Mono Cartridge Question


You chaps have watched me struggle with the issue of my London Decca Reference being irreplaceable, and then joyfully learning that John Wright has a successor after all. You have seen me buy and test three other MI designs (Nagaoka MP-500, Grado Statement3, Soundsmith Sussurro MkII) along with my older MC cartridges (Ortofon Kontrapunkt C and Benz Micro Ruby 3). Since those struggles have led me to owning two SME turntables and four tonearms, I am now torturing myself with the question of whether one of those four should be home to a dedicated mono cartridge. Remember, I only have one ear and cannot hear stereo at the best of times. A mono cartridge for my few dozen mono recordings would be a matter of reduced surface noise and possibly some improvement in dynamics.

I can get hold of an Ortofon Cadenza Mono (two voice coils so not true mono) for about 1600CDN, and a Miyajima Zero for 3450CDN. So the question is this: am I mad to even think about it? Money is not what it once was before I retired. There is no opportunity to go and hear these before purchase, without spending much more than purchase price on travel.

Shall I "make do" with my rather good stereo carts for my mono LPs or is there something better waiting for me when I get out those Parlophone Beatles LPs?

 

dogberry

Well Peter said I'm crazy. Also a few things about Deccas in general "that I wouldn't say out loud in public." He's not a fan.

All I can do at this point is to hope that londondecca.com eventually get back to me.

Hmm. There must be life at londondecca,com. The 'Service' button now opens a web message form rather than an e-mail link to service@londondecca.com.

So I filled it in. Also asked the old UK distributor at Presence Audio if he knows what's going on.

I have a London Decca Maroon which I ordered from John Wright as a mono cartridge and on most mono discs it beats my stereo cartridge and mono switch despite the latter’s Replicant 100 stylus and much more sophisticated phono stage, however, I have a few mono records where it doesn’t, I think those are the older wide groove LPs and the Replicant is just a better fit in the groove.

It’s reputed to be a simple matter to convert a Decca to mono but I don’t know the details.

 Beware a true mono cartridge on a stereo LP, you want some vertical compliance.