OMG @pegasus, the Infinity 1001! That was my first pair of what I guess would be considered high end speakers. It’s price in 1971 was $139/ea, at that time about as much as I had the money for. It’s big brother, the 2000A (which contained the then-best tweeter in the world, the RTR Electrostatic, also used by Infinity in their Servo-Static I) was $299/ea, out of my reach.
The first Decca cartridge I heard was that of ARC’s Bill Johnson. Bill had flown out to Livermore, California (in his own plane---he was a pilot) to deliver a complete ARC system to his new dealer, Walter Davies. Walter is now known as the developer and owner of the Last Record Care products line, but in the Spring of 1972 had just opened a Hi-Fi shop, Audio Arts. Bill brought an SP-3 pre-amp, D-51 and D-75 power amps, a PC-1 passive x/o, and a pair of Magneplanar Tympani-I loudspeakers, of which ARC was the distributor. Bill also brought his own Thorens TD-125 Mk.2 turntable, a prototype ARC tonearm (which never went into production. It looked similar to the Grado arm of the 50’s/60’s---the arm "tube" a flat piece of what appeared to be walnut), onto which was mounted a Decca Blue.
I was a budding audiophile, having just discovered J. Gordon Holt and Stereophile. I listened as Bill and Walter discussed all things hi-fi, and got myself an invaluable education. The sound of that system was to me a revelation! The equipment available to hear in my area (San Jose and neighboring towns) was McIntosh, Dynaco (solid state), and SAE electronics, and Acoustic Research, Rectilinear, and JBL loudspeakers. And of course Bose 901’s. The common cartridges at the time were the Shure V15 and M91e, Stanton 681ee, and various Pickerings, ADC’s etc.
I dove into the deep end, getting my own ARC/Maggie/Decca system. I bought myself a Decca Blue, and mounted in on a Decca International arm and Thorens TD-125 Mk.2 table. The DI was at the time considered THE arm for Deccas, but with it learned that I didn’t care for unipivots. So I replaced it with an SME 3009 Series 2 Improved, and though the arm is a beautiful piece of engineering, it proved to be not a particularly good partner for the Decca. Perhaps because of the SME’s knife-edge bearing design?
Fast forward many years, after having long ago gotten out of hi-fi. I was now an older, wiser audiophile, and ready to jump back in. I bought myself a Decca Super Gold, and mounted it on a Mayware Formula 4. Yeah, it was a unipivot, but I wanted an arm with silicon damping for the Decca. The cartridge was too much for the Mayware, so I got myself the new Well tempered, and put them on a VPI HW-19. That was more like it!
I could have lived that way for years, but then learned of the Townshend Audio Rock Mk.2 Elite, a table particularly well suited for Deccas/Londons (in fact, Max Townshend used the Decca cartridge in his research and development of the Rock). The Well Tempered arm, on the other hand, was not (if you know about the Rock, with it’s trough of damping silicon, you understand why). Off it went, and in went a Rega RB300 with Cardas internal wire. I pretty good setup, but I knew I could do better.
Some further research informed me of the Zeta arm, long considered to be one of the couple of best partners for Deccas. And that it is! Nice stiff arm tube, excellent bearings, and a little on the higher end of medium mass arms. The Rock/Zeta/Decca is a real classic, like a Quad 57/25 watt tube or Class A amp combination. It’s getting buried with me!
There is a newish arm gaining a reputation amongst Decca/London aficionados, the Trans-Fi Terminator. The arm is a unique, passive air-bearing, linear-tracking design, made in the UK. T-F owner/designer Victor Patacchiola until very recently used the London Reference in his research and development of the arm, just as had Max Townshend with the Rock table. Some Decca/London owners are still using the Eminent Technology air-bearing, linear-tracking arm, too.
Robert Levi of Positive Feedback, Decca/London lover and Reference owner, recommends the outstanding Helius Omega arm. The current SME arms have their Decca/London proponents, as well. The common wisdom use to be that the cartridge was best served by a damped unipivot arm, but Grahams do not appear to be popular with Decca/London owners.
Here are two Decca/London related facts:
1- The Zesto Andros 1.2 Phono Stage has a mm cartridge impedance switch that includes a position of 15K Ohms, and provides 200pf of capacitance. Both of those figures are recommended by London for their cartridges. At the 2015 HiFi Show in Anaheim I asked Zesto designer/company President George Counnas if, as I suspected, those provisions were specifically for Londons, and he replied yes.
2- The Schitt Mani Phono Preamp offers four levels of gain, 30dB specifically for Deccas/Londons.
