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Decca carts

Has anybody tried one on an Nottingham arm? 

Has anybody ever settled on one long term/used as a daily driver.  


I've long considered taking the plunge. But I've held off as my rig is tuned to a different cart and I haven't wanted to start over. 

I'm also thinking with an ear to the future and possibly moving back to Quicksilver amps, either mid monos or prefersbly the now discontinued Mini Mites as I don't need that much power, if I can find some used, I feel there could be some synergy there in the chain. It sounds like the Decca's are super quick and live sounding and the mid monos I had previously were leaning creamy and that holographic thing going for them and it's had me wondering about the pairing. 


Thank you for any input, experiences. 

128x128fourwnds
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds OP
261 posts
 
Thank you Bdp24 for the heads up. I hadn't considered an accidental turn of the platter and how that could effect a cartridge like a Decca/London.  I was referring to the current London cartridges. Regarding the arm requirements I understand they can/are picky. the Nott arms are unipivot but not fluid and only mechanically damped. My arm is the 12" version and fwiw I spoke with Warren Gregoire and after grilling me a bit he said I was good to go. But with all due respect you know that is his business. As to the resistive loading, Ive read a lower one than the standard 47k can sometimes be preferable, but that seems to be a personal/system type of choice and not mandatory.  But I dont know for sure. I am in research mode and thought I'd reach out to the community for first hand experience for any and all input or opinions. My situation does not take lightly a $1500 decision but I also have learned fortune can favor the bold. 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

Ah, fourwinds, you went through the Warren Gregoire "interview" ;-) ! A 12" unipivot sounds like a fine arm choice; London’s throwing a lot of mechanical energy back into whatever it’s mounted on, and can cause any but the best bearings to rattle. Warren told me the current London’s need the same arm as any other high-quality cartridge---medium effective mass, a stiff arm tube, and good bearings.

The owners manual with the current London’s gives recommendations for resistive and capacitance loading. I believe the Super Gold is spec’ed at 22k ohms resistance and 220pF capacitance, but some owners prefer the standard 47k ohms. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Londons put out a very high 5mV, so a phono amp with very high overload characteristics is a real good idea. They need no more than 40dB gain, and low-gain phono circuits typically have higher overload margins than do higher-gain circuits, a happy coincidence.

What the London provides in spades, even in comparison with far more expensive pickups, is an extremely dynamic, immediate, "live" sound, making many others sound anemic, bland, restrained. Boring!

noromance's avatar
noromance
1,780 posts
 
I’ve used a Decca Super Gold since the late 80s with mixed results until I installed it on a Jelco 750 12". I works perfectly with or without the damping oil. It also works better into 47k and some say 1Meg. If you load it down any more, you lose some of the air and live feeling the cartridge is capable of. The revelation came when I sent it to JW to get a Paratrace tip which is fitted to the higher end models. Transformed!! In fact, I would recommend biting the bullet and sending a new one for the upgrade after a few months. Pros: The band is in your room. Cons: So is the surface noise. PS. I have never damaged it and I have hamfistedly sent that baby across more records than I care to recall.

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