Deccapod -a curates's egg

[Oldpinkman]

Stephen, when you get your R100, I'd love to read your opinion of it.

+1 with knobs on. I loved Arthurs Decca London gold, but I just have too many warped records - particularly a recording of Sherezade by the Suisse Romande Orchestra I am really fond of. Mind - I'm pretty chuffed with the U205 with its "SAS" stylus. But very interested in the Zyx

[DSJR]

I've heard that often, but despite having owned more Deccas than I can actually recall, I've never had a reliability problem. I did have to send one off for a new stylus tie cord, but that was down to my hamfisted handling.

Glad you've been ok, but mine failed (bits coming unstuck inside) and it was this plus financial inability in the mid 90's that made me sell the Mentor (nothing I had or could afford sounded as good in it as the Decca ) and hifi dave had his demo Gold, plus a Jubilee, fail under warranty a year or two back. To be utterly fair, Presence Audio sorted both his and mine (in 2007) out very quickly and my repair had negligible cost.

Still love 'em to bits, but please be careful with them

The R100 does sound really good I remember and has the same kind of inner-clarity-without-artificial-'depth' that good Decca's exhibit. So many other cartridges can add a sort of 'halo' around the reproduction, which isn't there in the master and definitely not in any CD made from them! Just saying like.

[worrasf]

Just wanted to update this thread now I have had the benefit of listening to the Blue/Pod for a week or so. My earlier reservations are gone and I am finding I am liking what it does more and more. Flat response, tonally neutral "nothing added or taken away" and a very natural non-fatiguing presentation. Tracking is extraordinarily good. My initial comments about a perceived lack of pace and timing have not been borne out by extended listening and I am coming to the opinion that perhaps my previous cartridge was a little guilty of tonal/frequency inaccuracy which nonetheless I had found appealing if not strictly faithful to the original. I am in no doubt that the improvement over the "stock" Blue bought about by the Deccapod is enormous. Previously I was using it with standard carrier in a Sumiko headshell with additional 5g Decca weight. The benefit of the Deccapod can not be overstated IMHO.

Steve

[Smegger68]

Glad to read this. I have just sent my Super Gold off to Divine for a good poddin' and am quite keen to hear the results