domfjbrown said:
Ask HenryT, he has a Frog, and, err, can speak from experience...
At least his wasn't only one of fifty in the universe
Damn!
Uncle Ants - what's the bass on the 160 like compared to, say, either an Ortofon or Dynavector (if you know)? The 540 I have is just about right in bass, but not-so-hot for end-of-side on shagged records... Gets a tad screechy... If I give up on the Dynaudios speaker thing, I could order a Denon in May, since a 160 costs only about £four pints worth more than a new stylus for my 540...
BTW, when I bust my 520 stylus back in 1999, I bend it back manually; the cantilever was literally folded back on itself like a Z shape, but still worked - sort of. I only tried 3 tracks with it looking like that though!
Dom,
Its hard to make exact comparisons as I've just moved house, only had the V15 in place for a week in the new place if not less and had only just about resolved the bass issues I was having in the new place when I trashed it ... and of course I've never had a chance to do a direct comparison Denon to 540
That said - here goes. in the old place the V15 easily bettered the Ortofon 530 (can't speak for the 540) in the bass department and killed it dead on the end of side and knackered records front. It wasn't bad, but these are areas the V15 excelled in.
From the brief period I had the V15 in the new place and reasonably sorted before I killed it
I'd say the DEnon's not far off the V15 in the bass (and may even be as good), is as good re end of side, nearly as good on knackered records and is actually better on surface noise.
On this basis, and assuming the 540 isn't too different from the 530, I'd suggest the DL-160 is an improvement in all these areas. From memory - the 530 had some end of side issues (but not so bad as the Tracer) and could be a bit harsh in the top end - it really didn't like worn records. I have none of these problems with the Denon.
Of course none of this is very scientific and relies on fallible memory and changing rooms. I have however run the 530, V15, DL-160 and the NAS Tracer through the Shure Obstacle Course test record:
The V15 beat all comers and tracked perfectly right to the torture track at high, medium and low frequencies.
The DL-160 shows very (and I mean very) slight mistracking on the low frequency torture track only.
The 530 showed obvious mistracking on the low freq torture track and slight mistracking on the high freq torture track.
The Tracer showed very obvious mistracking on the low freq torture track and obvious mistracking on the track several (can't remember how many) dbs below that. It also got edgy on the high freq torture track.
The 530 was a good cart and did me a couple of years, but I think I can unequivically say that the V15 and Denon are better. I spent another couple of hours with the Denon last night and am quite happy to say it suits my tastes from a sonic perspective far better than the Ortofon and indeed better than the V15 (but as ever that's just personal taste).
Hope this helps.
Tony
