London Decca

Is yours the Mark VII with line contact stylus and four cartridge pins as opposed to their usual three? Mine is just back from Warren Gregoire in CA (US distributor/dealer) and sounding very good indeed.

I haven't made the comparisons you mention. You'll find that the Decca doesn't do warps very well but is otherwise very "immediate" with great detail and is very involving. Mine is on a VPI JMW 10.5i arm. What are you using?

Looks like we have the thread to ourselves :-)

To me, the Decca sound is the antithesis of "transparent," which is one of the reasons I like it (components noted mostly for their "transparency" tend to sound threadbare and bleached to me). The Decca is (again, to me) kinda rough-hewn and "real" sounding to a degree not found in my other main cartridges. I like them too, and sometimes the Decca is a little TOO much, but for now I'm sticking with it and leaving the others for a later time. I remarked to Warren that a new phonocable (Furutech Silver Arrows) had emphasized its "Decca-ness" in a very attractive light and he responded that cables are HIGHLY important in getting the most out of these carts.

Dealing with Warren, btw, is one of the really pleasant aspects of Decca ownership. He really believes.

All that Warren said, after I told him about the Furutech silver cables, was "Wires can make an enormous difference." At the time I got them, I wasn't even very much interested in hearing the Decca. Don't know exactly why except that I was quite satisfied with the other 3 carts in rotation on the JMW arm (Soundsmith Zephyr, Shure V15VxMR with Jico SAS stylus, and Denon 301 II). But I put on the Decca and was kinda stunned when I didn't hear anything from either channel.

I told Warren about it and he said they could probably restore it for comparatively little money. When I got it back it sounded both great and different, which I laid to the new phono cables. (Maybe Warren's work had something to do with it.) In any event, it's not leaving the JMW arm any time soon :-)

Pretty much any warp will throw mine (Super Gold Mk VII) for a loop. Playing around with damping fluid in my JMW 10.5i does help ... some ... but that's the best you can hope for, IMO.

The grounding ideas are worth a try, but Deccas, including mine, seem to have an affinity for hum that defies attempts to remove it.