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Tightening up screws on Denon DL103R cart?

T

TheAuthor

pfm Member
Strange question I know. But having just fitted a Denon DL103R cart to my Rega RB300 arm (on Michell Syncro) it is really hard to tighten up the screws. Screw heads on top of headshel, but this cart doesn't come with regular nuts with flat edges that are held into the cart body in a way that they won't turn. Instead, they are just rounded off nuts with a slight grip, but when you tighten screws from the top, no matter how hard you squeeze the nuts with your thumb and finger, they turn in the side of the plastic body of the cart and I can't get them any more than a pinch past finger tight. I am reluctant to try and grip theses edge nuts with some right-angle pliers in fear of cracking the cart body and, with such force I might miss-align my careful alignment of the cart in the headshel.

If you do a Google image search for 'Denon DL103R' you'll see how the edges of this car is, with the nuts.

Most people fit this cart with screw threads on top so it is easy to put screwdriver pointing down. Very few reverse, probably because there is no room underneath to put screwdriver.

Any ideas how I can grip the side bolts tight enough while I give a nice secure tighten of the screws on the top? At the moment I fear they will work lose after a few weeks of playing.
 
thats a strange one,i dont have any problems tightening mine up by holding the round nut with my fingers.
 
jamie123 said:
thats a strange one,i dont have any problems tightening mine up by holding the round nut with my fingers.
Click to expand...

They just turn if I hold them with my fingers, but I don't exactly have the finger strength of Arnie ;) Guess my fingers are a little feeble, need something to grip them with.
 
The knurled nuts are not the best but I use a fingernail in the knurled groove while tightening at the bolthead.
 
myles said:
The knurled nuts are not the best but I use a fingernail in the knurled groove while tightening at the bolthead.
Click to expand...

That's the word I was looking for, 'knurled'. My fingernails are like paper and they just bend and break when I turn the screw from the top. Right angle pliers are a scary thought, but I don't think I have a choice.
 
You only need to tighten it so it doesn’t move in use. The whole ‘Linn tight’ overtightening thing of the 1980s was just marketing idiocy. The DL-103 has a typical plastic case, finger-tight is all you need, more than that and the case will bend or distort.

PS I’d be tempted by a headshell weight betwen cart and headshell with the RB300 as the 103 likes a more massy arm.
 
Bin the knurled nuts, don’t use aluminium or brass screws/nuts. Use stainless steel ones and tighten intelligently - not too tight - but more than finger tight!
 
Don't need a headshell weight. As it is, with the DL-103, the counterweight is almost hanging off the back as the Denon cart is way heavier than the Rega Carbon that it replaced. The Rega must have been really light as the counterweight got pushed back on the arm so much I was worried I might have to buy a larger counterweight.
 
Word of caution. The Denon 103 and its variants benefit from light tightness. As Tony said, if you try to tighten too much the plastic body may distort but worse is that the sound changes.

In fact I only tighten the screws enough so that the cartridge does not move, not much beyond that.
 
YNWOAN said:
Bin the knurled nuts, don’t use aluminium or brass screws/nuts. Use stainless steel ones and tighten intelligently - not too tight - but more than finger tight!
Click to expand...

+1
This is what have done with a 103 tightened in a Sumiko headshell. (Nuts at the top) with no problems.
 
TheAuthor said:
Don't need a headshell weight. As it is, with the DL-103, the counterweight is almost hanging off the back as the Denon cart is way heavier than the Rega Carbon that it replaced. The Rega must have been really light as the counterweight got pushed back on the arm so much I was worried I might have to buy a larger counterweight.
Click to expand...

At least your mental and your manual capabilities seem to be quite in a balance.
If I was literally incapable of screwing a cart to a headshell, I would seriously consider going to a dealer,
drop him 300 bucks on the counter and ask him to find and fit the best cart to this deck that fits the arm.

I'm kind of astonished why people who obviously don't take any advice,
are still always asking for advice in the first place, keeping about 20 or more people buisy with their problem,
just to do come up with nearly the worst possible solution on their own..that nobody ever suggested..?
Fascinating.
I'm getting my popcorn.. :)
 
To be fair to the OP, he might not have picked up on the fact that adding mass to that tonearm would be beneficial to the SQ. His answer seemed based on the balance of the arm between counterweight and cartridge.

If someone can describe - better than me - how adding mass to the RB300 when using a DL103 then perhaps he'd be more open to the idea.
 
myles said:
To be fair to the OP, he might not have picked up on the fact that adding mass to that tonearm would be beneficial to the SQ. His answer seemed based on the balance of the arm between counterweight and cartridge.

If someone can describe - better than me - how adding mass to the RB300 when using a DL103 then perhaps he'd be more open to the idea.
Click to expand...

That's about it, thought it was just about balance and by adding more weight at the head-shell end would mean the counterweight at the other end would probably be falling off the back of the tonearm.
 
TheAuthor said:
That's about it, thought it was just about balance and by adding more weight at the head-shell end would mean the counterweight at the other end would probably be falling off the back of the tonearm.
Click to expand...

Here’s an introduction to tonearm effective mass & cartridge compliance on The Analogue Dept. The DL-103 is not a great match with a mid-mass arm like the RB300 and adding mass at the headshell can help this to a degree.
 
TheAuthor said:
Strange question I know. But having just fitted a Denon DL103R cart to my Rega RB300 arm (on Michell Syncro) it is really hard to tighten up the screws. Screw heads on top of headshel, but this cart doesn't come with regular nuts with flat edges that are held into the cart body in a way that they won't turn. Instead, they are just rounded off nuts with a slight grip, but when you tighten screws from the top, no matter how hard you squeeze the nuts with your thumb and finger, they turn in the side of the plastic body of the cart and I can't get them any more than a pinch past finger tight. I am reluctant to try and grip theses edge nuts with some right-angle pliers in fear of cracking the cart body and, with such force I might miss-align my careful alignment of the cart in the headshel.

If you do a Google image search for 'Denon DL103R' you'll see how the edges of this car is, with the nuts.

Most people fit this cart with screw threads on top so it is easy to put screwdriver pointing down. Very few reverse, probably because there is no room underneath to put screwdriver.

Any ideas how I can grip the side bolts tight enough while I give a nice secure tighten of the screws on the top? At the moment I fear they will work lose after a few weeks of playing.
Click to expand...

Maybe you don't have the right screws:

DENON-103-On-record.jpg
 
delange said:
Maybe you don't have the right screws:

DENON-103-On-record.jpg
Click to expand...

They are exactly as pictured, the ones that came with it. Only difference is they are screws on top, not Allen key. But same knurled bit at bottom. I just can't grip the knurled bit tight enough between thumb and finger of left hand. While I am tightening from the top the knurled bits turn under my thumb/finger.
 
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