London Decca

I have been dreaming to own a top performing MM cartridge but the prices here are just insane. I want to get out of the MC scene and simplify the number of active stages and no SUT but no idea where to go with an MM. Can you guys give me some tips on how to achieve 90% of the Decca at a fraction of the price? The top Goldring MM or Nagaoka MM … or?
John

Ok, so now where do I get a used Decca? I am very eager to setup the phono with an MM.

Thank you Exlibris. I talked to Warren a few days ago and he suggested the Jubilee for me based on my system. He had no used Jubilee's which was unfortunate. He said that the Graham 2.0 that I use on the Clearaudio Ref TT will work mighty fine with the Jubilee. The cartridge will arrive in 2 days.

I have been an MC user for 30 years. The change to the Decca will be quite a treat to run phono in a simplified manner. As incredible as the highly modified Counterpoint SA-2 has been, I have no doubt that eliminating this and the extra IC and cost of extra PC, will render some phenomenal results.

All the talk of the incredible dynamics of the Decca will motivate me to get the CAT JL-3 amps up and running again. These are currently out of commission as the system was moved from basement to living room and there is only one AC line to that room. The CAT's need a 20A circuit each! So the backup Counterpoint or Wolcott amps will have to do until I get circuits added. But the Decca will be a good start to phono enjoyment once again. I'm excited!

John

NoRomance: Yes, sadly, I was too late for that good deal. And Warren had not updated the page. But it is ok. Mine arrived few days ago but just too crazy busy here. I hope to have it setup tomorrow.

Tokyojohn: What an incredible story. To have all that top rated equipment and yet reflect back on the return of musical enjoyment by the Decca experience says so much.

John

Finally finally I got the Jubilee all set up for some serious critiquing. Sadly I still don't have the CAT amps up and running as I need an electrician to install two 20A circuits for these. And also sadly, one of the SoundLab A1's has an issue so I will have the backplates updated when resources become available. So for now I am using my trusty Counterpoint NPS 400 backup amp and a pair of Nola Boxer speakers. Imagining the compromises with this latter setup, the result is still quite amazing. Throw a serious front end on a pair of small speakers and you can be quite surprised! But this is only a preliminary report and with only 20 or so hours on the Jubilee.

The Jubilee in a word is VIVID. Oh my, bring on the floodlights. Very serious dynamic contrasts. Low frequency performance with the Boxers is impressive. No bottom octave here of course (with the Boxers) but the presence in the upper bass is mighty nice. This is often an area lacking with more focus on the upper range. The Jubilee does a mighty mighty fine job with piano articulation, great weight to each piano strike. And wow, the lower strings such as Cello. Very well done.

I had to throw on the reference LP, Roger Waters "Amused to Death", to check out the wild sound effects that this recording puts out. And sure enough, the piano placement is spot on with subtle details not even present from the rebook recording through the Lampizator B6 DAC. Simply magnificent. Long live Analog.

The upper frequencies from time to time seem to convey a little too much sibilance but this could be an issue with the Boxers more than the Jubilee. I will not know what the Jubilee can really do until I get the CAT/SL's back online.

Finally, there is a hum issue. I tried a cheater plug on the Aria preamp and no change. Put another on the Counterpoint amp and no change. Powered off all digital gear and MAC Mini…no change. Tried a cheater plug on the TT motor - no change. Unplugged the SoundLabs and no change. Removing the tonearm cable (Stealth Hyperphono) ground spade from the Aria made the hum really bad! So that is truly needed but the remaining hum is another issue. Changing to a Strightwire phono cable resulted in the same hum, and of course much reduced musicality. I tried a wire from Aria to the amp chassis and no effect.

The hum's level increases with volume increase. I went crazy unplugging lamps and other things and no success. So I have no idea what might be the solution. Sadly I just sold the CJ Motif MC7 or I could have tried that to determine if this is an Aria issue…but I doubt it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you so much, Noromance……great ideas. But sadly, no change. I will try to borrow phono stage and see if that changes things. And I have a friend who is a super setup guru too. Maybe he will have some ideas.