Thanks for the report, Howard. Another great pairing with the London/Decca pickups is any of the Townshend Audio Rock turntables, with any arm of one’s choosing (the FR64/66’s being favorites, along with the Zeta). The damping trough inherent in the design of the Rock is an ideal way to deal with the somewhat (!) resonant, undamped, and cantiliver-less design of those pickups. The Reference is the best of them all (except for perhaps the ancient 4-series Deccas), but it too benefits from the Rock’s unique capabilities.
I believe you meant to say Brian Smith, not Wilson, designed the Reference. Actually, Brian Smith is the distributor of London products, his company being Presence Audio. The pickup’s designer, and builder, is John Wright, a Decca engineer who, in 1989, I believe it was, bought the rights to manufacture the pickups. He took the Decca design and ran with it, improving the Decca Gold and Super Gold, and creating the new models Jubilee and Reference.