[TheChairGuy]

In 1987 I owned a Townshend Rock Mk. I (or maybe it was II) and it was fitted with a Helius Orin tonearm (gorgeous, gold trimmed affair) and a modded (can't remember the modder's name) cheapie Grado (I think it was a $40 model).  Paired with my Superphon Dual Mono preamp at the time...with a couple of different speakers...it was the best vinyl setup ever in my possession. Until now, that is.

Being a fiscally irresponsible youth back then (since long rectified), I had to sell the setup for beer and rent money.  I had a near-20 year journey trying to find something that powerful, moving, detailed and involving.  I had assumed it was the Rock TT, or the very nice Helius arm.  Turns out it was most likely some combination of these...with the cheapie Grado.

Which leads me to chronicle the improvements I've made to the stock Grado for many to use in your journey....

1.  Fluid damped arms seem a pre-requisite to get the most from Grado's.  It firms up the oft-tubby bass bloat thru critical damping.  The Grado's are notoriously un or underdamped....Joseph and now, John, Grado feel damping robs the life from the music.  Maybe so, but the stock Grado is too underdamped for it's own good, I find.

2.  Van Alstine Longhorn and Silicone Oil Damping.  See 1982 Audio Basics provided by Frank van Alstine, for free, on his website.  This 'tweek' will improve tracking and critically damp the coils...perhaps so much so that it can be used on even Rega's and Technics; which are generally unadvised for Grado's due to the dreaded hum.  It's a common misconception that this is due to EMI from unshielded motors...rather, it seems due to microvibrations from Rega's and most direct drive tables affecting the un-damped character of the Grado.  Damp the coils are you're well on your way to reducing any hum interaction from any table.

3.  The Plast-i-Lator.  A 1/8" pinch of Plast-i-Clay or other between the headhsell and your cartridge body works to again firm up the imaging, so it's in the super holographic league.  It was after this addition that my Grado Green began making all other cartridges seem sickly in comparison 

3.  The newer Prestige-series. They have a better motor than any previous Grado series.  If you are enjoying your Z, G, or Signature series...a purchase of even a new Black model will probably prove beneficial to you. They are better - as indicated to me by longtime Grado Chief Engineer John Chaipas.

4. Line stylus versus Elliptical.  It now costs $1200 or so before you get a proper line stylus in Grado's line.  It's likely because the real differences in the $40 Black model and the range topping $1200-$2500 model are likely very, very, small.  You're paying a LOT for that extra 10% in performance....and most of that is likely the change from Elliptical to Line (or Shibata) stylus.

5.  Damping the stylus assembly.  Take the smallest dab of Plast-i-Clay and spread a super-thin swipe across the bottom of the stylus assembly.  The entire soundstage firms up impressively yet again.  This last 'tweek' pales next to the benfit of the 4 above it, but every bit helps.

If you are an owner of one of the higher line older model Grado's, you can interchange that better stylus assembly into the newer Prestige models perfectly.  Grado has the same tooling for that part for 40 years or so now.  If that higher line model is the 1+ or 2+ series or Joseph Grado Signatures....and have been fitted with Line (Shibata) styli....you are the holder of a HUGE upgrade for your Prestige Grado.  The difference between the styli on Grado's is vast ...gone is the end-of-record sibilance, most of the mis or poor tracking and in it's place is the sweetest, most properly extended music you can ever imagine.

The CartridgeMan in the UK gets US$1200 for a Grado Silver with a Line Stylus and damped body and coils - and is lauded for it's sonics.  I rather laud CartridgeMan for his financial acumen of taking a $150 cartridge, adding maybe $250 in 'tweeks' and tripling it's price from there.  You don't need to - it can be done for a whole lot less.

None of the above overcomes poor arm set up or geometry, poor isolation, or a poorly made turntable...but if yo have those done correctly, and implement the above 'tweeks', you're apt to have a vinyl setup of the highest order at hand - for a lot less than you'd think you have to spend for it.

I am completely agnostic to brands and have no economic or financial reason to extol the virtues of Grado cartridges..I just hear what I hear and hope that the above is helpful to some of you in advancing your vinyl tunes 

[WEEZ]

John, you just became the new Grado pimp. 

WEEZ

(at least I held the title for a post, or two )

[TheChairGuy]

John, you just became the new Grado pimp. 

WEEZ

(at least I held the title for a post, or two )

Hadn't expected to....just worked out that way, I assure you

[Nels Ferre]

The CartridgeMan in the UK gets US$1200 for a Grado Silver with a Line Stylus and damped body and coils - and is lauded for it's sonics.  I rather laud CartridgeMan for his financial acumen of taking a $150 cartridge, adding maybe $250 in 'tweeks' and tripling it's price from there.  You don't need to - it can be done for a whole lot less.

John,

This is flat out inaccurate information. Len Gregory a.k.a. The Cartridge Man, uses Grado bodies for his cartridges, which are not  Grados, but his own design.

[TheChairGuy]

John,

This is flat out inaccurate information. Len Gregory a.k.a. The Cartridge Man, uses Grado bodies for his cartridges, which are not  Grados, but his own design.

Innacurate?  He buys stock Grado silver (as it touts the same ultra high purity copper as the silver) cartridge bodies, puts a line stylus on it and damps the body (likely internally thru some method) and applies (gold colored) damping compound to the stylus assembly and a few bits and pieces on the external for looks and some damping.  It's the same coils, the same motor as on the Grado Silver.

I don't doubt it sounds great....but he has somehow snuckered a lot of folks into thinking his Grado is somehow his design.  It ain't nothing of the sort - otherwise, he'd use another not-so-well design of cartridge body. 

I suppose his Isolator has $50 in exotic materials other than butyl rubber and common stainless steel?  More like $2 and 30 minutes of his time to make it.

I'd like proof of either instance, otherwise.

Nels - I've been in consumer product sales for 20+ years now, and have a delicate crap-o-meter.  This guy is jerking you and everybody else off all the way to his HSBC bank    I don't doubt it's a fine cartridge at $1200....just a lot to pay for a tarted-up Grado Silver.  He's providing a good product, I have little issue with the man, but he's nothing more than a creative modder.  He has somehow built an aura around the product that it's somehow transformed past a Grado....when it is in fact a tarted up Grado Silver.

There is no more crap slung about in all of audiophooldom than that of cartridges and cartridge designs...and this guy is playing off that baloney.

His new silver-coiled Classic model is a different kettle of fish.  It's probably a Black model that he either installs silver coils into, or has Grado do it for him under private label.  The second I think more likely than the first, frankly.

If you know the guy - why don't you ask him outright what he does?  Be prepared for a less-than-succinct answer to your question 

[WEEZ]

According to his website, the latest version uses silver coils.

www.thecartridgeman.com

WEEZ

[TheChairGuy]

It takes specialized, very exacting and expensive equipment to wind 4 coils of very, very fine gauge wire right.  The business of phono cartridges is now so small, such a coil winding machine likely hasn't been manufactured for over two decades.

One of the reasons Ortofon's top end moving coil cartridges cost $2K, while some little hole-in-the-wall maker in Japan costs $5K...is the level of automation that Ortofon has as a large maker with amortized costs on coil winding equipments built decades ago.  This is not to say that the-hole-in-the-wall maker in Japan's offerings are not stellar....only that they are relatively overpriced vis-a-vis the Ortofons (and AT's and Denons, et at) as it requires him/them to likely hand wind, at much expense, and individually calibrate each cartridge as the hand is less steady than the machine.  Accurate and very costly machines help to reduce costs tremendously  in phono cartridge building.

I'd therefore conclude that TheCartridgeMan's latest 'Classic' offering, with silver coils, is likely bought from Grado directly and they act as a kind of OEM for Len Gregory in this case.

There's waaaay too much hocus-pocus and fooof when it comes to cartridges....and the Music Maker is nothing more than a tarted up Grado (likely, with Grado's help and blessing).  Economic mass almost dictates it.

I'd like to ask Grado if they'll make up a special model run for me for, say, 250 pcs with silver coil and 4mv output and how much that would be.  250 pcs is an enormous amount of cartridges these days for most dealers to order and probably about what Len Gregory sells in cartridges yearly all over the world.  The vinyl world is small to begin with...the amount of consumers ready to plunk down over $1000 for a cartridge likely numbers in the thousands only and I'd be shocked if it was even 10,000 pcs worldwide.

It's a small business - too small for CartridgeMan to exist if it were not for Grado building the bulk of these cartridges for him.

I've got nothing against Len Gregopry (or Nels Ferre  ), but the magic wand is waved far too often when it comes down to phono cartridges. I applaud Len Gregory for his ingenuity, but know better than to laud him with any other title than 'gifted modder'.

[Listens2tubes]

  woo, Johnny, you can reallly lay it down man.

[TheChairGuy]

woo, Johnny, you can reallly lay it down man.

Didn't mean to hurt anybodies feelings or trample on anyone's beliefs (really - I hope Nels isn't ticked at me - I meant nothing personally)...but, there's just too much hocus-pocus in the cartridge world nowadays...all of the major development of cartridges were done at a time when millions of cartridges yearly were sold.

In a world where maybe 100,000 cartridges yearly are now sold, you can't amortize significant costs to develop all new designs.  The new-ish designs you see (all moving coils) are hand built and hand wound and are of low output (so you don't have to hand wind more than a few feel...not hundreds of feet needed for higher output MM stages).  Oh, and generally start at $3K plus to pay for all that hand-building.

Unless Len Gregory has been doing what he's been doing for 30 years, or bought some dead cartridge manufacturers winding equipment...I say he's created a nice smoke and mirror for what is a standard Grado Prestige cartridge and found a way to make sell for $1200 retail and make $$$ hundreds on a $150 cartridge.

I'm not ticked at CartridgeMan...I kinda' admire his ingenuity (and choice of cartridge  ).  But, I'm not gonna' buy into it and figure my post is a bit of a public service to all here to know.  I saw one lightly used one from the US distrib for $750 with warranty (moving price in the right direction), but it's still too high for a Grado Silver with what amounts to a line stylus added.

I'm a businessman - and audiophile; you put the two together and you cut right thru a lot of bs quickly