Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

From the recent London cartridge posts here, I did find a thread started by, to my surprise, Jean Nantais - on the London Decca. I attach fyi. 
   
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/decca-cartridge-experiences\

I found comments from Frogman and Dover within the thread.

I have restarted my winter ritual of pulling 4-5 unknown records every day from my collection, listening to them and cataloging - electronically and physically. Unless a London cart drops from the sky into my lap 8^0 - I will remain in music lover mode this winter.

 You guys have excellent memory!  Yes, London Decca.  Possibly the most frustrating of all my audio experiences; certainly of those in analog playback.  The Decca makes a sound that, in some respects, is the best I have experienced in my system,  When I say “best” I refer to the ability to let recorded music have more of the sense of aliveness and to move with the forward impetus that live music can have.  Tonally, while it sounds somewhat “old-school”, it gives individual images a degree of tonal density that I love.  However, as Chris remembers, no matter what I do I can’t get rid of a deal breaking amount of ground buzzing and humming.  

As far as tracking goes it has always surprised me that it tracks better than its reputation would suggest.  On my ET2 the best tracking cartridge in my humble stable of cartridges is the Monster SG2000. The Decca doesn’t track nearly as well, but is acceptable with most recordings and has the most trouble, as expected, with densely orchestrated orchestral recordings.  I agree that the magnesium arm tube is the way to go.  Likewise, use of the damping trough does improve the Decca’s tracking; not hugely so, but a definite improvement in difficult musical passages.  The cartridge is so alive sounding that it can afford the very subtle “slowing” of dynamics that the use of the trough seems to cause with some cartridges.  

Now, here is a bit of a mystery.  As anyone who has ever struggled to find the best grounding scheme for their audio system knows, it is all a bit mysterious why some things work and why others don’t.  The hum/buzzing that I experience with the Decca is not subtle.  I can reduce it to a level that with fairly aggressive music I can just about ignore it, but as I said it is ultimately a deal breaker.  When I lower the “paddle” into the trough’s fluid the level of the buzzing is reduced slightly.  Huh?!  Why on earth (pun) would this be?  Not a huge difference, but an obvious reduction.  Thoughts?  

You guys have excellent memory!

Not according to my wife ..... 8^(

Regarding the Hum and Buzz with the Decca.

From what I recall Frogman you are running a straight shot from the cartridge pins soldered into the phone stage connections directly. Left ground right ground left signal right signal. I run in a similar fashion but with unshielded wiring a direct shot (3 feet in length), and terminating using WBT plugs.

My wires are separated once they leave the armwand. 4 separate wires hanging in a happy face loop, cause minimal air bearing interaction - but, not being braided all the way can be more susceptible to hum and buzz.

What I did to remove the noise. Did you try this?
Go behind the phono stage and separate the wires the last 12-18 inches before they go into the phono.
With the phono on, the record NOT turning- turn up the volume and start moving each wire individually - one at a time. U will induce noise with each wire movement. Once the first wire is in a position that is quietest, use blue tack to keep that strand in place. Repeat this process with the other three wires. By the time all four strands are done all should be quiet.

Did you try the phono stage cheater plug with the ground removed ?

Also
If someone is using regular shield L and R phono cables and you have noise - try picking up the preamp / phono box and move it 12 inches in all directions.

Frogman the damping trough mystery with subdued noise when it is engaged; a weird phenomena since the damping trough is not electrical.

Thanks, Chris.  Great suggestions.

**** Did you try the phono stage cheater plug with the ground removed ? *****

Yup, of course,

**** separate the wires the last 12-18 inches before they go into the phono. ****

Have not tried that.  Wires are a twisted pair for each channel; unshielded from cartridge pins to smiley face and beyond to just above manifold.  Then, above the manifold each twisted (braided) pair goes into its own individual length of Teflon tubing all the way to where each wire is soldered to the back of the corresponding RCA jack inside the phono stage.  From the point that each twisted pair goes into Teflon tubing, both “tubes” together go into a length of copper braid over which is black insulating sheathing.  The phono stage end of the copper braid has a copper wire “pig tail” which goes to the grounding lug on the phono stage.  From that same point where the pig tail is soldered to the copper braid, a short length of each of the two Teflon tubes exit the copper braid/sheathing and each of the four individual wires are soldered inside the phono stage.  

I have wanted to try going totally unshielded the entire length of wire(s) for quite some time which would allow me to try your suggestion of moving each individual wire around.  Great suggestion.  A couple of points:  I have no grounding issues whatsoever with any other cartridge I have except the ATML170OCC; although to a lesser degree.  All MC’s are dead silent.  Also, I experience essentially the same degree of grounding issues with the Decca in the Alphason and Grado tonearms which I used before acquiring the ET2 and the Decca.
In the meantime, I’m working on getting up the nerve to buy a Decca Reference $😱$

Regards.

frogman - In the meantime, I’m working on getting up the nerve to buy a Decca Reference $😱$

@frogman 
Do you think the nerve to buy that Decca Reference, is superseded only by the nerve to play it every day ?  Especially on those cold days when some Scotch, Wine, Slivovitz, ....,(fill in the blank) accompanies the music. 8^0

The official London Cartridge website

http://londondeccaaudio.com/

shows the various models, stylus in each model. (pricing is from Needle Doctor) 

Reference - Ultra low mass fine line - $5000
Jubilee - Extended Line Contact - $3000
Super Gold - Extended Line Contact - $1500
Gold - Elliptical - $1200
Maroon - Spherical - $950
Professional - Spherical -

Surely the Reference model comes with more than fancy body work and a different stylus to justify its price ? Can anyone elaborate ?