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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
 
The worst happened. The stylus armature snapped off my Decca London Gold when I tried to blow some dust off the inside of the cartridge.

I had actually got the Decca working on the Lenco arm, using some blu tack as damping material. It could only track mono pressings though, as stereo grooves gave it the shakes.

Some of the mono LPs I tried out actually sounded great, particularly Traffic's "Mr. Fantasy" (pink label UK Island, ILP 9061). The Beatles' "Revolver" (Parlophone PMC 7009) was pretty good too. The quiet passages on Schubert's "Tragic Overture" (Nixa, NLP 913) was sublime. When the orchestra went tutti however, it was pure horror.

I was actually contemplating capturing some of the Decca Gold sound, when it behaved, onto MP3 files and sharing it with you guys. Sadly, that will not happen.

I've spent like less than 12 hours with the Decca Gold. But what I heard truly confirmed what aficionados have always said about the Decca—When it was good, it was very, very good. When it was bad, it was horrid.

I'm not sure if I will have the cartridge rebuilt, or use the money on a saner, more predictable, hopefully not boring MC like a new Benz Gold or something.

Thanks guys for all the feedback, opinions, suggestions. It was great while it lasted.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Tubemoose, what you say about the Deccas is right on with my 40 year experience with the Decca. I remember much tone arm interaction with the Keith Monks and Decca International being best. More recently I used the Jubilee on the Schroeder. It took much time and adjustment of the distance between the magnets to get it to work right, but it can be done with that Decca. Tracking is always the major issue. I do wonder whether you have sufficient tracking force. What is the recommended tracking force now for the London? I think I remember 3 or 4 grams.
zieman
339 posts
 
Using the term suspension was incorrect, but there just had to be something mechanical wrong with this cart.
gp49
52 posts
 
Getting into this thread late, but both the poor sound and the breakage of the armature suggest that there may have been prior damage to Tubemoose's Decca.

Some people mess with Deccas and crack the tiny, thin steel armature where it does a 90-degree bend just below the vertical coil polepieces.

Deccas are not all THAT fragile if you only use a soft brush or soft pile stylus cleaner on them, and only stroke from back to front. I would not blow air into one to clean it. Don't FLICK the stylus (I know, nobody will ever admit to doing that, but be honest with yourself).

Some idiots have advised opening up a Decca's tin lid and tinkering with the tiny screws visible inside, to tighten up the string. Those screws do nothing of the kind. They adjust the gap between the vertical coil polepieces and thea armature. All you will do by messing with those is to mess up your channel separation.

Deccas prefer high mass arms and work well in damped unipivots such as the Keith Monks and Decca International, and in the Well Tempered Arm, which with its critical damping, simulates a high mass arm in many respects. The WTA's sand-filled armtube helps a lot, too. The Decca also has a synergy with the Rabco SL-8 linear tracking arm, which I run with a tubular arm wand filled internally with sand.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
GP49, wow, you take me back many years. Do you still have a working Keith Monks arm? And a working Rabco!
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