Grace F9 F8 F-9 F-8 Andante F9 F-9 H S Sumiko Pearl Supex Phono Stylus GAS Sleeping Beauty


According to most reports, Sumiko made both the F-8 and F-9. A good friend, who was a Supex, Audire, B&W and Theta rep back then, told me the F-9 was actually made by Supex, which would make sense, since Supex made all Grace moving coils. Also, I would imagine that Sumiko would have a stylus or two available if they made it. 

Sumiko imported these into the US, as well as Andante as a part of their line, and as a separate line for non-Sumiko dealers. FYI, The GAS Sleeping Beauty M/C was Supex 9E+, simply pressed into an an outer mounting shell. I use the Supex Mark IV (Timeline: E, E+, E+ Super, Mark IV are all the same, as far as my ears can tell. They just renamed it every few years.), which eventually morphed into Koetsu, and all of these are really great.

The Grace F9 came with different styli, the green E is elliptical with an alloy cantilever, and the the S is spherical. The red, top of the line is the Ruby, an elliptical with a ruby cantilever. There were both elliptical and line contact tips with a boron cantilever. There are even more F-9's, and all the same cartridge body and internals. 

For nearly complete info, check here, but some of the photos are wrong, i.e. a green cantilever holder on a non- F-9: 

http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridg...chi=&stid=&masslo=&masshi=&notes=&prlo=&prhi=

The original F-9 has a round shank, but a square one fits perfectly, because the inside has offset, rectangular shank, locating springs. I know, because I Have an E and sell an aftermarket S with the square shank. It sounds at least as good as the original S. Many of my customers say it sounds better, but I realize that this is simply because their 9 is worn out and this allows it to drag the bottom of the groove, giving both noise and poor contact pressure. 

All F-9 styli are interchangeable between either company's F-9. 

The Sumiko Pearl was also marketed by Grace as the F-8, and by Andante as the H or S with spherical styli. The Pearl and Black Pearl styli from Sumiko are a complete match and work very nicely.

The Sumiko styli do not work in the F-9 nor vice versa. I state this in my eBay ad, but some people are hard to convince. My stylus can be forced into the F-8 (According to the one customer who kept it, but had to order a second one after destroying the first, then he put this monstrosity up for sale on eBay.) I had a second one returned because he said it only put out on one channel. I am surprised it did that. The cantilever itself is a different length and the magnet does not align with the pickup in the cartridge body. I could modify it, but why bother, when Sumiko has good ones available.

I hope this helps. Dan Vignau 


128x128danvignau
At the bottom-feeder end of things, I'm curious about the $329 Shelter 201 vs. the $99 Sumiko Pearl. A lot of people out there think the Shelter 201 MM is just a rebadged Sumiko Pearl. The thing is, if Sumiko doesn’t make them (which I suspected), who does?

The Shelter has to be something more than a rebadge because at the least the stylus has different dimensions. Also, if both carts are built to different specifications and outsourced to an OEM, the two carts could be different internally as well--i.e., the suspension, internal wiring, tolerances, magnet material and flux density.

Any insight on this?
Chakster, Japanese Yahoo, ending today. You may need help from some of the others who have negotiated the waters.

Chakster,

I would tend to pay more attention to what we think(those that actually listen to these Grace cartridges), than what you ’see’ in spec. sheets. It has been determined (by those that listen), that the two preferred Grace’s are the F-9R and the F-9E. I own both. I prefer the ’E’ for enjoyment. The ’R’ for detail retrieval. Can not go wrong with either one.
It wouldn’t be the first time better specs. ’’did not’ equate better performance!

Regards,
@griffithds no surprised about R and E versions, i believe they are good but overpriced nowadays.

I'm curious about rare F-9F version. Have you tried it? 
Lewm,
I did not really mean the tip, but the assembly. Yes, the R has the Ruby cantilever.