backwards to the future

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steve s
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#1 backwards to the future

Post by steve s »

I've had a decca mk1 cartridge for quite a while, less its diamond tip unfortunately.
I bought it off a friend along with a nice boxed decca professional tonearm.

I emailed John Wright a couple of years ago but didn't get around to post it off.

A few weeks ago my friend, whom I'd bought it all from, rang to see if I still had the tonearm to test a decent ffss cartridge he had. I posted it across to him providing he told how it performed compared to the other decca tonearms he was comparing it too, two weeks passed and he rang to say that he was going to buy another professional, as my tonearm produced more of the finer aspects of the music that he'd played, basically he said more detail came through.

That was good enough for me, .. well enough to get me off my fat arse and send my cartridge off for a rebuild.
As I type its in transit back from John and I'm now turning my attention on what to mount it on.
A couple of years ago I sold my spare thorens 124's. So I've the choice of a grease bearing 301 a lenco 88 or a choice of 75s.
I already have a 301/ 30012 set up, which to be fair sounds very similar to my 124/ frs64 combo in the short listening tests I've done.

I'm tempted to make a new plinth for the early 301, so it will be a few weeks before I do any testing, but it will be interesting to see how good these cartridges are, and if its as good as all the hype around them.
I can see the motorbikes taking a back seat for a few weeks.
Last edited by steve s on Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
The tube manual is quite like a telephone book. The number of it perfect. It is useful to make it possible to speak with a girl. But we can't see her beautiful face from the telephone number
Ant
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#2 Re: backwards to the future

Post by Ant »

Steve, would either of my type 3 lencos be of use?
The great big one and the one i had the linear arm on are not in use at the moment. Equivalent to your 88 if you wanted to borrow either of them to use.
Save you having to bugger about making a plinth.
The big one is cream chassis and dark oak plinth, the other one is a black chassis and walnut plinth
Arm boards come off both of them so you can drill whats on there however you need
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steve s
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#3 Re: backwards to the future

Post by steve s »

Thanks Ant, thats a great offer, but if I like it I've still got to sort a deck long term, in any case I have some nice blocks of oak and teak that will make a good plinth, I can knock one up in a few hours once there's a nice sunny day.
Cheers.
The tube manual is quite like a telephone book. The number of it perfect. It is useful to make it possible to speak with a girl. But we can't see her beautiful face from the telephone number
steve s
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 6:19 pm
Location: east yorks

#4 Re: backwards to the future

Post by steve s »

I got the cartridge back from John, it looks fine and im looking forward to trying it. I've a stock of hardwood bits and amongst them is a nice 8' long piece of oak just under 3"x2", so ideal for my purpose, with a bit of glue of course

I've also got the decca alignment tool so installing the arm should be easy peasy.
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The tube manual is quite like a telephone book. The number of it perfect. It is useful to make it possible to speak with a girl. But we can't see her beautiful face from the telephone number
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Ray P
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#5 Re: backwards to the future

Post by Ray P »

Interesting Steve, back in the day when I 'did vinyl' I was a fan of Decca cartridges, they weren't perfect by any means but did someting special when well set up in the right system - IIRC I had a Gold, but struggling to recall what tip it had - it was a long time ago now!

I wonder how they would perform in a linear-tracking arrangement like Ant's?
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
steve s
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#6 Re: backwards to the future

Post by steve s »

Cheers Ray, I've read up on them quite a bit these last few months, if the forums are to be believed, they like standard tone arms, but I've not got the required sme adapter, so it will only fit in my decca arm anyway.

I have a decca blue in my stash, but its only had 10 mins use at the most since I brought it (a good 10 years ago now ), it will be interesting to see how this old girl performs once I get it mounted.. i read somewhere the mk 1 was the one to keep hold of, so it will be interesting to evaluate (i hope), I'm expecting a shure m3d type of sound with a little more detail, if that's what I get I'll be very pleased

I can see this leading onto a diy mm phono, something I've been meaning to look at for quite a few years.but I keep putting off, knowing how quiet it needs to be..
The tube manual is quite like a telephone book. The number of it perfect. It is useful to make it possible to speak with a girl. But we can't see her beautiful face from the telephone number
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