Decca C4E cartridge

[Barry]

If the left-hand channel was dropping out the cartridge is faulty. Also, looking at the photo, there is a lot of ferrous detritus sticking to the pole pieces, which is not good.

Deccas of that vintage are/were capricious and contrary beasts. I've have/had several of them (still have four, of various types) and owing to the appallingly poor quality control employed at the time, no two Deccas (even those having the same stylus profile) sound the same. A friend of mine who used to run a Decca Blue (he now uses an Ortofon Bronze (?)), used to lust after my Blue, because it sounded better. I used to have three Blues - they were all of different quality: good, bad and indifferent.

Yes - there will be a "what if" moment, but content yourself that you have tried one of the better Deccas out there and heard its good points as well as its less than good points, and decided for yourself.

[Wakefield Turntables]

If the left-hand channel was dropping out the cartridge is faulty. Also, looking at the photo, there is a lot of ferrous detritus sticking to the pole pieces, which is not good.

Deccas of that vintage are/were capricious and contrary beasts. I've have/had several of them (still have four, of various types) and owing to the appallingly poor quality control employed at the time, no two Deccas (even those having the same stylus profile) sound the same. A friend of mine who used to run a Decca Blue (he now uses an Ortofon Bronze (?)), used to lust after my Blue, because it sounded better. I used to have three Blues - they were all of different quality: good, bad and indifferent.

Yes - there will be a "what if" moment, but content yourself that you have tried one of the better Deccas out there and heard its good points as well as its less than good points, and decided for yourself.

Wise words.

[DSJR]

ALL Decca cartridges are a nightmare!!!

It's so easy to dislodge a coil, or for some reason cause a breakage in coil wires. I don't know why. Even used in a tonearm designed for them (NAS Mentor deck and arm), it didn't stop terminal distortion in my Micro-scanner caused by the 'top-magnet' coming unstuck and a coil breaking free. Took ten years after failure for me to finally get it repaired and bloody hell, once it was working right again it was absolute heaven.

I think it fair to say that with ANY Decca ownership of ANY age, it should be borne in mind that failures almost certainly will occur. Part of the so-called 'heaven and hell' of Decca ownership.

[Yomanze]

The Alphason arm on a Rock is crying out for a medium-ish compliance moving coil. Dynavevtor 17d OT AT33-PTG mkii would be ideal. Or an Ortofon Cadenza or NOS Kontrapunkt.

If you want to stay MM then an audio note IQ2 or 3.

Or a Reson Reca.

[DSJR]

The Alphason 100S is SUPERB with a Podded Decca Export with VDH retip. A customer had one once on a Gyrodec of all things and it's the first time I ever heard a Gyro hold pitch and 'time' properly with rock-solid imaging. Very impressive I thought!

Brilliant thing with the Hr100S is that it'll happily take almost anything you put in it within reason - and it'll never get in the way...

[stevied]

The Alphason 100S is SUPERB with a Podded Decca Export with VDH retip. A customer had one once on a Gyrodec of all things and it's the first time I ever heard a Gyro hold pitch and 'time' properly with rock-solid imaging. Very impressive I thought!

Brilliant thing with the Hr100S is that it'll happily take almost anything you put in it within reason - and it'll never get in the way...

One of the arms on eBay now.

[karma67]

nearly the 18th, Jw is back from holiday and this is being sent off lively for a retip!
cant bloody wait.

[Bigman80]

Thought you'd sent this back?

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[karma67]

long story... but yes i did, but due to the issues and it needing a retip i bought it back at a very nice discount.

[Bigman80]

long story... but yes i did, but due to the issues and it needing a retip i bought it back at a very nice discount.

Haha, sweet. Nothing like a discount. Now, how do I get a discount on those speaker stands you're making?

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