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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

Showing 3 responses by tubemoose

tubemoose OP
8 posts
 
Dubhouse-Coincidentally, I was just thinking today how an undamped cartridge like the Decca London Gold would perform in an ultra damped arm like one of the Well Tempered's! Given the design of the WT arms, I'm sure a Decca and WT arm is a match made in heaven. I used to own the WTRP arm and TT, and definitely would not mind owning one again when the opportunity comes around.
I'm not sure about mounting the Stogi S on the Lenco L75. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Yes I'll let you know how it goes after I've got the Stogi on the LP12, and the Decca on the Stogi.
Thanks guys.
tubemoose OP
8 posts
 
Can the string that loops around the stylus tip of the Decca London Gold cartridge be adjusted for tension, say, if I wanted to pull the stylus tip backwards, or loosen it so it moves forward. In teeny increments, of course.
tubemoose OP
8 posts
 
The worst happened. The stylus armature snapped off my Decca London Gold when I tried to blow some dust off the inside of the cartridge.

I had actually got the Decca working on the Lenco arm, using some blu tack as damping material. It could only track mono pressings though, as stereo grooves gave it the shakes.

Some of the mono LPs I tried out actually sounded great, particularly Traffic's "Mr. Fantasy" (pink label UK Island, ILP 9061). The Beatles' "Revolver" (Parlophone PMC 7009) was pretty good too. The quiet passages on Schubert's "Tragic Overture" (Nixa, NLP 913) was sublime. When the orchestra went tutti however, it was pure horror.

I was actually contemplating capturing some of the Decca Gold sound, when it behaved, onto MP3 files and sharing it with you guys. Sadly, that will not happen.

I've spent like less than 12 hours with the Decca Gold. But what I heard truly confirmed what aficionados have always said about the Decca—When it was good, it was very, very good. When it was bad, it was horrid.

I'm not sure if I will have the cartridge rebuilt, or use the money on a saner, more predictable, hopefully not boring MC like a new Benz Gold or something.

Thanks guys for all the feedback, opinions, suggestions. It was great while it lasted.
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