For Vintage Audio and Vinyl enthusiasts only!

[TLS Guy]

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

 

[Cristofori]

Very interesting and unique... and very nice TLS Guy!

This is all stuff I've heard of but have never seen, and know little about, and being a classical aficionado and Anglophile myself, I can appreciate it. I'm glad you are here to break up the monotony of the usual latest and greatest A/V "black box" topics.

Is that Garrard 301 heavily modified to fit in that wooden casing, or was it designed for it? I especially liked the little dust bug.

Also, I have built up a small, but high quality (condition wise) collection of classical and obscure religious/ethnic/folk 78's. I got a really good deal on a Numark TTX-USB DJ turntable, which can play speeds from 16 to 120rpm (or something like that). More than enough to cover any type of disc ever made. This was purchased mainly for 78rpm playback, as you really don't need an ultra high-end tonearm for that purpose, but I'm currently using it as my main TT until something better comes along.

Can you recommend a reasonably priced, and modern 78rpm cartridge that will fit a conventional removable headshell? Or do you not get in to that type of thing?

 

[TLS Guy]

Very interesting and unique... and very nice TLS Guy!

This is all stuff I've heard of but have never seen, and know little about, and being a classical aficionado and Anglophile myself, I can appreciate it. I'm glad you are here to break up the monotony of the usual latest and greatest A/V "black box" topics.

Is that Garrard 301 heavily modified to fit in that wooden casing, or was it designed for it? I especially liked the little dust bug.

Also, I have built up a small, but high quality (condition wise) collection of classical and obscure religious/ethnic/folk 78's. I got a really good deal on a Numark TTX-USB DJ turntable, which can play speeds from 16 to 120rpm (or something like that). More than enough to cover any type of disc ever made. This was purchased mainly for 78rpm playback, as you really don't need an ultra high-end tonearm for that purpose, but I'm currently using it as my main TT until something better comes along.

Can you recommend a reasonably priced, and modern 78rpm cartridge that will fit a conventional removable headshell? Or do you not get in to that type of thing?

Believe it or not in those days you bought just the turntable no arm, cartridge or plinth. It came with a template. So you cut the board according to the template. It is a complex shape and you need to be handy with the rip saw.

So you had to mount the turntable, your arm of choice and install the cartridge. The set it up correctly with alignment protractors.

Unlike now, manufacturers assumed customers had brains and skills!

As far as 78 rpm cartridges are concerned I have not followed them of late.

For archiving the most treasured is the infinitely variable Goldring Lenco. It has a conical motor pulley with a matching idler puller. A lever draws the idler up and down the motor pulley. 78 rpm was not standard.

The next issue is that 78s are before the RIAA curve which was for LP.

If you notice there is a white Quad card in the pictures, a plastic one screwed to the deck. This is to set the right combination of buttons on the vintage Quad 22 pre amp to get the right equalization for the various labels.

 

[Cristofori]

Believe it or not in those days you bought just the turntable no arm, cartridge or plinth. It came with a template. So you cut the board according to the template. It is a complex shape and you need to be handy with the rip saw.

So you had to mount the turntable, your arm of choice and install the cartridge. The set it up correctly with alignment protractors.

Unlike now, manufacturers assumed customers had brains and skills!

As far as 78 rpm cartridges are concerned I have not followed them of late.

For archiving the most treasured is the infinitely variable Goldring Lenco. It has a conical motor pulley with a matching idler puller. A lever draws the idler up and down the motor pulley. 78 rpm was not standard.

The next issue is that 78s are before the RIAA curve which was for LP.

If you notice there is a white Quad card in the pictures, a plastic one screwed to the deck. This is to set the right combination of buttons on the vintage Quad 22 pre amp to get the right equalization for the various labels.

I can understand having to install your own arm/cartridge but expecting the customer to carve out their own wooden base is going a bit to far in my opinion, even for back then.

Yes, I noticed the Quad 22 card, but I wasn't sure if it was just there as a museum curiosity or if you were actually using it. It seems the "one size fits all" mentality didn't prevail back then!

As far as 78rpm cartridges go, there are myriad of choices available, but this is a very small specialist market and it's hard to get info on it. Some of the more serious archivists use several different sizes of styli for the different sized grooves in 78's as there were no set standards until the 1940's. Not to mention all the RIAA curve phono preamp/equalizers, so it can get really complicated.

I just want a decent 78 cartridge for occasional (albeit less than perfect) playback. I may not do much archiving, but I have that option with the software and USB port that came with the Numark TT.

Thanks for the links to your websites, and I will definitely have a further look!

 

[Alex2507]

Thanks for the honorable mention, Dr. Carter. I don't get a lot of that.

You sound all excited about your professional Decca arm with the integrated lift. What is going on with the special heads to play 78's? I'm thinking about buying about a dozen 78's from Goodwill that appear to be in good condition to try out on a TT that I have other than the AR XB Model. I mean why not, right? It would set me back 12 bucks and be a pretty entertaining way to spend an afternoon. ... and it would make my g/f nuts.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks for the honorable mention, Dr. Carter. I don't get a lot of that.

You sound all excited about your professional Decca arm with the integrated lift. What is going on with the special heads to play 78's? I'm thinking about buying about a dozen 78's from Goodwill that appear to be in good condition to try out on a TT that I have other than the AR XB Model. I mean why not, right? It would set me back 12 bucks and be a pretty entertaining way to spend an afternoon. ... and it would make my g/f nuts.

It will be entertaining alright! These seem to be what is in offer now, as far as 78 RPM cartridges are concerned. My instincts tell me to go for the Shure or Ortofon.

Cristofori is right though you need a variety of stylus radii if you are purist about it. I'm not that obsessional about 78s

If you can't get the correct Eq, and Peter Walker, as far as I know was the only person to come up with a slick solution for that, I would invest in an equalizer. The standard RIAA Eq makes 78s sound far worse than they should.

 

[Alex2507]

Ummm ... no thanks ... at least not right now ... and not for that. The XB Model won't play 78's and the other turntables I have are pretty much disposable/of low quality. Putting any money into them would be foolish. I might still buy the albums for a few dollars ... ya never know what the tide will bring in.

How would you hook up and set an EQ for 78's. Run the TT into an external phono pre amp and then EQ that signal before the rec'r/pre-pro and amp? Set the EQ up by ear? I can already see that this is not a path I want to go down but then again I use the make fun of people who listened to Vinyl. Look what happened:

There's a few more in the main room ... like another 20 or 30.

 

[Cristofori]

It will be entertaining alright! These seem to be what is in offer now, as far as 78 RPM cartridges are concerned. My instincts tell me to go for the Shure or Ortofon.

Cristofori is right though you need a variety of stylus radii if you are purist about it. I'm not that obsessional about 78s

If you can't get the correct Eq, and Peter Walker, as far as I know was the only person to come up with a slick solution for that, I would invest in an equalizer. The standard RIAA Eq makes 78s sound far worse than they should.

The Shure M78S is what I was looking at myself. Also, it's 78rpm replacement stylus can be used with their conventional stereo cartridges, so if you already have a current model Shure, you need only to buy the 78rpm Stylus at $35.

But for a mere $10 more, you might as well get the whole cartridge/stylus combo.

 

[TLS Guy]

Ummm ... no thanks ... at least not right now ... and not for that. The XB Model won't play 78's and the other turntables I have are pretty much disposable/of low quality. Putting any money into them would be foolish. I might still buy the albums for a few dollars ... ya never know what the tide will bring in.

How would you hook up and set an EQ for 78's. Run the TT into an external phono pre amp and then EQ that signal before the rec'r/pre-pro and amp? Set the EQ up by ear? I can already see that this is not a path I want to go down but then again I use the make fun of people who listened to Vinyl. Look what happened:

There's a few more in the main room ... like another 20 or 30.

You could certainly insert an equalizer after a phono preamp, or in the tape loop if you have one.

An equalizer is a good idea when playing 78s any way. For most their upper HF limit is 5 kHz, so steeply filtering after that limits the frying eggs sound.

However before 5 kHz the RIAA curve limits the highs too much and makes for rather dull ponderous playback. So if you don't have the right curves and most don't an equalizer is very helpful. And yes you set it by ear.

 

[3db]

Congrats TLS on your snag. Have you noticed an improvement over your other arms?

 

[TLS Guy]

Congrats TLS on your snag. Have you noticed an improvement over your other arms?

Yes, I have never heard the ffss H4E sound so good. Those integrated heads always sound better on the ffss integrated arms. The tracking on the inside grooves is particularly improved.

I was listening to a set of folk songs arranged by Beethoven the other day. The detail was exquisite. It was at least CD quality.

I'm really glad I bought it. I should have bought one when they came out and upgraded then, but that was my really impecunious years and we were starting our family. Anyhow better late than never.

That Decca design with no floppy cantilever is a delight.

The right to manufacture Decca cartridges was sold to John Wright of Presence Audio in 1989.

These are the current US prices on Needle Doctor.

It was interesting how I came by my Decca London Gold. I bought another SME series 3 on eBay about four years ago, for the system downstairs. After I closed the deal for about $350, the seller emailed me that the arm had had an old strange cartridge on it, and did not know what it was or if it was any good. He sent me a picture, and I knew what it was right away. So I told him I would be glad to take it off his hands and yes, please send it with the SME! So I got over a $1000 cartridge for nothing.

When I put it under my operating microscope, I could see no stylus ware at all.

Best deal I ever had.

I had a small part to play in the design. As a kid I was fed up with the poor performance of pickups. So I wound a fine coil under a microscope round a naked diamond stylus, which you could purchase then I suspended it in a small powerful magnet suspended on a nylon cord. I damped it with a piece of foam plastic. I mounted a UK Belling Lee antenna plug on the back and the socket on a length of brass tube. I fashioned a uni pivot out of a ball point pen. I bough an ex military microphone transformer from a surplus out let store off Leicester Square, to step up the voltage and impedance match.

I was surprised to find it could track well at 3GM. It was mono of course, but the tweeters really had work to do and were bright. Prevailing tracking weights at the time were 7 to 10 GM

Proud of myself I showed it to Stan Kelly at an audio fare. He thought it a good idea. Next thing I knew the Decca ffss Mk I was born. It was stereo and variable reluctance, not moving coil, so quite a different animal really. It just had the suspension in common.

That alone has always given me a love for the Decca pickups!

 

[jacqfranc]

Auriol lifting device

Dear Sir,

First of all, many thanks for posting your pictures on this website !

I recently could lay hands on an Auriol and have a question:

- according to the original article of The Gramophone,

"To the buffer a curved horizontal arm is attached and this is graduated in notches; this controls the position across the record of the pickup arm, a clip being attached to the pickup arm and registering along the control arm. According to the type of clip used the latter may be either above or below the pickup arm."

My Auriol came without a clip and I do not see one on your pictures.

According to me, such a clip is not necessary to ha it working correctly: can you confirm this before mounting it ?

Many thanks again for your answer.

J. Francois
Bruges
Belgium

 

[TLS Guy]

Dear Sir,

First of all, many thanks for posting your pictures on this website !

I recently could lay hands on an Auriol and have a question:

- according to the original article of The Gramophone,

"To the buffer a curved horizontal arm is attached and this is graduated in notches; this controls the position across the record of the pickup arm, a clip being attached to the pickup arm and registering along the control arm. According to the type of clip used the latter may be either above or below the pickup arm."

My Auriol came without a clip and I do not see one on your pictures.

According to me, such a clip is not necessary to ha it working correctly: can you confirm this before mounting it ?

Many thanks again for your answer.

J. Francois
Bruges
Belgium

The clip was on the arm. As far as I remember this was an add on that fitted the Decca arm.

I do not have one, and the clip is not necessary.

 

[valvesnvinylfan]

Nice looking rig, thanks for sharing. I used to own a 301 myself but use a TD-124 now, something about these classic tables though I can't enough of.