Being reminded once again of the decca magic the decca mk. This myth has persisted for a very long time, fed by people who claim to hear differences between such records even when the information in the leadout groove area is identical. As well as manufacturing the current range of london cartridges, he is also responsible for servicing and overhauling older decca models. Best tonearm for london reference cartridge hi, i have a decca london reference cartridge lrc, actually mounted in an older mission mechanic tonearm and would like to ask you with which tonearm one can get the most out of this wonderful cartridge. Unfollow decca cartridge to stop getting updates on your ebay feed.
It has been around in one form or another since before the stereo era originally the result of some extraordinarily ingenious and enduring engineering by the special. Decca london club page 2 cartridges and styli lenco heaven. Its time to put to bed a long standing record myth. I have been building cartridges under the london brand name and refurbishing all decca ffss heads, tone arms and decca london cartridges for 20 years.
A magnetic cartridge, more commonly called a phonograph cartridge or phono cartridge or colloquially a pickup, is an electromechanical transducer that is used to play records on a turntable the cartridge contains a removable or permanently mounted stylus, the tip usually a gemstone, such as diamond or sapphire of which makes physical contact with the records groove. The phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone, record player or turntable, is a device introduced in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. Cartridge was guaranteed to work with good results by a seller with very good feedback. The decca london export was in fact a decca london cartridge but had better specifications. Having been granted a special exeat from the alan dowker blumlein retirement home for distinguished audio components, the decca cartridge was allowed out for good behaviour. Time passed and i finally found one on ebay that was within my budget. No fanfares, no trips to foreign lands, no mythology about little old men handwinding coils in the shadow of mt. Decca london gold cartridge nightmare audiogon discussion forum.
Call john wright of decca london and ask him about a super gold with a decapod and paratrace stylus. Jan 10, 2009 the latest incarnation of decca london s classic stereo phono cartridge lives up to its inheritance. The frequency curve of an ordinary london was 20 20. Every audiohead should hear a decca london pickup at least once, like every motorcyclist should own a ducati at least once. You need a mediumhigh mass arm like a jelco 750 at least. The original decca company was started in the 19th century, but its first involvement with music was with a portable record player used in the trenches during the 191418 world war. At the time decca had been establishing itself as a major, and pioneering classical music label, thanks largely to its use of technological advances such as stereophonic recording, and the introduction of the lp, which saw. The fundamental design dates back to 1951 when decca introduced the positive scanning cartridge. Sl15 moving coil cartridges garrard gmc5 cartridge and. And for those who crtave the decca sound but cant stretch to a reference, the range of eight london cartridges starts at 315. Since the iron was placed very close to the tip within 1 mm, the.
Like many record labels, the history of the company is rather confusing for many years after world war ii there were two separate companies operating internationally under the same name. On a good deck, youll be hardpressed to get a better cartridge. Pictured below you will find needles known to have been found in decca players and a list of models compiled at press time. Caution, a needle only functions with its intended cartridge and only indirectly matches to the turntable model if the originally supplied cartridge is still in use and the maker used only one cartridge during your models production. Having read so much about the decca london gold cartridge, i decided to try one. Decca presented a proposal for stereo records that worked differently from the 4545 system we are familiar with. Literature does not make clear indications, only the sole name decca is used. I reckon it would give a london reference a good run for its. As i mentioned in the introduction, the deccas were my favorite cartridges of my. Decca london audio equipment models on audiogon, the highend audio community.
The decca had later lacquer and stamper numbers of 6w,7w and cb,uh. Decca uk, the original parent company, and decca usa, originally a subsidiary of. Decca london cartridge rebuild by the cartridge man tntaudio. Vintage decca london ffss phono cartridge gray export model preowned. Cartridges and turntables london decca british audio. Mar 02, 20 its time to put to bed a long standing record myth. For a 45 year old cartridge it is more than a classic. I think this is because the novel shape of the stylus, which appears to ride exceptionally.
Ive just been given a prelondon decca stereo cartridge. Decca london reference phono cartridge hard to find, super. I was interested in revisiting the decca design and the following notes and observations apply to my sample of a decca mk. Formed as a result of the split between the british and american branches of decca in the 1940s, the london label was designed to be british deccas american distributor. Best tonearm for london reference cartridge audiogon. London decca jubileereference phono cartridge fremer on. This is from the late 1960s decca mk iv series, the first of their ffss cartridges. An audio technica atf3 moving coil phono cartridge.
The shure brothers have been making magnetic cartridges since the early. London reference phono cartridge the absolute sound. Physically the cart looked neat, and everything, except for the mounting screws, was intact. In present times decca is involved in the development of new multichannel and highresolution recordings.
The stylus shaft was composed of the diamond tip, a short piece of soft iron, and an lshaped cantilever made of nonmagnetic steel. The rights to manufacture of the decca cartridge were sold to peter wright and brian smith of presence audio and are now marketed under the london name. Since the iron was placed very close to the tip within 1 mm, the motions of the tip could be tracked very. London records or london recordings is a british record label that marketed records in the united states, canada, and latin america for decca records from 1947 to 1979 before becoming semiindependent. Jan 04, 2009 and for those who crtave the decca sound but cant stretch to a reference, the range of eight london cartridges starts at 315. The decca london cartridges have been around longer than any single component in todays market place, after the venerable quad electrostatic. Jun 20, 2012 the new jubilee, socalled in celebration of the 25 years that have passed since the first decca london cartridge saw the light of day, is built using a milled aluminumalloy casing whose solidity is reminiscent of the classic decca pickups of the 1960s, such as the 4rc and the sc4e. The london was a 4w,5w lacquer with stampers of bc and bc. Personal history with deccas and first impressions of the london reference. The ukbased decca records was one of the most important and influential recording companies of the 20th century. No one would describe the decca london reference as a musical sounding cartridge warm, sweet, liquid, and forgiving. I reckon it would give a london reference a good run for its money as well as make modern day mcs sound like toys. Decca gold expert stylus rebuild with fine line stylus and an old cr4e. Decca records is a british record label established in 1929 by edward lewis.
I have loved the london decca phonographic cartridge since my. It has even outlived its name as decca was sold years ago to tatung and its unique cartridge designs were sold to john wright to produce cartridges under the london name. Decca establishes decca home to manage the new rottet home collection and elan by decca. Instead, it was a cartridge that allowed a good recording of the human voice sound like a human voice, a piano like a piano, and allowed whatever has been recorded on to that piece of vinyl sound more like the real thing. But when the decca wasnt struggling to stay in a highly modulated inner groove, its sound was completely magical. Aug 19, 2015 the citroen, with its hydraulic suspension, was a much better tracker than the decca. It still uses the positive scanning technique, although its magnets are now made of rareearth materials, its internal wiring is audiophilegrade, and its stylus, as noted, is an expensive ultralowmass fineline diamond. Over these years i have designed two new cartridges, the london jubilee and the london reference cartridge, which was awarded best analogue component in the 2004 hifi news industry awards. Tonearm for decca london cartridges 2 channel hifi wigwam. Its an evolutionary change of the mono cartridge that preceded it. The very high output would suit valve phonostages implying an obvious synergy with certain system philosophies. As a stereo cartridge, it had its beginning in the seventies as the decca phono cartridge.
The thing with all of the above that worked well to my ears, was the ability to apply a bit of damping paddle or bearing with unipivot and the decca seems to benefit from this. A magnetic cartridge, more commonly called a phonograph cartridge or phono cartridge or. For years, decca has been quietly producing the worlds greatest cartridge. In 1937, anticipating nazi aggression leading to world war ii, lewis sold american decca and the link between the uk and u. Is there a difference londondecca by sedrick harris. The decca is a mono cartridge with a vertical coil added. The name had to be changed because of trademark issues, but this is the latest incarnation of the unusual and highly touted decca cartridge that, in one form or another, has been around for decades. The latest incarnation of decca londons classic stereo phono cartridge lives up to its inheritance.
Magnetic cartridge news newspapers books scholar jstor september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message. London decca the story so far john wright in his workshop. You can see art pepper moving his alto sax to and from the mike. Call john wright of deccalondon and ask him about a super gold with a decapod and paratrace stylus.
It is just more decca with dynamics that scare you and details that should not be there. Uk pressings can be specifically idd by the use of the buckingham 10digit alpha code 1 to 0 respectively for stampers at 3 oclock on vinyl. Calling all decca fans you must get one of these audio. If you dropped the decca from a distance that a conventional cartridge would take in stride, it would frequently be irreparably damaged. In concerto 4 lp mint d62d 4 uk ffss vinyl record w book. These new deccas, whilst being considerably more expensive, are now housed in a nonresonant machined aluminium block, enjoy a much greater standard of workmanship, display far less. The london formerly decca or decca london cartridge has the longest and most distinguished pedigree of any piece of phonographic gear currently on the market. Decca decca records decca label the decca record label. Many models cannot clearly be allocated to one of a. Once a division of the decca record company of decca, deram, london, ffrr, ffss, and notsigningthebeatles fame, the special products division became an orphan when the record label was absorbed by polygram in the late 1970s. London super gold and jubilee cartridges taking the direct route and cutting out the mush with a london cartridge. The decca phono cartridges were a unique design, with fixed magnets and coils. The physical appearance of the london reference is first class for the first time.
Decca europe 1 design centre east, sw10 0xf london, united kingdom rated 4. Tpa10 transcription arm decca london moving iron pick up and international arm tannoy. The decca london was well matched to this music and this kind of loudspeaker, as well as the ditton or ditton 10 im not sure, a 3 way with a 10 inch woofer, because the bass on any decca london or after, is so superior to any other cartridge ive ever heard it can easily show up the strengths or weaknesses in a loudspeakers bass capabilities. A severe conflict arises between the need to generate sufficient electrical output and the need to keep the mass of the coil. Please note that we have been made aware of individuals who give the false impression they are affiliated with decca records and ask for money from artists to submit music on their behalf or for other label services including marketing and publishing. Decca london these are a unique series of phono cartridges, both in design they dont. London decca gold dp cartridge rating select rating 1 star worst 2 stars 3 stars average 4 stars 5 stars best name.
With a golden colored computermachined solid aluminum body body, line contact stylus, the. Review by clive meakins london cartridges come with very considerable heritage. Audio grail garrard 301 with koetsu coral stone cartridge duration. Decca, london manufacturer in gb, model types from great bri. Features reference audiophile essentials interviews think pieces historical. The london reference, previously known as the decca cartridge, has been in production longer than stereo has been around. Classification of decca records english pressings as mentioned in the history section above, there are two different types of lps. Uk pressing plant of the decca record company limited, based in new malden, surrey, uk.
Run out groove distances for side one and two of the london, decca and super analog respectively were 1123mm london, 1916mm decca and 228mm for the super analog. The citroen, with its hydraulic suspension, was a much better tracker than the decca. An advertisement for edison new standard phonograph, 1898. And, yes, models can be ordered for mono or 78rpm playback. Decca london black wood body modification tutorial duration. I used to use a decca maroon many years ago before cd became popular it was an absolute nightmare to set up correctly, its almost impossible to see the stylus when the cartridge is lowered onto the set up protractor, i now use cheap 3. The cartridge man retipped decca would love a system based around big fast horn speakers. Decca london cartridge rebuild by the cartridge man. Michael fremer on the london reference, june 2005 vol.
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