HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I only found two better sounding carts, my SPU Gold and a Decca London Gold, both a lot more money. Decca never again, a complete PITA, sounded wonderful, so dynamic, and then it stops working properly, they are so bloody unreliable and badly made.

Just to add a completely conflicting opinion, i cant stand them. I find them coloured and overblown.
I tried, i really did. I had a 103, a 103r, a bodyless one and one with a zu body. I even made a very high mass arm for one which came closest to making it acceptable, but i was never happy with any of them. Could never get them to track as I wanted either.
I know that so many people do like them, but i simply dont. Even the variants.
I moved in a different direction

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: ↑Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:48 pm I only found two better sounding carts, my SPU Gold and a Decca London Gold, both a lot more money. Decca never again, a complete PITA, sounded wonderful, so dynamic, and then it stops working properly, they are so bloody unreliable and badly made.

my recent cartridge history has been a 2m black which was great,then i tried a decca c4e which blew the 2m black away,it made it sound very thin.the decca was sent away to be re-tipped,in the meantime i tried a cadenza black,it has a neural tone and after the decca it just lacked the drive and punch so it went back,the decca arrived and it was business as usual or so i thought. on good recordings it was marvelous but on not so good ones it sounded bad,i persevered but in the end i sold it on.

the denon 103sa has been a real surprise,no fussy tip just a spherical stylus,easy to set up and man does it do music,in fact since ive owned it ive never bought so many records lol.
i found adding some mass to the front end of my zeta tonearm (16g effective mass) made a big difference to the soundstage,it opened it up in height,so if you have one its worth experimenting.
i dont miss any of the previous cartridges at all. the denon has its limits but makes up for them with sheer enjoyment.

just my two cents.

I have heard the spu gold at NVA towers and it is very nice indeed. I heard a Decca many years ago and remember being impressed but was into the Linn/Naim thing at the time so it never stood a chance.

The 103SA sound interesting. I know they come up on the bay from time to time so I might make an investment in the knowledge that I could always sell it on. But hang on, I could also fit the spu gold in the PL71 arm. Decisions, decisions !

Deccas are unreliable big-time, but the best ones with fancy tips properly 'podded' and in an arm that can take them properly (lightly damped unipivots were deemed ideal, such as the Notts Analogue and fall-apart Hadcocks of old), the sound was closest to master tape I've ever heard in comparison with said master-copies I used to have... I retain my Microscanner for a day when I might possibly have a deck and arm worthy of it again.

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew » Sun Mar 18, 2018 1:21 am
There is one at ebay that needs a new counterweight for under £50 at the moment.


Thanks! took a punt and won it. I shall send it to J7 for a rewire etc in the not too distant future.

Kevin