London Decca

My newly acquired Super Gold performs flawlessly in my Ikeda 407 arm, VTF 1,9g. No mistracking, stunning dynamics, wonderful music. Just to give my contribution.

I owned several Decca Mk Vs many years ago and loved them all. Immediacy with the Decca cartridges is unparalleled. The quality control back then was somewhat variable (sort of like British sports cars of the time) and required purchase from a reputable vendor. Years later, and several moving magnet & coil cartridges later I was still missing that Decca sound so I bought a Gold. While the almost non-existent cantilever is purposely part of the design, it was even shorter than the Mk V and drove me crazy on a few mildly warped record as the cartridge body would bottom out on the LP rendering them unplayable. (Yes, I do use a hold down clamp on the record). I'm curious if QC and the cantilever length are issues for anyone with the current cartridges.

Pretty much any warp will throw mine (Super Gold Mk VII) for a loop. Playing around with damping fluid in my JMW 10.5i does help ... some ... but that's the best you can hope for, IMO.

I've used a Super Gold with my Well Tempered Amadeus TT for about 4 years now and have had NO trouble with warps at all.

This combination of arm/cartridge is, IMO, a nearly ideal match.

Very nice Doak. I have an Amadeus GTA, and a Std Amadeus in my secondary rig. I am always looking for suggestions to try. It seems like 95% use either Emt Tsd-15 or Dynavector 20X, Karat, or XX2. I guess heavier cartridges work pretty well w/ the Lo/Med mass Amadeus arm. Apparently the damping allows them to match well. I will look in to the Super Gold. Cheers -Don