I just got back into analog.....

I have not tried the dampening on the decca yet , i m pretty pleased with the result right now.
What the hum /noise concerns is that it is more microphonic ,so it lets more detail come through, so you might get the feeling its more noisy but with good elpees it can be dead quit .
It tracks perfectly in the sme arm and the super gold isnt that expensive for a try out i think

Thanks hj. I've owned several Decca's over the years, but I wasn't sure how they would track in the SME. Does the dampening help them? How is the noise/ hum level on the SME?

Hai i just have the sme 20/3a running since 4 months coming from a scoutmaster vpi.
My advice is after having owned 4 low output mc s in my own system and having listened to many others .
Don t bother with them , just buy a london moving iron cart , a super gold for example or the jubilee or ref , much more live sounding dynamic and you dont need sut s , just a mm stage

greetz hj

You may want to consider the Shelter Harmony cart if your considering Koetsu. It's very musical and a little easier to drive. .5mV versus .3mV with the koetsu. Imo, you need to step up to a stone body koetsu (considerably more expensive) to compete with Shelter's Harmony reference cart.

Thanks for the response. I'll look into their cartridge line a little more. I was considering a koetsu, but I don't know what to use as a setup or phono stage.

That's a big jump back into vinyl. I have a Lyra Skala that sings on my IV.Vi. There's probably others in the Lyra line that'll work. I'm using a lowly Sim Audio LP 5.3 phono preamp, probably hard to beat in it's price range.

Good luck,
Mike