Shiny brand new second hand things in my system today

I had a look on the moerch website to see what armtube they recommend, unfortunately deccas are not listed. I will drop them a mail and find out

The uni-pivot-ness of a tonearm doesn’t really affect whether it has a low, medium or high effective mass. The likes of Hadcocks, Maywares etc really came from a period where high compliance Shure MM’s were popular & arguably don’t lend themselves so well to low compliance MC’s It’ll be interesting to hear what Moerch recommend as they do supply different weights of armtube for different cartridges.

It was always suggested that a Decca would put a higher than typical amount of vibration into an arm which didn’t suit ball race type bearings particularly well but I’ve no idea whether that’s true or a myth.

I’ll try it in an Orsonic or the Arche to see how this effects the sound.

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That’s pretty much what I read when looking into Decca carts. I think the AN arm is some bastardised inverted unipivot but works well with the Decca.

I couldn’t believe how microphonic the decca casing is, just a soft tap with a fingernail booms out of the speakers, I guess you don’t want an arm that is going to send any vibrations back into the cart is why silicon damped unipivots are suggested.

I’ve got an old keith monks lab arm I keep meaning to rewire and fill with silicon rather than mercury they were designed with.

Isn’t the mercury supposed to actually conduct signal?

Yes, it ain’t for damping

Yep, that’s why it needs a rewire, was going to drill a hole on the underside of the arm and feed the wires out of that and then use the mercury bath’s for silicon damping.

I thought the AN arm just had shafts like the old Scorpio 3. Horizontal shafts constrained at each end & surrounded by grease & a vertical bearing not unlike that in a turntable.

(I may be talking out of my backside there, I haven’t had one in pieces)

Doesn’t the Decca have very different vertical versus horizontal compliance? Would this make a difference regarding bearings versus unipivot?

I used to have a Garrott brothers ‘pod’ which added some mass to the Gold it came with. It also may have tamed some of the vibration also. I guess the Cartridge man isolator and several of the wooden body’s for Decca London would also alter some of frequencies seen by the arm.

Isn’t it quite dramatically different?

Back when I was at University (so 1989-92) I bought a Technics SL1810 from a junk shop for about £15-£20, if memory serves.

The turntable is still going strong although it’s been relegated to a 2nd system now, but it had a Shure M91ED cartridge fitted when I bought it. I always liked the sound of this cartridge although the original Hi-Track stylus fitted was a little past its best. I’d fitted a few generic replacements with variable results before going to MC cartridges and not really looking back.

A year or so ago I heard a rumour that the Jico SAS stylus for this cartridge was being discontinued. I’d always fancied hearing what it could achieve so I took the plunge.

Well, today I finally got round to properly setting it up on my turntable and having a listen. It sounds way better than it has any right to, given what it owes me! I’m struggling to fault it, really, other than that the surface noise is perhaps a tiny bit higher than I’m used to.

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Audio Origami PU7 with Koetsu Black

Sounds bloody lovely

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You should get this picture disc to stay in keeping & raise a smile.

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Must say I love the look of the PU7 in that finish too, Chris!

Never had one of Johnny’s arms. Been tempted a few times, just never pushed the button. I take it you’re happy with it?

A lovely sounding transport. It’s no veil lifter but an engrossing listen in a sit back with a glass of red sort of way.

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Matches your TT too Nick :grinning:

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Part of the appeal admittedly :smile:

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Quick shot of the whole rig might be good at this point Nick…please :upside_down: