London Decca phono cartridge recommendations/ideas?

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My question to the group, staff, members, visitors...I am looking at London Decca phono cartridges nowadays as a new cartridge as my present AudioNote mm IQ-II ages on. Has anyone experience with one, any of the models from London Decca?  Presently the TT arm is an AN modified Rega 300 w/Kondo silver litz wiring/AN-V silver litz interconnects. Thanks..........j

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I would add that I'm looking at the two less costly models, the Maroon or the Gold models. And although many home audio products perform beyond what their price points may intimate, I tend to keep my "parts of the whole" within certain related cost of ownership price points. So, in staying within that parameter and my own personal budgetary requirements...the Maroon or the Gold should suffice....mightily, I hear! j

[jc]

Absolutely no experience at all but they do get consistantly rave reviews, often compared favourably to much costlier designs. If it was an area I was looking to improve in I'd be very tempted too.

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Mar 29, 2015 14:02:52 GMT jc said:

Absolutely no experience at all but they do get consistantly rave reviews, often compared favourably to much costlier designs. If it was an area I was looking to improve in I'd be very tempted too.

Yep, thanks cj. I'm wondering about compatibility with a Rega arm, and from reviews, how in the heck to set the thing up correctly, as it's not a common type of set-up either. I've been so impressed, you know, with London/Decca's 1950's era monaural recordings I've found recently that I'm hoping for even more amazement with one of their phono cartridges and maybe Slee's "Jazz Club" de-coder thing. j

[jc]

Personally I wouldn't doubt the abilities of a Rega arm. They are excellent in the important areas (e.g. bearings) and have good mass. When I first purchased a Lyra Lydian it went on a rewired Rega RB300 although that was later upgraded. The Lydian sounded superb on the Rega, massively better than its predecessor, proving the Rega's ability.

Some others are OKing the Rega for London carts.  here

The only problem with the Regas is a lack of height adjustment, requiring a spacer or add-on adjuster if required. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the London cartridge(s) required the arm tube to rise slightly towards the cartridge but that may have been a particular model. Otherwise the square sided body of the London should make alignment quite straight forward, just leaving the overhang to sort.

BTW, what turntable do you have?

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Mar 29, 2015 16:28:30 GMT jc said:

Personally I wouldn't doubt the abilities of a Rega arm. They are excellent in the important areas (e.g. bearings) and have good mass. When I first purchased a Lyra Lydian it went on a rewired Rega RB300 although that was later upgraded. The Lydian sounded superb on the Rega, massively better than its predecessor, proving the Rega's ability.

Some others are OKing the Rega for London carts.  here

The only problem with the Regas is a lack of height adjustment, requiring a spacer or add-on adjuster if required. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the London cartridge(s) required the arm tube to rise slightly towards the cartridge but that may have been a particular model. Otherwise the square sided body of the London should make alignment quite straight forward, just leaving the overhang to sort.

BTW, what turntable do you have?

Hey, cj...been doing laundry all day, and it's time to take a break!

TT is an AudioNote TT-1 with their Arm 2, which is a Kondo silver litz wired RB-300 with their AN-V silver litz wire interconnect. I think the Rega, being so ubiquitous (u-what?) would make a good match. I already have a 2mm spacer ring at the base of the RB-300, for personal tweaking reasons. I'll look at the link you provided. 2 years ago (time does fly-by) I had an intermittent channel cut-out so had the tonearm in for repair at a U.S. AudioNote auth repair shop and spent a goodly sum to have the internal wire gone over, clip wires re-done and saving the AN-V interconnect! Good tune up on the tonearm and I replaced the belt and dropped just a drop of AN oil in the platter bearing well, strobe-ed the speed for accuracy and all is now well and good for spinning LP's.

When I brought home the London/Decca monaural LP (recorded in 1956), I was so stunned by it's musical intensity and presentation that I just had to start to investigate London/Decca as an audio company and what is available from them today. But the exchange rate twixt British Pound and US dollar and whatever mark-up the US retailer is taking has made, say, the Decca Jubilee skyrocket in price compared to what it costs in the U.K. (if we were to correlate one pound sterling to one dollar US), making the 1795bps cost (I'm guessing on the abbrev) into a $3000 US item, which I cannot stretch to. But then, I don't think my ancillaries are up to the "Jubilee" anyway.  So, a Gold maybe.  I usually take my good old time making a move with my audio gear nowadays, so am in no rush, but gathering info as I go along.  Never had that kind of patience early on....LOL!

Thanks for the link, cj 


 

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That link to that blog is hilarious....any arm that won't be shaken to pieces....love it! And Nottingham arms developed with London/Decca cartridges in mind...Wow...I almost went for a Nottingham, what was it called, it was like a long piece of timber with the motor in it and the platter on top of the motor, which was constantly spinning (the motor not the platter) at a low rpm whilst at rest (no on-off button) and required a gentle nudge of the platter to start the playing speed rotation. Some U.S. reviewers were downright contemptuous of it's design, motor always running, but, when listening to the thing were more than pleasantly surprised to hear their music from it, and one even gave it his highest recommendation.

Great link for me to look into, cj....thanks a bunch!