Getting into this thread late, but both the poor sound and the breakage of the armature suggest that there may have been prior damage to Tubemoose's Decca.
Some people mess with Deccas and crack the tiny, thin steel armature where it does a 90-degree bend just below the vertical coil polepieces.
Deccas are not all THAT fragile if you only use a soft brush or soft pile stylus cleaner on them, and only stroke from back to front. I would not blow air into one to clean it. Don't FLICK the stylus (I know, nobody will ever admit to doing that, but be honest with yourself).
Some idiots have advised opening up a Decca's tin lid and tinkering with the tiny screws visible inside, to tighten up the string. Those screws do nothing of the kind. They adjust the gap between the vertical coil polepieces and thea armature. All you will do by messing with those is to mess up your channel separation.
Deccas prefer high mass arms and work well in damped unipivots such as the Keith Monks and Decca International, and in the Well Tempered Arm, which with its critical damping, simulates a high mass arm in many respects. The WTA's sand-filled armtube helps a lot, too. The Decca also has a synergy with the Rabco SL-8 linear tracking arm, which I run with a tubular arm wand filled internally with sand.
Some people mess with Deccas and crack the tiny, thin steel armature where it does a 90-degree bend just below the vertical coil polepieces.
Deccas are not all THAT fragile if you only use a soft brush or soft pile stylus cleaner on them, and only stroke from back to front. I would not blow air into one to clean it. Don't FLICK the stylus (I know, nobody will ever admit to doing that, but be honest with yourself).
Some idiots have advised opening up a Decca's tin lid and tinkering with the tiny screws visible inside, to tighten up the string. Those screws do nothing of the kind. They adjust the gap between the vertical coil polepieces and thea armature. All you will do by messing with those is to mess up your channel separation.
Deccas prefer high mass arms and work well in damped unipivots such as the Keith Monks and Decca International, and in the Well Tempered Arm, which with its critical damping, simulates a high mass arm in many respects. The WTA's sand-filled armtube helps a lot, too. The Decca also has a synergy with the Rabco SL-8 linear tracking arm, which I run with a tubular arm wand filled internally with sand.