The BigMooG decca cartridge rules thread

[hifi_dave]

Nottingham Analogue arms were/are designed to be used with Decca cartridges. They are amongst the very few arms to be able to control and extract the best from Decca cartridges of any ilk and far from shaking themselves to bits, they make the Decca's sing.

Back in the early 80's we used to sell as many vintage Decca's as we could get our hands on - Dark Blue, Blue, Maroon, Grey and the (new) Super Gold, the vast majority went on Notts arms and we never had any trouble. No trouble that is except for the carts themselves, which weren't the most reliable I have encountered.

[bigmoog]

Nottingham Analogue arms were/are designed to be used with Decca cartridges. They are amongst the very few arms to be able to control and extract the best from Decca cartridges of any ilk and far from shaking themselves to bits, they make the Decca's sing.

Back in the early 80's we used to sell as many vintage Decca's as we could get our hands on - Dark Blue, Blue, Maroon, Grey and the (new) Super Gold, the vast majority went on Notts arms and we never had any trouble. No trouble that is except for the carts themselves, which weren't the most reliable I have encountered.

Im aware of this and indeed used a notts arm for a while......not brilliant imho


FYI, the zeta and mission mechanic were designed with deccas in mind

[DSJR]

BM, you needed someone to set the thing up properly (that's what Linn dealers always say when a client doesn't like their wares )

The Mission mechanic didn't get a good writup in 'Choice at the time, although I do understand the politics involved in *certain* reviewing back then. Jimmy loved his Zeta and his sample behaved faultlessly once the bearings were sorted early on. He played all sorts of carts in it to very good effect. I wonder what he plays his LP's on nowadays??????

I don't like to give this arm any publicity 'cos it's already shooting up in value, but the Alphason HR100S sounded absolutely bloody marvelous with a Decca Silver on board (with GB clamp IIRC). One of the few arms that truly did it justice IMO. The client had an undamped cueing device and wanted it stripped down and re-greased. The sound was so good I chickened out as I didn't want to disturb perfection IMO. I didn't charge for the callout (well, I couldn't) and put a few drops of Rega silicone cueing-device fluid/treacle on the top of the piston, hoping it would leech down in time...

[Barry]

just because deccas were used in decca unipivots doesnt make it any good, I have a london international and it makes the decca sound rubbish


my deccas like to see 47k

Decca always maintained that head (cartridge) and arm should be designed together for optimum results.

The Decca London International arm (with the spirit bubble in the headshell) was a much inferior value-engineered version of the Decca ffss International arm (with the metal cartridge mounting platform). It was the latter version I had in mind.

47kOhm may the de facto load impedance for the great majority of fixed coil cartidges. The Deccas are, however, unlike any other cartridge and 47k is not necessarily the optimum value. It depends on the arm used; your Mission(?)-Decca combination may well like 47k.

Regards

[John]

The Decca London is a gret sounding Cart and works really well with the Terminator Its the most alive sound I have ever heard

[bigmoog]

Decca always maintained that head (cartridge) and arm should be designed together for optimum results.

The Decca London International arm (with the spirit bubble in the headshell) was a much inferior value-engineered version of the Decca ffss International arm (with the metal cartridge mounting platform). It was the latter version I had in mind.

47kOhm may the de facto load impedance for the great majority of fixed coil cartidges. The Deccas are, however, unlike any other cartridge and 47k is not necessarily the optimum value. It depends on the arm used; your Mission(?)-Decca combination may well like 47k.

Regards

I have been using deccas in various forms in numerous arms for more than 20 ears and nearly all have liked 47k...my current PH5 has variable loading and its nice to fiddle.....


I have used a decca uni and the London international arm and sorry both are hopeless at extracting a decca quality sound in my experience......I dislike unipivots, sorry...

[DSJR]

Some Decca's take off over 12KHz or so and I read somewhere that 33K may be a better loading for these. The sorted Microscanners etc may well be ok with 47K. Unless I'm mistaken, many mm's could do with a higher loading - either that, or a tweaked RIAA as many tend to sag in the treble regions.

BM, have you or anyone else ever used the pre-London models from the sixties? A re-tipped one of these should be very interesting.

[bigmoog]

Some Decca's take off over 12KHz or so and I read somewhere that 33K may be a better loading for these. The sorted Microscanners etc may well be ok with 47K. Unless I'm mistaken, many mm's could do with a higher loading - either that, or a tweaked RIAA as many tend to sag in the treble regions.

BM, have you or anyone else ever used the pre-London models from the sixties? A re-tipped one of these should be very interesting.

Dave, I have used a decca mark IV, which I think dated to 65 ish, it was knackered, so I dismantled it to have a look at the advanced assembly within

[hifi_dave]

Some Decca's take off over 12KHz or so and I read somewhere that 33K may be a better loading for these. The sorted Microscanners etc may well be ok with 47K. Unless I'm mistaken, many mm's could do with a higher loading - either that, or a tweaked RIAA as many tend to sag in the treble regions.

BM, have you or anyone else ever used the pre-London models from the sixties? A re-tipped one of these should be very interesting.

Used any ???

I still have a couple of FFSS types which were repaired and tweaked plus, of course, I have a selection of Dark Blues, Maroons, Golds etc etc and they all sing sweetly in Nottingham Analogue arms as you know.

[DSJR]

When I decide to grace you with my presence (), I expect to hear an oldie Decca instead of that ghastly boomy SPU you set up