Still in love with Grace in 2021:
Local folks are lucky because we can arrange a home demo of each cartridge from our vaults, except for sealed new old stock like these RS-8U blue Utility-4 styli (they are still factory sealed). Last night we checked some of the rarest LEVEL II (Sapphire and Ceramic cantilevers) mounted on Grace carbon fiber headshell (my favorite). Genuine Grace stylus with its uber rare ceramic pipe cantilever was by far the best sounding, I believe the diamond is MicroRidge!
** check the linked files before they are gone
As you might know the LEVEL II is natural progression of older F8 series, however, there is only one interesting model in the old F8 series in my opinion, this model is "F8 Custom" made in the 70s. The size of the cartridge body is the same as Grace latest LEVEL II from the 80s.
So the predecessor of gold/black LEVEL II is silver/black F8C ("C" is for Custom).
Two double pack sets of styli from Grace are different, round shaped inserts are old generation and square shaped inserts are next generation. Of course the new generation of styli are compatible with older cartridges in F8 series and it's a huge upgrade, because exotic profiles like MR and cantilevers like Boron, Beryllium etc appeared in Grace catalog only in the late 70s - early 80s. Here is something from my vaults (NOS).
Long time ago I sold one F8 Custom with next generation of Grace RS-8U (Ulitity 4) styli, here is the image of this combo. An old F8C with latest LEVEL II stylus was great.
According to Grace catalog the RS-8U stylus is similar to a cutter stylus - a design based on extensive studies of record grooves and their relationship to an ideal stylus. This LineContact type of stylus (RS-8U) permits a higher range of frequencies to be reproduced (10Hz - 50k Hz ). The RS-8U (LineContact) is similar to RS-8F (Shibata), both styli are the best and most complex styli available from Grace at that time. The stylus assembly consists of a high energy rare earth cobalt magnet which is extremely compact. This new square shaped blue plastic insert replaced round shaped version associated with earlier F8 models. This particular RS-8U designed for the rarest Grace LEVEL II model in the 80’s, so the F8C (Custom) cartridge body can be upgrades to the highest possible level of performance with this latest LineContact stylus.
Good news is that "F8 Custom" is underrated, it’s still cheap compared to LEVEL II cartridges.
Anyone with "F8 Custom" here ?
P.S. It’s amazing how many different styli available for Grace cartridges (if you can find one). I don’t know any other company with such a wide choice of styli for one cartridge. From relatively cheap conical and elliptical broadcast and DJ styli to very expensive audiophile grade Ruby, Sapphire, Boron, Beryllium, Ceramic cantilevers and MicroRidge or Shibata diamonds. Using all those types I have never seen any Grace with weak damper!
Local folks are lucky because we can arrange a home demo of each cartridge from our vaults, except for sealed new old stock like these RS-8U blue Utility-4 styli (they are still factory sealed). Last night we checked some of the rarest LEVEL II (Sapphire and Ceramic cantilevers) mounted on Grace carbon fiber headshell (my favorite). Genuine Grace stylus with its uber rare ceramic pipe cantilever was by far the best sounding, I believe the diamond is MicroRidge!
** check the linked files before they are gone
As you might know the LEVEL II is natural progression of older F8 series, however, there is only one interesting model in the old F8 series in my opinion, this model is "F8 Custom" made in the 70s. The size of the cartridge body is the same as Grace latest LEVEL II from the 80s.
So the predecessor of gold/black LEVEL II is silver/black F8C ("C" is for Custom).
Two double pack sets of styli from Grace are different, round shaped inserts are old generation and square shaped inserts are next generation. Of course the new generation of styli are compatible with older cartridges in F8 series and it's a huge upgrade, because exotic profiles like MR and cantilevers like Boron, Beryllium etc appeared in Grace catalog only in the late 70s - early 80s. Here is something from my vaults (NOS).
Long time ago I sold one F8 Custom with next generation of Grace RS-8U (Ulitity 4) styli, here is the image of this combo. An old F8C with latest LEVEL II stylus was great.
According to Grace catalog the RS-8U stylus is similar to a cutter stylus - a design based on extensive studies of record grooves and their relationship to an ideal stylus. This LineContact type of stylus (RS-8U) permits a higher range of frequencies to be reproduced (10Hz - 50k Hz ). The RS-8U (LineContact) is similar to RS-8F (Shibata), both styli are the best and most complex styli available from Grace at that time. The stylus assembly consists of a high energy rare earth cobalt magnet which is extremely compact. This new square shaped blue plastic insert replaced round shaped version associated with earlier F8 models. This particular RS-8U designed for the rarest Grace LEVEL II model in the 80’s, so the F8C (Custom) cartridge body can be upgrades to the highest possible level of performance with this latest LineContact stylus.
Good news is that "F8 Custom" is underrated, it’s still cheap compared to LEVEL II cartridges.
Anyone with "F8 Custom" here ?
P.S. It’s amazing how many different styli available for Grace cartridges (if you can find one). I don’t know any other company with such a wide choice of styli for one cartridge. From relatively cheap conical and elliptical broadcast and DJ styli to very expensive audiophile grade Ruby, Sapphire, Boron, Beryllium, Ceramic cantilevers and MicroRidge or Shibata diamonds. Using all those types I have never seen any Grace with weak damper!