2. analog
  3. 1223606540

Decca London Gold cartridge nightmare

Having read so much about the Decca London Gold cartridge, I decided to try one. Time passed and I finally found one on ebay that was within my budget. Cartridge was guaranteed to work with good results by a seller with very good feedback. Physically the cart looked neat, and everything, except for the mounting screws, was intact.

I had intended to install the cartridge in a new Kuzma Stogi S arm on a LP12 turntable but since the arm is scheduled to arrive end Oct 2008, I decided to try the Decca on my Lenco L75, with the original Lenco arm. At least to make sure all connections were OK, if not for any other reason.

What happened afterwards was pure nightmare. The results were horrendous, to say the least!

Tell me where I went wrong.

I tried tracking between 1.5 to 3gm but the sound ranged from tinny to severe breaking up. Even more startling, the groove vibrations picked up by the stylus was transmitted to the entire headshell, so you could actually hear the sound of the grooves generated acoustically by the vibration, kind of like a diaphragm or a gramophone horn. Lightly placing my finger on the headshell while a record played confirmed this. The headshell was quaking! With the preamp gain down to zero, you could hear the headshell vibration from a distance of a foot and a half, maybe even further, I kid you not.

The cartridge that I am presently using on my Lenco is a low output Audio Technica MC, the AT-OC3. No problems there. Tracks pretty well too, but not great, considering the Lenco arm was not made for MC carts. But the results were definitely more sane than the Decca!!

What's happening? Help!

Thanks for any advice, suggestions, feedback.

beck
tubemoose
dubhouse
19 posts
 
Dopogue- here's the quote from Robyatt:

09-15-08: Robyatt
I actually like the Gold better than all but the Reference. They fit great in the RS-but BIG experimentation, to stop gound hum! The Reference is an exact fit for the RS back holes, butslightly thiner bolts than normal are needed.

It seems that he used thinner bolts to bypass the threads. Maybe he will see this thread and elaborate. Sounds very promising. I do wonder what he did to eliminate the hum.

Eee3- Thanks for the info. Sounds like you are getting excellent results from vintage components which is very appealing. I didn't know there were different versions of the Monks tonearm. The Monks tonearms are still available NOS I think for about 300 British Pounds, sans the mercury as they had to dispose of that. Are you using a mercury bath in yours?

Steve
thomasheisig
568 posts
 
Go for a Fidelity Research 64s or 66s Arm.
eee3
214 posts
 
Dubhouse, yes I'm still using mercury bath in mine.
topoxforddoc's avatar
topoxforddoc
353 posts
 
I agree with the others. The Deccas work in unipivots best. I've got two Deccas - a Maroon and an original Garrott Brothers Gold rebuild - sublime! I've been using deccas since the late 1970s in a Hadcock and then later in a Schroeder Model 2.

Since acquiring an Allaerts MC1B, the Deccas have been retired, but they occasionally come out for a song or two.

Charlie
zieman
339 posts
 
Is it possible that the tieback is damaged? Sounds like far too much energy is getting to the headshell as the OP describes. Seems like more than arm mismatch or setup. Suspension was the wrong term, I hoped folks knew what I meant: that all is not well with this cart.
More to discover