Where to go from Grado Gold?


Hej

I need advice choosing a new MM cartridge. Yes, MM, not MC. My Grado Gold 2 has served me for aboiut two years, since I took up vinyl again, but now I want to get more from my records. I really like Grado Gold 2 but I feel that I want more of...everything. What is important to me is that the cartridge is good at tracking and sibilance and distorted sound is the worst I can think of. What I've heard from Ortofon is not the type of sound I'm looking for. I think Ortofon sounds cold and analytic. Someone described the sound as CD like and I agree with that. So, any ideas what cartridges I should check out? Budget up to $600. Tonearm Pro-Ject 9cc.
simna

Showing 5 responses by chakster

With your budget you could try vintage MM cartridges that you can find NOS (unused). Grace is one of them, especially when new styli available from SoundSmith as an option (if you can’t find an original stylus or when you need replacement).

Another option is new Garrott Brothers P77i cartridge with advanced stylus profile. AU$ 690 = $500 USD



* p.s. you will find images in my virtual system
-Nagaoka is a low compliance MP cartridge, its compliance is too low for MM, better for higher mass tonearms.  

-Audio-Technica are mid compliance MM cartridges just like Garrott, will work nicely on almost any modern tonearms.

-Original Grace is a high compliance MM cartridge (SoundSmith stylus has slightly lower compliance than original Grace).

P.S. I got 3 Grado cartridges, including signature Grado XTZ (it was $750 in the '80s). Inexpensive vintage Stanton 881s and Pickering XTZ/4000 with genuine Stereohedron styli are better than Grado in my opinion.    


What stylus tip do you have on your Grace ?
If it’s not an advanced profile then MicroLine from AT is better, but Grace made cartridges with Shibata type and Line Contact type styli too. Also SoundSmith new styli (maybe you should try) have Contact Line (CL) and Optimized Contact Line (OCL) styli - those are great, you can upgrade your elliptical Grace with any of them.
Garrott and Grace are brands that I haven’t seen here in Sweden.


Why do you want to see them in Sweden if you can order online?
I’m not far from Sweden and I don’t care what I can see locally, I order everything online.

Garrott is Australian made
Grace is vintage Japanese cartridge, SoundSmith with his new styli for Grace is from NYC, USA
If you need help with NOS cartridges with no import tax in Sweden ask me, I'm in St.Petersburg. 



Mayby I should just try to change the original Grado Gold stylus with 8MZ or XTZ? But what will the difference be?

With genuine XTZ stylus you will get the maximum possible from your Gold, stylus is the most important. XTZ is the best stylus for your cartridge.

@chakster
Just realized that XTZ is very expensive. Not worth upgrading my Grado Gold with a XTZ which costs aprox $475.
But what about 8MZ. Will 8MZ make a noticeable difference?

Styli for every MM or MI cartridges with advanced profiles are expensive, Grado XTZ stylus was the best stylus profile (twin tip) selected by Joseph Grado himself, XTZ was his signature model. All you need for Grace is a new stylus. Any of those 3 are better than your gold.

The goal of inexpensive Grace F9 is that you can just buy cartridge body for about $200 and then you can use any SoundSmith styli for Grace F9 (he’s offering them with different profiles and even with different cantilevers).

There are so many amazing MM cartridges, if you want F.Gyger tip then you can look for Garrott Optim w/F.Gyger (don't be shocked by price in AU$) 

Note that the F.Gyger, Replicant-100, MicroRidge, MicroLine ... are just different names for nearly the same advanced profile. F.Gyger is more popular in Europe (Goldring is a British brand). In Japan the MicroRidge, SAS, MicroLine are more popular.