decca MK5

[frothy]

Thanks guys, ,just a little shocked when saw pic's, I'm thinking of pulling the Pickering xv15 from L-70 arm and giving it a spin there as the L-70 is a simple set-up and can be reversed quite easily...we'll see how the day unfolds
coffee time ciao frothy

[frothy]

Right now running the Pickeringxv15/625e cart in the L70,what a sweet combo, knocks the socks off the Shure M447, but really want to hear the  Decca on the L 70.so removed cart from Rega headshell and of course when removing leads from headshell the soldered clips broke apart, got me thinking of more permanent solution for easy change with four leads going into three.. Broke this, the 2 clips bent together with blob of solder



Not a new solution I'm sure...take 2 leads into 1 clip for common ground, cut 2 clips off  twist leads together,  tinned ,soldered together, soldered into single clip. Since didn't have black coloured leads put petit pieces of black shrink on lead ends, small persnickety work rather a pain in the dupa but needful.



melted plastic off and scraped clean, careful frothy!!!



twisted, heat shrink.



soldering, heat shrink done



cleaned all contacts before hook up, trying to remember to do this with all interconnects etc. whenever I take the system apart for any reason.

Yes Jacques that is your headshell, arrived yesterday, thought I'd hook it up and give you a shout, talk soon.



ready for install



Caio for now frothy





 

[aboos]

Is it by purpose to have the blue and the white cable connected together? Normally, signal right is red, ground right is green, signal left is white and ground left is blue. I would have expected the green and the blue connected together to form a common ground.

[frothy]

UsedL70 headshell wiring set-up and didn't have any black leads to keep common simple so black shrink  defines
Go to L-70 new home in Lenco general Questions half way down page 3 for clarification.
frothy hasn't figured out to bring quote from one thread to another   

[frothy]

So I'm up to page 7 in "Decca London Club" and from the little I've gleaned it would appear the 3-d printed headshell I mounted it in will be somewhat light in comparison to regular metal L-70 headshell. I'll give it a go then try some headshell ballast as suggested by Gene in DLC thread. Will post findings here and after I will move my enquiries to the DLC thread.
thanks all...frothy

[JacquesD]

Hi Marcus,

The headshell I put together weighs 18.5 gram, the bakelite"original" one 17.5 gram, no idea about the metal "original" one. Some extra weight may be useful, I know nothing about the Decca cartridge, I must say.

Success!

[frothy]

Thanks Jacques, I think your headshell has the makings to be the  go to alternative for L70 fans, the sliding adjuster for different cartridges is a real bonus and works well, going this way we don't have to look for non-magnetic Imperial thread screws as most screws available on line for headshells are metric and can't be used in original L-70 HS. (at least mine is Imp.)
The one and only weak spot I encountered is the headshell connector with four pins, the alignment is correct and worked fine and that is probably the most difficult thing to get right as you discussed with me in our PMs, the weak point being the alignment pin which snapped off while doing some off and on (3 or 4 times) the arm tube. The fit is good but for changing headshells back and forth this would become an issue, once that is  licked it is a winner    .
 So the Decca was a bit of a PITA (not food) to instal seeing as you can't just put screws to secure in from top when headshell is flipped over, but with the slider it is doable and then alignment can be set to match markings on the Heashell. I did a quick fit as impatient to just give it a spin as I wanted to try  it on the L-70, screws snugged tight enough into plastic spacer i put in to bring cart down past bottom of HS as you will see in pic's to follow
 All the following pic's and findings were done with broken alignment pin and HS pushed on arm without the being properly secured with lock ring on arm tube, it was a snug fit so I just wanted to spin a tune  and see what is what. Set VTF at just over 3g, VTA was pretty good so no adjustment there  as I wanted to put Pickering back in place after test of Decca.







 Was played basically flat with a little bass as this is how I have been using the Pickering on the Sansuie Int.



     " lord tundrin bi" ( lord thundering boy)  that is one heck of a cart  considering set-up ..lots of detail, vocals clear, no mushiness anywhere
horns and strings just sound right, decay just goes on and on symbols hiss when they should, the first time I heard the thump of bass drum my head bounced back, whoa. Played some jazz, rock , acoustic and some of my go to tunes for comparison, stand up bass could hear those plucks and rock well defined and another whoa where did that come from!!  Got to go more pic's to come...frothy

[frothy]

Here is the most interesting part of the whole listening experience, all the single cuts I played from different genres and 2 full sides of a couple of LPs for about 90 minutes of music, this is what I observed at the end of session







cart was half hanging in headshell...headshell had twisted on arm and I was over the moon with results...go figure..probably all the cueing, etc.

can't wait for more, in meantime back to the Pickering. Jacques you can see pin is gone in last photo 
best all frothy, newest member of Decca London Club

[zwarte-romantiek]

Great story, great pictures Frothy. Enjoy your Decca (as i do  mine  )

Kind regards,

Niels

[frothy]

up to page 15 in Decca L. C. thread only 252 to go  I guess that will be my winter reading   
ta ta frothy