Your Forever Pieces? What and Why?

@noromance, if someone has a non-Decapod Decca in their system and thinks it sounds lifeless, something is seriously wrong!

Decca users have for many years packed the space between the top of the metal cartridge body and the underside of the stock plastic mount with modeling clay/Plasticine, to prevent any relative movement between the two. The plastic mount attaches to the cartridge body rather flimsily, allowing a lot of flexing, and not securing the cartridge body to the headshell very well.

I had a Decca Supergold without the Decapod years ago, and now have a London Supergold with the Decapod. I can't attribute the superiority of the Decapod-fitted London over the non-Decapod Decca completely to the Decapod, as John Wright has make significant improvements to the guts of the cartridge. But the Decapod is inexpensive, and I can see no reason why it doesn't make for a more secure coupling of cartridge to arm, surely a good thing!

Slaws nomination of his Townshend Rock 7 tunrtable has broken down by resistance to contributing my own nominee. I have a much older Rock, the Elite (Mk.2), from the early 90's. Mounted on it is the Zeta arm/London Super Gold (Mk.7, w/fineline stylus, and Decapod) pickup combination, which makes the music in the grooves of my LP's (only one groove per LP ;-) sound as much like live music as I have heard. Not for everyone, including my long-time turntable man, the late Brooks Berdan, who was amused by my preference. As my mama useta say, "Each to his own, said the lady as she kissed the cow". I never understood that one. Slaw is quite right, the Rock is very special, unique.

I'm not alone in considering the original Quad about as classic and timeless as they come. Inherently flawed in ways that make it an unsuitable speaker choice for many, it none-the-less remains, more than sixty years after it's commercial introduction, unmatched at what it does best---vocals and acoustic instruments, my musical priorities. Hopefully mine will be playing J.S. Bach or Iris Dement when I take my last breath.