEM for many phono cartridge companies (at one time over sixty percent of the market). I don’t know for nothing about stylus manufacturers, so I asked someone who does, namely Wally Tools’s J. R. Boisclair. “The Best,” J. R., who is more fanatical about precision stylus geometries and assembly than anyone I know, told me. “I even buy parts from them for experimentation.”

In other words, the Namiki stylus and cantilever Kim uses are better than the stock Denon’s. What if you already have a 103? Kim will modify it too, but you save only about $100 vis-à-vis buying the whole thing directly from him. (If your 103 is very old you’re much better off getting the whole thing new from him.) Of course, a modified 103 voids any manufacturer warranty, but the warranty on the 103 is only a year, and in all my decades in high-end audio, I’ve never had a pickup go bad on me owing to failure in its engine or other innards, only worn or broken styli or cantilevers.

As for that warning, more serious in my view than the voided warranty is that once Kim cuts off the front of the 103 housing, there is no way you can use the manufacturer’s stylus guard and Kim doesn’t offer one of his own. This means you must use extreme care in mounting the pickup, something Denon’s body design doesn’t facilitate because the slots for the mounting bolts are open-ended on one side, which means there’s nothing to help hold them in place while you’re trying to thread them into the nuts and tighten them. It’s hard for me to believe that after sixty some years Denon still has not redesigned the body with threaded inserts.

Final verdict: as is evident, I’m quite besotted with the Kim/Denon 103. Given its meagre all-in $565 price, I doubt there’s anyone reading Tracking Angle who hasn’t paid at least that much, and considerably more, for wire products, cones, tips, pods, pads, and all manner of other accessories that are now lying unused, their novelty long since worn off, in some drawer or other. I have three turntables in operation over two listening rooms, one of them with two arms mounted on it. The Kim 103 is always in service as one of my principal references, not, or at least not only, because it’s good for the money, which it clearly is—but because it’s outrageously good, indeed, great: Period.

Other Manufacturers

I have no experience with Kim’s modifications of other manufacturers’ products apart from Denon, but this may change. A few years ago I foolishly neglected to cover my Basis Audio setup on a day my housekeeper came. By day’s end any dust on the turntable was swept away along with the cantilever of an Ortofon Windfeld, one of my favorite pickups. As it’s been replaced by a newer model and factory retipping is expensive, I’ve let it languish. But Kim quoted me $750, a fraction of what a factory retip would cost (even at reviewer accommodation).

Setting up a work order is easy. You phone or email Kim with the name and model number of your cartridge manufacturer, what you want done, and your preferences if any as to stylus geometry and cantilever material; he answers you with a quote. Given the number of cartridges on the market, he deals with each one and each customer on an individual basis, and he happily dispenses advice if he believes your choices are not optimal for your pickup. If you accept the quote, you send him your pickup, you pay him via PayPal, he fixes it, and you get it back in a day or two (plus shipping time).

Needle Clinic is far from the only aftermarket stylus repair and retipper outfit on the planet, but it's the only one I've dealt with. As with all aftermarket modifications of audio equipment, there’s a certain risk involved. Already mentioned is the voided original warranty. Another is that retippers rarely offer warranties of their own or at best only very limited ones. Kim, for example, guarantees that whatever replacement stylus assembly he uses, your pickup leaves his shop in perfect working order. (He does listening tests after a modification is complete; among other music, he likes to use opera recordings because sopranos can be so difficult to reproduce.) But that’s it. You don’t have the opportunity to audition it before buying, decide you don’t like it once you hear it, and return it.  

For myself, considering how reasonable Kim's pricing is, his decades of experience doing this, his long list of satisfied customers (whose comments suggest discerning listeners), the excellence of his Denon upgrade, the high quality of the parts he sources, his stated mission not only to repair a customer’s pickup but to make it better, the fact that he’s a one-man operation whose fast turn-around times seem not to compromise his workmanship, and what for want of a better word I’d call the overall vibe of my interactions with him (only phone and email), I’d say the risks of using Needle Clinic are pretty low. Inasmuch as no pickup manufacturer I’m aware of makes its own stylus and stylus assemblies—they all purchase them from what I am reliably informed are three main suppliers—there’s a good chance that if the stylus assembly you’re replacing is not as good as the Namiki model Kim replaces it with, you’ll get back better sound and performance than what you had before. If I decide to have him in fix my Windfeld, watch this space for a follow up.