The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie

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TheChairGuy

The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« on: 13 Feb 2007, 06:25 am »
I recently resurrected my old Grace F-9e (circa 1980) - here's how it fared this past weekend.....

It was compared my lovely Grado Green (w/Longhorn stabilizer and damped coils) that most often fronts my front-end.

The Grace has the microdynamics down - it sounds like a more expensive cartridge.  It has more detail and instruments are rendered a bit more true to life (eerily good harpsichord, lovely airy right hand piano notes, cymbols sound true to life - in fact the top end is as good as any moving magnet I've ever heard - quite a treat)...and yet it's one of the few cartridges with that all day, play mo' listening trait. It's not only hifi, it's goodfi  :wink:  :wink:

It should be better, tho - $200 when new (in 1980) is equal to about $500 today.  The Grado was $60 last year when bought.  Grado can't be using much of a decent styli to speak of at that price - the difference in sound quality alone could be partly due to that.

The Grado is a bit grittier overall - the details are obscured.  Instruments are rendered a little more falsely.  Bass quantity (and output) is better...but bass tautness is not as good.  I'd rate the overall middle ground (midrange) to be about a tie - with a slight edge to the Grace for the upscale sound if has. The Grado has this amazing vertical (holographic) size to the soundstage that is unmatched by anything I know of at any price....it's just that the instruments are rendered a little less true, and more 'cloudy' within that huge halo.

When things get dicey (crescendo's, winding guitar solo's, etc) the Grace holds it together better.  The Grado betrays its humbler origins and it gets a bit unglued/whooly at the limit.

Overall, I think I like the Grace better - but the Grado has nothing to be ashamed of for $60.00.  I would like to hear what $180 (Gold) or $300 (Platinum Woodie) does for the Grado, tho. 

Of the several cartridges I own - this is the order I rank them:

1.  Grace F-9e (with Plast-i-Lator)

2.  Grado Green (with Longhorn, damped coils and Plast-i-Lator)

3.  Ortofon X5-MC (with Longhorn)

4.  ADC TRX-1 (with Longhorn)

5.  Audio-Technica AT440ML/OCC (with Longhorn)

6.  vdH re-tipped Sumiko Blue Point (with Longhorn)

They each have separate headshells and my JVC arm is damped vertically and horizontally - so cartridge mismatches are all but eliminated.  Changes are made, with full re-calibration in minutes, so differences are easy to hear as not much time elapses.

The first two are listenable 24 hours a day, #3-5 can be used in short durations (#3 can be handled longer than #5, for instance) but they are not desirable, and #6 just sounds like screechy crap  :x

NOTE: I get a sense that the ADC is still 'tight' even after 30 hours break-in.  I may want to re-rank and re-evaluate after 100 hours on that one.  The rest are as good as they are gonna' get I feel, for what they are.

The Plast-i-Lator is fantastically helpful for sonics.  It's just a pinch of Plast-i-Clay modelling clay between your headshell and top of your cartridge body.  The Cartridge Man is definitely on to something with 'The Isolator', but 150 smackers for a wad of mastic or rubber and two thin strips of stainless steel in senseless :evil:

Everything is just a bit more solid with the Plast-i-Lator in place. There is something about that headshell/cartridge interface that cries out for damping - and the Plast-i-Lator handles the job quite capably.

A lb. of Plast-i-Clay is $4 in any hobby shot...and you use maybe 1/200th of it for one Plast-i-Lator with similar effect.

bpape

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Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #1 on: 13 Feb 2007, 12:36 pm »
So where does a guy get a sylus for an F9E?  I have one but haven't broken it out since I'm quite sure the suspension is basically rock or dust by now.

Bryan

TheChairGuy

Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #2 on: 13 Feb 2007, 04:14 pm »
So where does a guy get a sylus for an F9E?  I have one but haven't broken it out since I'm quite sure the suspension is basically rock or dust by now.

Bryan

Bryan,

I would have thought so, too....but after 15 years it was functionally perfect so far as I can tell.  Someone in the know tells me there is no rubber parts inside the Grace...so yours may well work indeed.

Based on these positive results, I emailed seller 'ed saunders' on ebay (a mountain of knowledge if there ever was one on cartridges).  He told me F-9 styli come up as often as hen's teeth and pricey when they do, but that the earlier F-8 styli come up from time to time and they will fit loosely on the F-9 body (you just need a bit of mastic/sticky good to adhere it).  But, it'll 100% work as needed (and the only changes to the Grace from F-8 to F-9 was internal to the cartridge...not to the stylus assembly; so you are buying something as functionally perfect as original one on F-9).

I already told him to round up as many as he can find (he's checking with associates in Amsterdam and elsewhere for them) as I posted my impressions over at VinylEngine.com and turns out there were many F-9 lovers like you keeping their once-over-loved F-9's in some sock drawer waiting for a new styli to come around.

If you have one and are just unsure of it, take out your worst scratchy album and just try it.  You may well be surprised as I was.

By the way, if you already have the assembly/stylus, you can just get it re-tipped with a beautiful ruby one from Sound-Smith.com for $250.00. While there, Peter (the owner and tech) will make sure everything is working to spec inside your Grace.

John / TCG

bpape

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Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #3 on: 13 Feb 2007, 10:42 pm »
Thanks.  I'll poke around and see.  I actually have the Boron - never tried the Ruby.

Bryan

TheChairGuy


shep

Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #5 on: 13 Feb 2007, 11:12 pm »
They don't. He means the cantilever. Ruby-tipped instead of diamand.

bpape

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Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #6 on: 13 Feb 2007, 11:29 pm »
Gotcha.  I was thinking that at one time, they offered an F9E with a solid ruby cantilever too.

Bryan

Psychicanimal

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Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #7 on: 14 Feb 2007, 01:12 am »
By the way, if you already have the assembly/stylus, you can just get it re-tipped with a beautiful ruby one from Sound-Smith.com for $250.00. While there, Peter (the owner and tech) will make sure everything is working to spec inside your Grace.

John / TCG

F9 Ruby is an awesome cartridge, leaves nothing to be desired, IMO.  (Yes, I'm that old).

TheChairGuy

Re: The Grace F-9e...an oldie and a goodie
« Reply #8 on: 14 Feb 2007, 02:55 am »
All day I played the same album - Mike Oldfield's chilling soundtrack to 'The Killing Fields'.

I've had this for many years and have played in dozens/hundreds of times previously.  No matter the cartridge it gives me chills still listening to it. It is very rich and varied music - and really enjoyable, overall.

All day I swapped in and out the Grace, Grado Green and ADC TRX-1 (trying to get more run time on it - it probably got another 3 hours today - it probably has 30+ hours now on it).

It wasn't close - the Grace is in another class of cartridge, entirely.  Treble sounds were rendered so perfectly in all instances (not tipped up at all). Bass was tight, tho not as deep or powerful as Grado's; midrange was clear.  It didn't sound overloaded or congested as the Grado does in demanding passages. It had better detail than even the ADC with it's fancy line stylus....with a far richer presentation suggesting a much more expensive cartridge.  The Grace and the ADC were contemporaries priced about the same as one another - the ADC got trounced.

With the lowest inductance of the group, the Grado may well sound 'loose' due to 47K inputs (it is critically damped closer to 10-20K)....so that may be some of the reason for the disparity in performance (aside from the price).  If it was run into 10 or 20K, some aspects of it's performance may have been tightened up. But, I don't believe it would reach the standards of the Grace (nor should to have to at $60).

I wish I could be more helpful to you guys as I am recommending a 20+ year old cartridge that is incredibly difficult to find in the market  :cry:  Among my stable of <$200 cartridges, it has no equal.  I'll bet it truly is spectacular with the ruby line stylus fitted to it  :thumb: