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What tonearm will better mine?

I have been running a 12" Jelco SA750L with an upgraded Decca Super Gold on a Garrard 401 for a few years. I'm happy with the sound and happy with my pre, power and speakers. (Croft 25R, EICO HF35s, -good tubes, Quad 57).
I keep hearing that my tonearm is a weak link even though it sounds pretty awesome to me. What would it take to replace the Jelco and make a significant improvement? What should I expect to hear better? Would I have to drill the massive plinth? Thanks.
noromance
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
10,054 posts
 
Thanks everyone.
bdp24, The name may be a play in decapods - animals like crabs - I guess the tight grip...
Wasn't the red plastic part of the damping? I like the idea of a solid base for the Decca. Have you heard the Decapod upgrade? My Mk.Vll has already been to JW for a Paratrace tip which was a major upgrade. I'll shoot him an email when it's due a retip. Thanks.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,097 posts
 

The red plastic mount wasn’t designed for damping, but merely for mounting the cartridge, and perhaps for easy switching between models---elliptical, spherical, the version for 78’s. The cartridge originated in the 1950’s, long before people were as concerned with damping resonances as are we now. That mounting design exhibits a fair amount of flex, allowing relative motion between cartridge and headshell, obviously not a good thing. People have tried all sorts of DIY remedies, the most common being Plasticene, Mortite, Blutack, modeling clay, and other putty-like materials wedged into the space between the top of the cartridge and the bottom of the mount, to prevent that motion. The Decapod is a far better solution, making the cartridge as tightly secured to a headshell as any "normal" one. I ordered my London Super Gold Mk.VII with the Decapod already installed, but my earlier Decca SG originally had the stock mount. I sent it back to John for him to install. Yes, definitely worth the money!

The Paratracer tip is universally lauded by Decca/London owners, and when I need a retip I’m definitely going to have John install it on my London.

2channel8
760 posts
 
For those who don't want to shell out for the MINT protractor:

Conrad Hoffman wrote:Ok, I admit it. I tested this on the unsuspecting folks at the asylum first. After a few revisions, here's my cartridge arc alignment template and strobe disk generator. It's far smaller than bitmaps of the same thing, plus you can choose your specific pivot-to-spindle distance, groove radius and alignment strategy choice. It also prints pretty darn nice strobe disks. Freeware, no viri, no strings attached. Please let me know what you think.

http://www.conradhoffman.com/chsw.htm

noromance, 

I may have missed it; but have you played with damping fluid? I have a SA750 clone, the Sumiko Premier MMT and like you I sometimes get upgradeitis. Then I buy a new phono cable or something and come to my senses. The Jelco may be underappreciated by some because of it's modest price; but I have found it to better many more expensive arms. If I had $3,000 to spend improving my system, I certainly wouldn't spend it all replacing my Sumiko!
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
10,054 posts
 
@2channel8 Thanks for the link. Interesting. I added the oil at the start and when it evaporated away, I didn't really notice any loss so I haven't bothered refilling it!
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Why dontcha try something different and modern...
Terminator T3Pro fits nicely DECCA cartridges, the designer Vic at Trans-fi Audio used the London Reference as his main cartridge, see his site. And yes, you can adjust VTA on-the-fly with digital scale.

Btw, I use low impedance values for my MM carts. 30 kOhms sounds better than 47 kOhms w/ my Audio-Technica and SHURE carts, they also benefit from very low capacitance values like 100 pF of total value.
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