Based on the legendary Denon DL-103, with machined body, dual compound epoxy potted motor assembly and body, increased weight and machined directly into body EIA standard two hole mounting.
“The Zu doesn’t just slay giants: It rips their beating heart from their chests, shows it to them, finishes them off, then chases their souls and drags them down to hell.” —Art Dudley, Stereophile
“What would you get by spending more money—say, $1600 for the Koetsu Black that I reviewed last July? In my system, the Black has lots of beautiful tone and texture, while sounding less colored, less pungent, than either version of the DL-103. But for all that, the Zu DL-103 in particular was capable of sounding bigger, and had a better, more impactful way with uptempo music. In that respect, the Zu was more stirring—more involving—than all but my Miyabi 47. Really. In many instances, the Koetsu Black or the EMT JSD 5 (also here on loan) had a prettier, even more realistic sound—a flute with a clearer timbral signature here, a more realistic guitar tone there—but for sheer fun, the Zu was usually the one I turned to.” —Art Dudley, Stereophile
The original DL-103 is a classic; easy to set up and it really soaks the music from that stereo groove. It’s easy on the ears, has “super cart” status in the meat of the music, complete with real stereophonic magicness. While the original has life, compared to modern pickups it isn’t all that resolving in the bass; lacks detail, and is a bit loosygoosy particularly in shimmer and treble tone; and it has this hazy-lazy pot-puffin thing going on—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the popular hi-fi sound with source gear and speakers trying to rip your head off with high frequency distortion....
The Zu / DL-103 cleans it all up, expanding the good traits, adds incisiveness and full bandwidth dynamic slam and delicacy—all without making it sound like a soulless modern cartridge. Zu / DL-103 is all about bottom to top sexy wet analog realism. Yeah, it has resolution, attack, stereophonic magic, and real tone.
Tolerance and grade options:
Denon’s factory tolerance between L&R output voltage and internal coil impedance
for the DL-103 cartridges is ≤ 3.0% as tested by Zu. Those factory Denon pickups
that do not measure 2% or better are either reworked or resold as stock Denon
products. This ensures that the Zu branded DL-103 pickups are the cream of
the crop. And those of you after the very tightest of tolerances will be happy
to learn that in remanufacturing this great cartridge Zu tests and measures it at
several points along the way; and in final testing the pickup gets tolerance speced
and graded. Tolerance is measured between the two channels’ (L and R) internal
resistance and output voltage. Zu’s tolerance spec is not an average of measures,
but accounts for the lowest of any measurement thus giving a true tolerance
perspective. All tolerance measures are referenced to the serial numbers and
are graded and indicated on the label.
