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Woot! Decca cartridge bargain

Picked up a Decca Grey Export with a Garrott sticker on it and a metal clamp mounting bracket. It was sold untested for $270. As luck would have it, the thing works perfectly and sounds pretty darn good on a Jelco 750L with brass counterweight tracking at 1.75g on a Garrard 401.

Compared to my Paratrace Super Gold, the Grey is slightly darker with less detail but most notable is the reduced dynamic range. The Gold soaring while the Grey is more restrained. Nevertheless, the Grey is very musical with clean bass and clear metallic cymbal brushwork. Glad I snapped it up.

Anyone know what the Garrott improvements were on a Grey?

128x128noromance

Showing 2 responses by topoxforddoc

topoxforddoc's avatar
topoxforddoc
353 posts
 
The original Garrott rebuilds used a Weinz Parabolic styles profile, as opposed to the Paratrace. I still have mine stating this on the original paperwork from the long departed brothers. Here's a review from my old boss Ken Kessler - we worked together at Canterbury Hi-Fi in the UK before he went full time into journalism.

https://www.kenkessler.com/hi-fi/garrott-decca-cartridge/
topoxforddoc's avatar
topoxforddoc
353 posts
 
@noromance Here’s a photo of the original worksheet dated 1981. Mine has had a fine line retip from JW since, but is otherwise as the Brothers left it in 1981.
https://i.vgy.me/2o0kE4.jpg
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