I recently got lucky on eBay.
I have owned a Decca ffss and integrated cartridge since 1966. My arm was the Mk II. I never purchased the later professional arm until now. All Decca vintage ffss gear fetches very high prices on eBay. I have previously passed on the few that have come up for that reason.
Recently one came up at a high starting price. Surprisingly there were no bids for a number of days, and the seller suddenly changed the sale to a comparatively reasonable price under Buy it now. I snagged it right away.
The pro arm has an integrated lift, the Mk II did not.
Here is my Decca Mk II 78 head with a very rare adapter for the SME series 2 arms.
This Auriol lift is very rare. I have two in my possession.
The lift lowers on a cylinder of air. The escape of the air is controlled by the large black knob. The arm lift can be set to lower very slowly indeed. This is very useful for archiving, especially 78s.
On a recent trip back to England, doing some clearing up I found my old Ortofon moving coil SL 15/E.
Two of my preamps have provision for moving coil cartridges, but I have not mounted the Ortofon yet.
The Decca ffss products are not well documented on the Net. I have come to realize that I have one of the largest collections of artifacts from that era in working condition.
I have put
this album together for 3 dbs and the Monkies enjoyment, ( and others).
If you think any of the captions need further amplification please say so.
I hope vinyl enthusiasts will enjoy this album.
The Decca cartridges are really fine sounding cartridges. They were designed by Stan Kelly of Kelly Ribbon fame. The Mk 1 appeared in 1958 and was the first stereo cartridge to achieve true high fidelity performance. At the time it was a revelation. These cartridges are much loved and admired.
They are Variable Reluctance cartridges, in which a very small piece of iron is attached to the stylus. This moves in a powerful magnet which has coils wound round it.
There is no cantilever, which makes these cartridges highly detailed and transparent. The stylus is suspended on mono filament nylon. In the integrated cartridges damping is provided by the integrated arm.
The limitation of the Decca cartridges is very high modulation. They do not have the trackability of the Shures in the really highly modulated passages.
For listening to song, Lieder baroque and chamber music they are without compare.
I have really been enjoying my Decca H4E on the newly acquired pro arm.
I have attached the operating principle and an advert for the Decca cartridges.
I will also be placing this on the Vinyl engine. I think this album will help better document Decca pickup history.
I hope members will enjoy this album