Cartridge advice

The Hana SL is a very nice cart if you can stretch your budget by 50 bucks.

A couple of very nice Audio Technica cartridges come to mind. The AT33SA can fall in that budget. So can the OC9 family, there are some new members as well as the OC 9 III. If you can stretch a bit the ART-9 is reported to an excellent all around cartridge. 

Don’t fret too much on stylus type. I’ve a Decca with an elliptical and it blows away my AT750 Shibata. The generator is important too.

Your Decca does not have a cantilever at all, it’s a MI design and very special in it’s own way (the lack of cantilever is a goal of Decca), but this cartridge is not for every tonearm. Garrott brothers retipped Decca for years for their clients (with better stylus profile) and it was huge upgrade.

The problem with Decca MI and all MC cartridges is re-tip service, with simple profiles like elliptical the owner will have to re-tip every 600 hrs. With MicroRidge profile a cartridge can be used for 2000 hrs. With Stereohedron profile over 1000hrs for sure (or even longer). Profile is important anyway.

Pickering XSV-3000SP has the most advanced stylus shape called Stereohedron which is achieved by grinding four flat surface on the diamond at precise angles to each other and their intersection creates areas used to contact the groove. The advantage of the Stereohedron stylus is that because of it’s long and narrow contact surfaces it tracks high frequency modulation minimizing groove wear.

Expert Stylus & Co. in UK was Stanton/Pickering diamond supplier, they are still in business, their new profile called Paratrace. This is the best company for Pickering/Stanton service (if the owner can’t find an original spare styli). As far as i know Decca owners often re-tip their Decca cartridges with Paratrace profile in England. 

@chakster I have 2 Garrott Bros Deccas and they are excellent. I also have a Super Gold with Paratrace tip from Expert Sylus fitted by J. Wright of London.