LONDON Decca, Tzar DST and similar cartridges

I have been a Decca aficionado since the late 70s. I still have my  Garrott Brothers Gold, an old Maroon and a FFSSMkIV C4E rebuilt by John Wright. The vintage C4E is just stunning, significantly better than my Garrott Brothers cartridge (retipped by John Wright). I wouldn't sell my C4E - it would be one of the things you would have to rip from my dying hands.

However, no matter how good the Decca is, it doesn't beat a 15 IPS master tape - no way. I have three 15 IPS 2 track R2R decks and some master tapes (some distribution masters and some safety copies). The 15 IPS tape just stomps all over the Decca (installed in a rewired vintage Hadcock 228 on a Platine Verdier with GT Audio Battery PSU) - no contest!

I spoke to John Wright on the phone and by email, when he rebuilt my FFSS MkIV C4E with a fine line tip. He told me to load it at 33k. hence I had Graham Tricker build me a TRON Seven Reference to match this. GT spoke to JW as well just to check before he built this for me. Great match and sounds fabulous. But just not as good as 1/4 inch 15 IPS master tape, but hey LPs are a lot cheaper :)

thuchan
926 posts
01-22-2017 5:34pm
Why going for a Zsar when you may enjoy the Neumann DST?

The only Neumann DST I have seen was built into an EMT headshell with the EMT diamond pin outs rather than the standard SME spare pin outs. Therefore difficult to use in anything other than an EMT TT and tonearm