Whoops! Those prices are for the complete head units, not for re-tipping.
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I own a Grace tonearm and two Grace Ruby cartridges. I was surprised to read that Grace and Sumiko could be associated, because I have never particularly liked the sound of any Sumiko label cartridge, whereas I count the Ruby as one of my all time favorites. Raul mentioned that I had one of my Ruby's re-tipped by Sound Smith. I opted for the OCL top of the line stylus on a ruby cantilever (of course). After a pretty thorough trial, listening to it not only on my system but on Dave Pogue's system as well, I (and Dave Pogue) concluded it sounded "bad". (Details elsewhere, but all the faults I heard on my system were immediately evident on DP's system.) The cartridge then sat in a drawer for over a year, after Peter Ledermann invited me to return it, and I just now sent it back to him for their evaluation. (My bad; I just hadn't felt the need.) This is not meant to reflect badly on SS; obviously they are capable of great results, and they are beyond reproach when it comes to ethics. Either my particular mounting was defective, or the OCL does not work well on the Ruby. Recently, I connected with someone who told me that he knows of two other persons who were not pleased with the OCL/Ruby comparison and one person who is ecstatic with his SS "level 2" line contact rebuild of his Ruby, claiming it outperforms the original elliptical. So, the less expensive option may be the way to go with the Ruby. On the other hand, maybe Dave Garretson had a different experience with the OCL. Dave?
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Prices on the OCL w/Ruby and the CL w/Ruby have risen considerably since I had the work done on mine, each by $150.
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Thanks for that input, Al. I am more and more thinking I should ask Peter to simply replace the OCL with their less exotic line contact ("level 2") stylus, assuming he will find no other problem unique to the original re-tipping of my cartridge. I examined it with a microscope, and the only thing I could wonder about was a fairly large gob of glue that fixes the stylus to the cantilever. Not having examined many such mountings in the past, I don't know whether the amount of glue is "normal" or excessive. I will have to rely on Peter to tell me that. Funny you should mention the DV 17D3 here; I have a virtually NOS one sitting around, inherited from the estate of a good friend.
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As mentioned above, I recently (less than 2 weeks ago) sent my Grace Ruby, previously OCL re-tipped by Sound Smith, back to SS for re-evaluation, more than 2 years after the original work had been done. As also previously mentioned, it never sounded good, and I had stuck it in a drawer once I'd convinced myself it was a dud, even though Peter L invited me to send it back a whole year ago. The new news is that PL contacted me to say that he found the problem, fixed the problem under warranty (way long after the warranty has actually expired), and it's on the way back to me. What a class act! I am very pleased, excited, and grateful to SS.
Bottom line: I will be able to compare the OCL-retipped version to my other Grace Ruby, which is still on its OEM elliptical stylus, per Chakster's query.
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Thanks, Dave. I look forward to the same excellent performance from my newly repaired Ruby/OCL as you describe for yours. If that's the case, it will probably turn out to be the primary cartridge on my Beveridge system for quite a while, given my propensity to stick with one cartridge for long periods of time.
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I've now got about 5-6 hours on the Ruby/OCL. It is producing a "big" and very highly detailed sound. During the first 2 hours, it sounded tipped up in the treble with not much bass. This is in a Dynavector DV505 tonearm with an aftermarket headshell of "medium" mass, not super low mass such as one might use with a high compliance cartridge such as this. Load R is 47K into a 12AX7 input stage with no added capacitance. I mention the tube because the 12AX7 has more Miller capacitance than most. For the second long session, I noticed that the rear of the DV505 vertical portion was a bit high. So I lowered the vertical pivot until the cartridge was parallel to the LP surface or maybe a little tiny bit down at the rear. VTF was 1.6. Now the cartridge sounds much less treble heavy, still with the same incredible amount of detail, which can sometimes be a sign of treble emphasis, too. But the sound is not at all irritating, could listen for hours. Since I am listening on a Beveridge 2SW system with a separate woofer system that crosses over to the Bev at 100Hz, I just cranked up the woofers by a tiny amount to make up for any perceived bass deficiency. This worked well, and the prior perceived bass deficiency could have been due to the fact that the Ruby has a higher output voltage than did the preceding cartridge in this system. The woofer level was set for that other lower output cartridge, so it stands to reason that listening at lower volume settings would alter the relationship of mids and treble to bass. Anyway, the trend is very favorable, as this thing breaks in. If anyone knows the Grace recommended load capacitance for the Ruby, please enlighten me. |
Thanks, Al. I am surprised to learn of the 100K recommended load resistance. Perhaps this is part of the reason why my OEM Ruby sounded so great with my Silvaweld phono stage, where I installed 100K load resistors. However, it sounds less great with other cartridges, which has me thinking of either installing a switch to select load R (= work) or fixing a 47K load (= less work).
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Dan, I too often make mistakes, but it does seem to me from memory that the Ruby, which also carries the categorical designation "F9", is alone in having the ruby/sapphire cantilever. I always thought that this is what differentiates it from the "F9E". Ruby has a red stylus carrier whereas F9E is green. (Of course, the choice of color would have no effect on sound.)
Follow-up on the break-in of my Ruby with SS OCL stylus. Fantastic. It's a bit "in your face" with detail, but it still has very low hours and that quality has tamed itself markedly already, plus bass response has come up to proper level and detail. Dave Garretson pointed the following out to me, and I agree: The Stanton 980LZS is king of bass among vintage MMs. Was just appreciating that the other day.
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Chakster, No, I am not familiar with F9F. What cantilever does it use?
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