Sorry to hear about your father's jazz collection: I'm crying already. The Decca is like whitewater rafting: exhilarating you while at the same time you are asking yourself why the hell you are doing it. Do not try this in your home. They are a bitch, need fluid damping, prefer unipivots (but will work with others if there is fluid damping) can buzz or hum (though I hear the newer ones are better). But its zero-compliance means the most direct, in-yer-face experience there is in vinyl-land, making everything else moot. But I always keep an easier cartridge to live with around, pulling out the Decca when I want to live dangerously, just like sometimes only a whiskey will do, and to hell with beer. Maywares work fine with Deccas, have a bad reputation and so can be had cheap, when you can find'em. There is also the Tjoeb hoard of Decca International tonearms: they were selling them for $25, if I remember. As to my record player collection: I have stripped down my stereo system several times (so I could go travel, drink and sleep in), but never had the heart to sell any of my vinyl spinners, or my vinyl.
Decca cartridge experiences
I really don't expect any response to this as the issue of Deccas, and all the controversies they stirred up is now passé, but does anyone out there own and use a Decca, and if so, did you find a tonearm which will accomodate it? I'd appreciate it if anyone shared their experiences with it, good or bad. I've found two tonearms in which it will work well: one a Mayware tonearm in which it works superbly, and one a Maplenoll air-bearing 'table with fluid damping trough, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting this combo to work again (I've only recently re-acquired the Maplenoll)...I'll have to fiddle with viscosity, amount of fluid and so on.
To all those who haven't had a chance to hear this cartridge, and who like to experiment and have fun (and tear their hair out), then a Decca still has the most slam of any cartridge, and retrieves an incredible amount of detail from the groove. Though these days it no longer sells for pocket change (the Super Gold goes for $850, but there are cheaper models), it's still not in the stratosphere like so many others. It is dificlt to find a tonearm which will accomodate it as well.
I'd appreciate as well any experiences with the new versions, as I hear the new stylus profile makes it less difficult. I think the responses will be "0", but any cartridge which stirred up this much controversy (at least a while ago) is Good News, like the Shelter (which is far more accomodating, however)...Thank you for your attention, if any attention there is...
To all those who haven't had a chance to hear this cartridge, and who like to experiment and have fun (and tear their hair out), then a Decca still has the most slam of any cartridge, and retrieves an incredible amount of detail from the groove. Though these days it no longer sells for pocket change (the Super Gold goes for $850, but there are cheaper models), it's still not in the stratosphere like so many others. It is dificlt to find a tonearm which will accomodate it as well.
I'd appreciate as well any experiences with the new versions, as I hear the new stylus profile makes it less difficult. I think the responses will be "0", but any cartridge which stirred up this much controversy (at least a while ago) is Good News, like the Shelter (which is far more accomodating, however)...Thank you for your attention, if any attention there is...
- ...
- 102 posts total
- 102 posts total