London Decca Revives Its Legendary Positive Scanning Cartridge Design

The new model arrives as part of London Decca’s broader return under new ownership, following news last year that the cartridge marque was being revived with UK manufacturing and servicing continuing under Andy Whittle, who was trained by long-time London Decca builder John Wright.

The Reference Type II is described as the culmination of the original Decca principle, using a moving armature configuration with a three-coil sum/difference circuit rather than a conventional cantilever-based design. London Decca says this arrangement gives the cartridge an “instantaneous response” by avoiding what it describes as the cantilever haze of traditional cartridges.

The cartridge is housed in a two-part machined aluminium body with a hard-anodised grey finish and M2.5 fixing threads. At the business end is a UK-made Paratrace stylus, fitted to a grain-oriented diamond and critically aligned within the rigid body.

London Decca has also returned to Alnico 5 magnets for the Reference Type II, a move it says follows the original design specification and is intended to improve dynamics and tonal density. Other updates include a soft iron stylus holder for improved tracking and bass response, gold-plated Radio Metal 4550 lateral poles for extended high-frequency response, and solid silver connection pins for signal transfer.

In keeping with the classic Decca approach, the armature is formed from tempered spring steel and held in positive tension by a fine retaining cord. Two vertical coils then pick up vertical modulation to complete the three-coil sum/difference circuit. It remains an unusual design by modern cartridge standards, and part of the reason Decca-derived cartridges have retained such a loyal following among vinyl listeners.

London Decca’s UK-based cartridge engineer Andy Whittle commented: 

I’s very exciting to be upholding John Wright’s legacy with the famous London Decca brand and to enhance the products by making use of the latest technology. We are most grateful for his continued input into the continued research and development.

There is quite a bit to unpack technically with the Reference Type II, reflecting just how unconventional the Decca design remains even by modern cartridge standards. Output is quoted at 1.5mV at 5cm/s, while frequency response is specified at +/-1dB from 20Hz to 20kHz. Channel separation is listed at 12dB at 1kHz. Granted, that's relatively modest compared with many contemporary moving coil designs, but historically consistent with the classic Decca architecture and its emphasis on speed, dynamics and immediacy over textbook measurements.

The London Decca Reference Type II is made in the UK and is priced at £7,702 | US$8,495. 

For more information visit London Decca