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What's a real good arm for a Decca Cartridge?

I have a Decca London Super Gold with a paratrace stylus. It's sound as good as anything I've ever heard using my SME M2-12R arm on a rebuilt TD124. The problem is I want something that will track all my LPs and the SME just won't. After a bunch of tweaking, including adding tons of mass, it'll play 90% without issue. What arm will get me those extra 10%?
dhcod
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,846 posts
 

@dhcod: Are you certain it is the arm not the cartridge that is responsible for the mistracking? The current London’s are better in that regard than were the Decca’s, but tracking remains the design’s major failing. The SME has long been considered to be a poor match for the cartridge; something about the huge amount of mechanical energy it puts into an arm causing the SME’s knife-edge bearings to "chatter" (that’s why adding mass helps).

Arms popular amongst the Decca/London cognoscenti include the Sumiko MDC-800 ("The Arm"), Zeta, Hadcock (and other unipivots), Mission Mechanic, Fidelity Research, Helius Omega, Well Tempered, linear trackers including the Eminent Technology, TransFi Terminator, and London’s own. Art Dudley even liked the London Gray in a Rega 300, but he’s not a Decca nut. There are some older Audiogon threads on the same subject.

If you really want to go all in, get yourself a Townshend Rock, THE table for the Decca/London!

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
+1 bdp24
There is nothing wrong with your arm. It is the cartridge, just one of the things you have to live with when you get a Decca. They can sound great but they do not track so hot. Just like any British sports car.  Most people I know with Deccas have other cartridges they can use on tougher disc. Instead of getting a new arm jest get another cartridge!

Mike
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,853 posts
 
Poppycock! My Decca SG tracks perfectly in my 12" Jelco 850L at 1.65g. I have a Decca Grey Garrott Export in a 12" 750L and it too tracks perfectly at 1.7g.
I do use heavy mounting bolts (brass) on the headshell.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,846 posts
 
Touche', @noromance. What I should have said is that if you have a Decca (is the op's a Decca, or a London?) in an SME, and you have mistracking, I would suspect the cartridge before the arm. Not all Deccas mistrack, but they are well known to not be the best tracking pickups around. The best examples are fine, others not so much. I never managed to get a hold of a Garrotted-version; I tried to pry one out of Ken Kessler's hands, but he wouldn't budge ;-) .
topoxforddoc's avatar
topoxforddoc
353 posts
 
The modern London cartridges made by John Wright have much better quality control than the original Decca Special Products output (which was indeed a bit of a lottery).
I have had Decca for 40 years now, and they will track most records. No they won't do the cannons on the Telarc 1812 Overture, but very few cartridges will track that.
Traditionally they were best mated to damped unipivots. The lack of vertical compliance meant that the vertical vector energy could be dissipated in the unipivot without affecting the cartridge performance. I've used my Maroon, Garrott Bros Gold and FFSS MkIV C4E (John Wright rebuilt with fine line tip) in my Hadcock 228 and Schroeder tonearms (Model 2 carbon and Reference) with great results.
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