Decca Maroon/Gold, what do I need to know?

[jtycho]

Excellent thought Charlie, thank you for the help. I'll research it a bit and see what's out there. It's comforting to know that the new ones are built to a higher standard, are they also less finicky? Do they still require perfect amplification, perfect setup, perfect everything in order to sound descent? Realizing of course these things should apply to all turntable setups, but it doesn't always make or break a system as I've read it does with a Decca.

[hifi_dave]

You need a decent arm on a turntable that doesn't bounce and a phono stage with plenty of headroom.

As for set up, they are no more finicky than any other decent cartridge. You need to take care with the overhang and VTA, plus azimuth if you have adjustment. Only problem with these cartridges is that there is barely a fag paper between the body and record surface, so it's more difficult to see quite where the stylus is when setting up.

[topoxforddoc]

Joseph,

The Decca carts have almost no vertical compliance due to their unusual design; hence they transmit a lot of energy down into the tonearm bearings. You need a decent arm , either an unipivot like a Hadcock (the classic combination) or something with medium to high mass eg a FR64. Air bearing arms work fine too such as the Transfi or Cartridgeman Conductor. They don't tend to work that well in SME 3009 and low mass arms.

Charlie
www.charlie-chan.co.uk

[jtycho]

Hello again everyone!

Just want to update you, just today I received and installed a Decca Super Gold on my newly restored Empire and it's just mind blowing! The directness of sound is unlike anything I've heard before. Maybe I lucked out, or maybe it can get better yet, but after basic cartridge setup everything sounds fine. No horror stories to report yet. I just want to spin record after record... Thanks for your help!

Joe

[Doak]

Hi Joe,

I've had a Decca Super Gold on my NAS Spacedeck for about 3 weeks and I too can't get enough of it.

I'm running it into 47K ohms and honestly don't know the capacitance, but I'm not in hurry to change anything. Sounds REALLY good to me ... and I've kinda been the route over the years with MC and MM. Great to find something that is truly a "game changing" listening/musical experience -- too bad it took so long.

I've owned/listened through many carts over the years and loved a few of them. However, the Super Gold conveys MUSIC like nothing else I've heard.

At some point I may experiment with loading because that's how I am. What I'm hearing now is synergistic
with my speakers that tend to sound a bit "laid back." The Super Gold may be the perfect antidote.

Enjoy!

Doak

[topoxforddoc]

Joe and Doak,

Welcome to Club Decca! I hope you become life long members!

Best wishes,

Charlie

[Doak]

Joe and Doak,

Welcome to Club Decca! I hope you become life long members!

Best wishes,

Charlie

Thanks Charlie.
Seems to be an excellent chance of that happening. ;-)

Doak

[John]

Yes a lot of us here love what a Decca does, really makes everything so alive

[jtycho]

In fact... this is the first time (in my relatively short vinyl playing career) that I'm not thinking about what's next for my turntable. Since I really got into vinyl about four years ago it's constantly made me think, what's next? How much better can it sound? Now I sort of have this feeling that any dissatisfaction would come from other sources, whether amp, speaker, cable, etc., but not from table/arm/cartridge. It's a nice point to finally reach.

[dcb2012]

Has anyone info on resetting up a Garrott modified gold. It will be refitted in my Mayware Formulae 4 arm but grateful if anyone has setting up details, tracking weights etc. etc.