Looking for thoughts from Nottingham Analog table owners


Really like the looks and the build quality of the Nottingham tables, and it does not hurt that I am originally from Nottingham, England to start with...lol
But I have read a few reviews that claim they are pretty tricky to set up and some suffer 60hz hum fairly easily?
Would like to hear from actual owners, your arms, carts etc
Would be upgrading from a Funk Firm Vector with Grado Gold which is deathly quiet as far as hum and in its own right is very musical in my rig.
Thank you
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xuberwaltz
Just a question for Nottingham owners.
What cartridge have you used and thoughts on same for a Spacedeck.
Sumiko Blackbird HO, SAE 1000 LC, Benz Micro MC20E2, Micro Acoustic 630, even a Shure High Track M91E. All sound good, some I believe a little better like the Blackbird which is what I am using at the moment. I'd also be interested in what others have used. Must not be that many Notts owners on this forum?
uberwaltz, anovak

I believe inna is Nottingham fan. He could give you more advice concerning cartridges.
 I once considered them until the dealer and I believe Music Direct sold them at one time and then they disappeared.
No local support killed it for me.
Tom Fletcher designed the Spacedeck/Spacearm with MM cartridges in mind. The Nottingham cartidges, no longer made I guess, were based on Goldring MM. That's what I use, Goldring 1042. There is a lot of a sound in that cartridge if your components and cables are up to it. That said, I heard that many other cartridges, including not too heavy or/and too low compliance cartridges work quite well in the Spacedeck arm. Some really like Lyra Delos and Kiseki Purpleheart, both quite expensive. I myself am going to keep the Goldring until I upgrade the Acoustech phono to a high level tube phono stage. Then I will see and think. Others would suggest trying some great vintage cartridges. Yeah, this could be interesting, maybe.
You don't really need local support with Nottinghams. Larry from Hollywood Sound, the only dealer in the US, would assist you.
By the way, using adapters degrades the sound to unknown degree, it is better to have the cable rewired with RCAs unless of course you are thinking of a phono stage with XLR inputs. There are not many of them, though.
@inna 

Yea, I am not too crazy on the xlr back to rca but wanted to get it up and running. I will likely get some high quality rca plugs and rewire the tonearm cable to these.

I quite like the shelter cart but as it is only one I have heard so far always up for options.
Actually looking at a couple of older Grace models, I know a few really like them