Grado TLZ ???

I own a very old TLZ. It has a silvery body (probably aluminum) with a black stylus assembly. I am sure it is correct original, because I personally bought it new more than 2 decades ago. Rich, what is your question? I will try to help, but I am not sure I understand.

I will go and take a look at mine. I still have the original cylinder in which the cartridge was sold, so I can also look at the label on that. Perhaps Yogiboy knows better, but I do think there was a "Signature" version of the TLZ. I never knew or bothered to find out if it was any different from the standard TLZ, nor do I recall whether mine is a Sig or not. Do not know anything about the "v" designation. Most likely, the seller stuck the TLZ in a box intended for the Gold, as you probably have already figured out. The TLZ originally came in the aforementioned solid metal cylinder with removable end caps that were held in place by a fancy elastic band. I think the TLZ has great potential and is head and shoulders better (faster sounding, better bass and treble extension) than the lower models in the Z series. Good choice.

Rich, No question that the TLZ has about 1.5mV output. You would need a phono stage with enough gain for the typical high output MC cartridge to get the most out of it. I am listening to mine these days using an Ayre phono stage set to lowest gain (for MMs) and I have to crank up the volume control (on my linestage) quite a bit to get adequate sound pressure levels.

Thanks to Raul, I have been listening to my TLZ of late. I bought it new about 20 odd years ago (very odd, indeed). After cleaning and enhancing the contacts, it still holds up. I am not sure the XTZ was much of a real improvement. I don't recall the XTC at all. Maybe by then I had moved on to MC cartridges, for better or worse.

In general, lowering the pivot point will tend to favor low frequencies. But don't go overboard with that, because the cartridge will sound dull eventually. I am listening to the TLZ level with the pivot and have no complaints about bass response. However, mine has developed some distortion of late, for reasons that elude me. In fact, back in the good old days, I am pretty sure I used positive VTA (pivot up with respect to cartridge body).