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Grado Stylus Upgrade

I currently am using a Grado Gold cartridge from the Prestige line. The cartridge was bought new about a year ago and has not seen heavy use. Basically, still like new. Although the Gold is not anywhere near the top of Grado's line of cartridges it is still decent with my system. I have read numerous forums and almost all Grado users recommend upgrading the standard Gold stylus to the 8MZ stylus for superior performance. That stylus goes for $150 which is more than half of what the Gold cartridge with standard stylus costs. I am not interested in a complete cartridge upgrade at this time but am curious if the 8MZ stylus upgrade is worth the expense? I guess that any users that have this cartridge and have done the stylus upgrade consider it a worthwhile upgrade.
  
jrpnde
best-groove's avatar
best-groove
833 posts
 
@boxer12 Thanks :)
frogman
7,390 posts
 
pryso, I went through almost every “Signature” Grado back in the day. I suppose the 8MX could be considered an “earlier version of the 8MZ” and it did precede the 8MZ. However, as I recall there was a fairly significant uptick in overall sound quality with the release of the Z “series”. If memory serves there was an upgrade in the quality of the internal wire and magnet material as well as other “improvements” to the stylus assemblies. The 8MZ was to my ears a better sounding cartridge than the pricier MCX which was a better sounding cartridge than the 8MX. Perhaps that puts things in a useful perspective. All fine sounding cartridges with that wonderful midrange.

8M, 8MR, 10MR, 8MX, MCX, MCX II, 8MZ, MCZ, TLZ, XTZ, 8MZ v, TLZ v, XTZ v.

I owned every one (!) except for the “v” versions of the Z series. All fine sounding cartridges with that great Grado midrange. The Z’s struck me as a significant step up in sound quality; especially the XTZ.
dazza111
1 posts
 
Can you put a MCZ, TLZ, or XTZ stylus on a grado black 1 cartridge???
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Yes
fillmoor
58 posts
 

Grado doesn't go into a lot of details on the specs of their stylus tips. Ortofon specifies tip mass and also if it's nude or bonded.

The Sonota 1 was nude elliptical, the current Sonota isn't. I also heard from KAB and vinylengine forum that the 8mz stylus used to be nude but current production is not. So it would seem swapping in a current 8mz versus a gold stylus is maybe no longer much of an upgrade. 

The cartridge is also a complete system, the more expensive ones from the older models may fit Prestige body but will likely work best In the older bodies.

Some people have better retipping outfits work on the Grado cartridges, which is another alternative to stylus swapping.

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