Hi, One cartridge you should consider is the Shelter 501 Mk2. Very smooth and lush, but also clear and detailed, and very quiet in the groove. The Grados to me are a little bit too much on the soft and smooth side. The Shelter is more balanced IMO. Output is .4 mv. I have one and like it very much. It sells for $850.
Grado Statement with EAR 834P
Currently I am using a Grado Reference Sonata with an EAR 834P. They work well together very tonal and lush, but just a little slow. I am using a 5751 in V1, a 12AX7 in V2 and a 12AU7 in V3. These tubes sound much better than all 12AX7s, but ther is a little less gain and a little more hum which. This is not a problem with the high output Reference. I am, however, interested in moving up to a Grado Statement Master to pick up some speed, high frequency extension and depth, but whith these tubes I question if there will be enough gain for the lower output in the MM position. As a test, I tried the EAR's MC setting with the Reference and there does not seem to be any change in frequency responce so the impeadence mismatch does not seem to be an issue, but it sounds like it may be overloading. There is a loss in toneality. Has anyone tried a Grado Statement with a transformer stepup.
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