2. analog
  3. 1223606540

Decca London Gold cartridge nightmare

Having read so much about the Decca London Gold cartridge, I decided to try one. Time passed and I finally found one on ebay that was within my budget. Cartridge was guaranteed to work with good results by a seller with very good feedback. Physically the cart looked neat, and everything, except for the mounting screws, was intact.

I had intended to install the cartridge in a new Kuzma Stogi S arm on a LP12 turntable but since the arm is scheduled to arrive end Oct 2008, I decided to try the Decca on my Lenco L75, with the original Lenco arm. At least to make sure all connections were OK, if not for any other reason.

What happened afterwards was pure nightmare. The results were horrendous, to say the least!

Tell me where I went wrong.

I tried tracking between 1.5 to 3gm but the sound ranged from tinny to severe breaking up. Even more startling, the groove vibrations picked up by the stylus was transmitted to the entire headshell, so you could actually hear the sound of the grooves generated acoustically by the vibration, kind of like a diaphragm or a gramophone horn. Lightly placing my finger on the headshell while a record played confirmed this. The headshell was quaking! With the preamp gain down to zero, you could hear the headshell vibration from a distance of a foot and a half, maybe even further, I kid you not.

The cartridge that I am presently using on my Lenco is a low output Audio Technica MC, the AT-OC3. No problems there. Tracks pretty well too, but not great, considering the Lenco arm was not made for MC carts. But the results were definitely more sane than the Decca!!

What's happening? Help!

Thanks for any advice, suggestions, feedback.

beck
tubemoose
tubemoose OP
8 posts
 
Dubhouse-Coincidentally, I was just thinking today how an undamped cartridge like the Decca London Gold would perform in an ultra damped arm like one of the Well Tempered's! Given the design of the WT arms, I'm sure a Decca and WT arm is a match made in heaven. I used to own the WTRP arm and TT, and definitely would not mind owning one again when the opportunity comes around.
I'm not sure about mounting the Stogi S on the Lenco L75. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Yes I'll let you know how it goes after I've got the Stogi on the LP12, and the Decca on the Stogi.
Thanks guys.
eee3
214 posts
 
Just to echo the previous responses, the decca responds most postively to unipivot damped arms. I've been using decca cartridges for the last 20+ years and have become very familiar with all of the little nuances associated
with this cartridge. I'm currently using the supergold with a Keith Monks tonearm which was designed specifically for the decca. Decca's usually track best around 2 grams.
Well tempered arms have been known to work well with this cartridge.
dubhouse
19 posts
 
Its always good to hear from other Decca fans! I think they are criminally overlooked and under-reviewed. Some of this is a result of QC and tracking problems back in the day. Dopogue describes them very well: "exceptionally dynamic, involving, and open, with excellent bass." They do many things that expensive Moving Coils don't. Listening to one playing a properly mastered and pressed UK record is, at least to my ears, getting close to what a master tape sounds like. My only complaint is that mine has a slight hum that I've been unable to identify the source. But everything else is so "right" about it that I'm able to live with it.
Eee3, have you done any mods or rewiring to that Keith Monks tonearm? I have often been tempted to buy one of those. Of course there's always the Decca International Tonearm!
Warren Gregoire is using Decca's with a Dynavector 507 and swears by that combination. I just read on another Agon thread that someone is using the Gold and the Reference with the funky RS Labs RS-A1 tonearm and prefers it to much more expensive tonearms/carts. This to me is very intriguing. The thread is here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1220542524&openfrom&1&4#1

Steve
dopogue
1,767 posts
 
Steve, how do you use a Decca in the RS-A1. Both the "headshell" and the Decca mount have threaded holes. Frankly, it sounds like a marriage made in hell but after using an RS-A1 for a couple of months, I'm inclined to believe anything is possible. Dave
eee3
214 posts
 
Dubhouse, I have not done any mods as of yet, however I have thought about it but you have to be careful about those kinds of things as the decca's can be notorius for hum if things are not done just right. My philosophy is if ain't broke don't fix it.
The Linn-Lp 12,keith monks and decca gold was a marriage made in heaven and as mentioned before, the keith monks was designed specifically for that marriage an after 20 yrs. of that marriage and this so called old technology, I still haven't heard anything sound much better and yes I've heard other systems. In fact my very good friend and audiophile buddy just came back home to decca after a short hiatus with some other cartridges(clear audio maestro)to name one because he just couldn't get that magical sound the decca has. He's using his in a sme v tonearm and truthfully it doesn't sound that much better than my setup and his sounds very good! Its just something magical about the Lp-12 keith monks decca combination, I can't explain it.
Just to let you know, I have the M9ba mkIII version and it sounds better than the decca international arm.
More to discover