http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/090204-NL-decca.html
Great artists, inventive technical staff, cared about fidelity. This is a big loss.
Yes indeed this is a huge loss!
Decca belonged to that great golden age of the Gramophone. The first stereo LP I ever bought was on the Decca label, and I still have it.
Some of the very best stereo recordings around came from that stable, with their famous Decca cluster microphone technique.
Their engineers and producers were with them for the long haul. John Culshaw, produced what is, musically and technically, the crowning achievement of the Gramophone, with the recording of the complete Wagner Ring cycle under Solti. He wrote about, in the book Ring Resounding! That book is a great read for any body interested in those artists and the technical aspects of the recording. There is not an aspect of that vast project is not discussed in the book.
Not only did Decca have a roster of fine artists, but they also made huge contributions to the reproduction of music in the home.
Ralph West comes to mind, with the development of the Decca corner horn. It was actually a folded Voight quarter wave pipe. It used an aluminum driver produced by of all people GE. To my knowledge it was the world's first metal coned driver. He was soon joined by Dr Bailey.
Of all the individuals at Decca during those early days was engineer Stan Kelly. A delightful Irishman, who I knew personally.
He developed the first decent stereo cartridge, the Decca ffss, and its companion Decca ffss pick up arm. That was introduced in 1959. He was also the designer of the Decca/Kelly ribbon loudspeaker. The ribbon speaker was another of Peter Walker contributions, and Quad's first speaker (late forties) had a ribbon HF unit. Peter Walker went on to develop the electrostatic loudspeaker, and let Stan Kelly work on the ribbon speaker at Decca.
In the picture below, the left most turntable has one of Stan Kelly's Decca ffss Mk II arms with Decca ffss Mk II head. This one is a 78 head. There is also a Decca lift and Decca brush. I also have a Decca H4E lp head for it.
This picture from my old Grand Forks studio, possibly shows it a little better.
Decca in their hey day had an unsurpassed artists roster. Contrary to popular belief classical recordings are profitable, just not in a month. They make money over the long haul, generations in fact.
Money over the long haul is not what the modern captains of industry are all about. It s short term profit, buy a company you know nothing about, plunder it it and run it into the ground.
The trouble is they have run as all into the ground, setting about destroying the fabric of our lives, and threatening the survival of our civilization.
