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Decca cartridge experiences

I really don't expect any response to this as the issue of Deccas, and all the controversies they stirred up is now passé, but does anyone out there own and use a Decca, and if so, did you find a tonearm which will accomodate it? I'd appreciate it if anyone shared their experiences with it, good or bad. I've found two tonearms in which it will work well: one a Mayware tonearm in which it works superbly, and one a Maplenoll air-bearing 'table with fluid damping trough, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting this combo to work again (I've only recently re-acquired the Maplenoll)...I'll have to fiddle with viscosity, amount of fluid and so on.

To all those who haven't had a chance to hear this cartridge, and who like to experiment and have fun (and tear their hair out), then a Decca still has the most slam of any cartridge, and retrieves an incredible amount of detail from the groove. Though these days it no longer sells for pocket change (the Super Gold goes for $850, but there are cheaper models), it's still not in the stratosphere like so many others. It is dificlt to find a tonearm which will accomodate it as well.

I'd appreciate as well any experiences with the new versions, as I hear the new stylus profile makes it less difficult. I think the responses will be "0", but any cartridge which stirred up this much controversy (at least a while ago) is Good News, like the Shelter (which is far more accomodating, however)...Thank you for your attention, if any attention there is...
johnnantais
eyiu
7 posts
 
tbg, do you have any experience with the H-cat thig? I talk to a chap here in Audiogon, he seems to be a dealer of that.

Sound like promising stuff. However, getting a phono of that price unseeen unheard seems to be stupid.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Yes, see my post today on the phono stage. I, of course, did buy both the line stage and the phono unheard, but I knew Roger Paul. Where do you live, if you are near NJ, CT, or TX, I know where you might hear one.

Roger sells direct, but he has taken on one dealer, who I introduced to the H-Cat. I am not a dealer.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
The post is at http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1094395608&openusid&zzTbg&4&5#Tbg
johnnantais OP
621 posts
 
Well, I finally got the Decca to sound great and track as flawlessly as I have ever heard it by mounting it on a...Decca. That's right, a Decca International cheap plastic-ky tonearm. But the thing is about the Decca cartridge, that provided it is on a tonearm which is sympathetic to its considerable demands, it always performs at a very high level. My Decca INternational tonearm is turbo-charged, however, with a mixture of Cardas tonearm wire and my favourite IC. It has also had all its friction-fit and screw fittings glued in place permanently to strengthen it and focus the sound. The end result is that unmatched Decca speed and slam and detail and bass and imaging, even on the humble Decca International! The Decca International is, however, a clever thing: it floats on two opposing ring-magnets inside the tonearm pillar, and it is a fluid-damped unipivot, tiny as that pivot is. It is a superbly musical tonearm tweaked or not, and with the Decca Super Gold on it truly up among the best High-End matches. The whole is mounted on my very quiet and slamming heavy idler-wheel drive, a re-plinthed Lenco. The whole is so dynamic and fast it is, like whisky, to be taken in small amounts, when one is being reasonable anyway. Any other happy endings out there?
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Oh dear, John, you have reminded me of my first high-end source, which I took out a loan to buy and then traded away in a d-i-v-o-r-c-e. It was a London Export, gray case, in an International arm and it certainly boogied. I had champagne tastes then just as much as today.

Unfortunately the cart and arm pair were mounted on a Connoisseur BD-1... sorry. As long as nobody got up and walked around, and no trucks passed, it was very listenable. But the sound had a rather seismographic quality, if I may put it that way.

If I ever get a second analog source, this thread has made sure it will be an attempt to see that old TT done right.
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