The Maroon has no long cantilever and no "rubbery" fulcrum point to absorb, dissipate and smear the vital musical energy. Instead, the stylus is attached directly to a magnetically active metal support just a few microns thick (armature) which passes through the center of the main generating coil positioned only about 1 millimeter above the stylus! The stylus motion is not inverted or "transformed" to a smaller value, as in long cantilever designs. Flowing from this immediate positive-direct scanning of the groove is a breathtaking, lifelike quality. The listener tends to feel that the performing artists are actually in the same room, with a startling, palpable presence.

The London Decca Maroon is a handmade British Cartridge which uses a spherical stylus and the deccapod.

This London Decca Maroon has been upgraded to take advantage of the Decca Pod system.

The Decca Pod acts as a headshell weight, and it also adds height to the cartridge for fine-tuning of the VTA.

Other cartridges (both moving coil and moving magnet) have styli mounted on the long end of a thin tube (cantilever) which works like a lopsided "see-saw." The short end of the cantilever attaches to either a coil of wire or a magnet. At the fulcrum point, a flexible "rubbery" sleeve functions as a pivot, allowing the stylus/cantilever assembly to respond to the "wiggles" in the LP groove. Because the front section of the cantilever, which holds the stylus, is much longer than the rear section that is attached to the coil or magnet, a large movement of the stylus is transformed to a smaller movement at the coil or magnet, possibly causing cantilever-design cartridges to sound dynamically compressed and lacking in transient attack. London Decca's engineers advise that this problem with dynamics and transients is compounded by the cantilever's "rubbery" fulcrum point which tends to absorb a significant amount of the stylus-generated motion before it can reach the coil/magnet electrical generator assembly. Also, a smearing of the sound is said to occur, which many folks refer to as "cantilever haze."

The London Decca Gold is a classic cartridge design which utilises a nude elliptical stylus and a Tie-Wire system.

The Gold has no long cantilever and no "rubbery" fulcrum point to absorb, dissipate and smear the vital musical energy. Instead, the stylus is attached directly to a magnetically active metal support just a few microns thick (armature) which passes through the center of the main generating coil positioned only about 1 millimeter above the stylus! The stylus motion is not inverted or "transformed" to a smaller value, as in long cantilever designs. Flowing from this immediate positive-direct scanning of the groove is a breathtaking, lifelike quality. The listener tends to feel that the performing artists are actually in the same room, with a startling, palpable presence.

The Gold uses a nude, polished, grain-oriented elliptical stylus, with the same generator and similar housing of the Super Gold. We estimate the Gold cartridge provides 80% to 85% of the state-of-the-art musical realism provided by the Decca Jubilee. Frequency range: 20Hz to 40 kHz.

This London Decca Gold is a classic handmade british cartridge that has been upgraded to utilise the Decca Pod system.

The Decca Pod acts as a headshell weight, and it also adds height to the cartridge for fine-tuning of the VTA.

The Super Gold is our best selling London Cart, its sound is hard to beat & It has am extended line contact stylus.

The Super Gold has no long cantilever and no "rubbery" fulcrum point to absorb, dissipate and smear the vital musical energy. Instead, the stylus is attached directly to a magnetically active metal support just a few microns thick (armature) which passes through the center of the main generating coil positioned only about 1 millimeter above the stylus! The stylus motion is not inverted or "transformed" to a smaller value, as in long cantilever designs. Flowing from this immediate positive-direct scanning of the groove is a breathtaking, lifelike quality. The listener tends to feel that the performing artists are actually in the same room, with a startling, palpable presence.

The Super Gold uses line-contact, polished, grain-oriented diamond stylus similar to the Jubilee's, mated to less costly generator coils and housing. If you have never heard the $2875 London Decca Jubilee, you may well think the Super Gold is the world's best cartridge! Subjectively, it offers 90% of Jubilee's unrivaled musical realism.

The Jubilee is manufactured by a computer from a single piece of Aluminium and uses an extended line-contact stylus.

How and why is this cartridge different from, and possibly superior to all the others? Is it a "moving coil" or a "moving magnet" design? Neither! Only a lighter, thinner, shorter, magnetically active metal foil bearing the stylus comprises the entire moving system. This results in lower moving mass than either moving coil or moving magnet models.

The London Decca cartridges may be the only ones which have no cantilever, at least in the conventional sense. This appears to be the underpinning of their stunning success. It has been said that the London Deccas "reek of musicality.