Yes truly esoteric remedies in the pursuit of perfect sound reproduction...
My conclusion on the decca maroon (so far at least) is that it requires very careful alignment. This can only really be done by ear. Specifically, significant negative vta is required. So aligned, the decca rewards with record high detail and hifi level. I hear new music on old tracks. Tone is not bad either but to these ears more in the direction of the clarity and clicks and pops of 78s than the warmth and foregiveness of LPs.
It can be truly great on the best acoustic recordings such as ben webster, bill evans, miles davis. But it lacks physicality on beat driven material. For example bill withers, marvin gaye, neil young.
On such records, to my ears, the decca/groovemaster combination looses out to the fat arsed sweetness of the denon 103 in the prehistoric L70 tonearm.
Both used on the same turntable — the ptp. And in the same groove.
That said, there are probably better deccas like the vintage ones. There are possibly also better arms for it, for example decca’s original unipivot.
Jesper
