Cantilever 'haze'

[walpurgis]

I've had quite a few Deccas and never experienced any problems due to quality control. Nor have I found the cartridges difficult to set up.

They do give a perception of 'speed' of response to the sound, which is seldom replicated by other cartridges, although I will say the ZYX R100 H 02 moving coil item seems to manage this effect rather well.

[karma67]

I agree, the Decca is far easier to set up than the 2M.

I kept thinking this is too easy, I must be doing something wrong! Lol

[walpurgis]

i set mine to 1.8 as john wright advised.

How's it going with the Decca now you've had time to 'acclimatise' Jamie?

[Jimbo]

Everyone should listen to a well set up Decca cartridge, it is an education of what can be achieved with a cartridge, not all good I hasten to say, but when they hit the spot they are the most exciting cartridge on the planet and can make your jaw drop.

[Barry]

I don't have any problems with all my SC4Es.
I find them easy to align with a proper protractor.

Agreed - I have never had any problems with any of the Deccas I have (Mk. III, Mk. IV (SC4E), Mk. V and Mk. VI). In principle Deccas are no more difficult to set up than any other cartridge, but the installation can't be rushed - just as time and care should be taken with the setting up of any cartridge.

Where Deccas can be fussy is what to do with the 'fourth' wire, and with the choice of phonostage (which needs to have adequate overload headroom). Owing to the enormous sample-to-sample variation, due to sloppy workmanship and quality control, in order to obtain a decent performance some Deccas need to be pampered more than others. And reliability used to be pretty variable as well, because of poor quality control. This was recognised by Decca in the Mk. IV series with the better samples being selected and given an 'S' prefix (as in SH4E, and SC4E). This practice continued with the Mk. V series with the better samples being designated 'Grey' (or 'Export'), or the 'Maroon', the latter of which were built on a separate production line with more care and attention taken with assembly.

Light tonearm damping can be helpful, but is not IMO essential.

[montesquieu]

Ikeda made a cartridge with effectively no cantilever before reverting to more traditional designs (as in short cantilever rather than none), and the relatively (or at least, comparatively) mass market Dynavector 17D similarly had a only tiny cantilever similarly sized to the one in the Decca, I'm sure there are others. So it's not as if no-one else has had a go.

The Decca's mix of compliance has always worried me and I suspect it's the reason why it's so fussy about arms and damping.

Beyond that the idea of widespread 'cantilever haze' smells of marketing bollocks to me - as in everything the heart of the matter is the execution, and there are some cracking long cantilevered cartridges around. If haze was a proper thing then every Lyra should sound rubbish - which (even if they aren't your taste, and the are no longer mine) they don't!

[Jimbo]

I kept thinking this is too easy, I must be doing something wrong! Lol

Much of the negative stuff written about Decca's is a myth. The truth is they can sound absolutely wonderful and are no more difficult to set up than any other cartridge. They certainly give you insights into recordings I have not heard from any other cartridge.

The only reason I don't have mine set up permanently is they can be too much of a good thing and I don't want to wear mine out!

[YNWaN]

I’ve never heard the term ‘cantilever haze’ and the Decca carts do have a cantilever - just a very upright one.

[montesquieu]

Much of the negative stuff written about Decca's is a myth. The truth is they can sound absolutely wonderful and are no more difficult to set up than any other cartridge. They certainly give you insights into recordings I have not heard from any other cartridge.

The only reason I don't have mine set up permanently is they can be too much of a good thing and I don't want to wear mine out!

Not everyone has such a positive story to tell. I've tried a couple of times now and given up both times trying to get a sound I could live with. That's not a myth that's fact. And I think I do know a thing or two about cartridge setup.

[Barry]

I was under the impression that the main factor contributing to the 'cantilever haze' was not the rigidity of the cantilever itself, but the unavoidable damping that occurs when the rubber meets the cantilever at the 'entrance' to the body of the cartridge. That touchpoint was something that Decca managed to avoid with their design, thus enabling the kinetic signal generated by the stylus to be transferred to the coils/magnets without interference by intermediary components.

Obviously, anyone who's had a chance to listen to this cartridge set properly on a quality system can attest to the extraordinary clarity it can deliver.

Yes the 'hinge', fulcrum or pivot point is much better defined, but the reduction of "cantilever haze" is due to the movement of the stylus being sensed as close to the stylus as possible, hence the use of a very short cantilever. This method was called "direct scanning" by Decca. The albeit short cantilever of the design is actually damped close to the pivot point.