2. analog
  3. 146410-2199

Woot! Decca cartridge bargain

Picked up a Decca Grey Export with a Garrott sticker on it and a metal clamp mounting bracket. It was sold untested for $270. As luck would have it, the thing works perfectly and sounds pretty darn good on a Jelco 750L with brass counterweight tracking at 1.75g on a Garrard 401.

Compared to my Paratrace Super Gold, the Grey is slightly darker with less detail but most notable is the reduced dynamic range. The Gold soaring while the Grey is more restrained. Nevertheless, the Grey is very musical with clean bass and clear metallic cymbal brushwork. Glad I snapped it up.

Anyone know what the Garrott improvements were on a Grey?

128x128noromance
nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 

Hi noromance, ''Paratrace'' is, if I am right, the stylus shape made

by '' Expert stylus UK'' ? I thought that ''Expert stylus'' is ''only''

cartridge repair service. But it looks as if ''Paratrace Gold'' is

also made by Expert stylus. Can you explain what the case is?

noromance's avatar
noromance OP
1,780 posts
 
Hi Nandric. Yeah... My naming nomenclature was confusing. it’s a Decca Super Gold with a Paratrace stylus fitted by John Wright. I believe the Paratrace is fitted to the London Reference. It’s a major improvement to the original VdH that was on it.
chakster's avatar
chakster
2,482 posts
 
Paratrace is the closest profile to Stereohedron patented by Stanton and manufactured by Extert Stylus in the UK back in the day (correct me if i'm wrong). Every Stanton owner should know that Expert Stylus is the company specializing in refurbishing Stanton/Pickering cartridges today. Never tried Paratrace myself, but i can trust Nandric. What i know for sure is that Stereohedron is superb, but not available any longer!    
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
1,780 posts
 
So I lowered the back of the 12" arm about 6mm in 1mm steps and the sound snapped into focus improving the aforementioned dynamics by an order of magnitude. This thing is growing on me.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
The Garrott brothers' improvements to the old Deccas are legendary. I tried a couple of times to talk Ken Kessler (Hi-Fi News & Record Review, author of books on QUAD and McIntosh), a big fan, to sell me one of his. To no avail!
More to discover