Fed up with Grado cartridges

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but I've had to replace the stylus at least 4 times in the last 2 years on my Grado Black cartridge. It's an okay cart that I used to like on my Thorens, but the cantilever on these things must be made of toilet paper. If your tracking force is set wrong, the catilevers will bend against the force and, heaven forbid, should you stylus ever take an accident bounce, these things will fold up like a paper crane. Unbleiveable. I just destroyed another one of these and I swear its was the last Grado Stylus I buy.

 

That sucks to hear , i have been thinking the past year of maybe buying a grado or Ortofon ....... sorry your having a bad time with them .

Does JICO make an aftermarket stylus for your cart ?? the few replacements i have bought from them are amazing quality .

 

Stop setting your tracking force wrong.

 

Sorry, couldn't help myself.



Best

Bob

 

criminally overpriced modern-day cheap crap, as i've long suspected...

 

I have never owned a Grado. Mythical in some ways.. the fact they hum like crazy has always kept me away.
I own a Benz Glider on my RegaP5,
And a Dynavector 17D3 on my Kuzma Sabi/Stogi S combo.
Then I have an old but great Dynavector Ruby 23 in the wings..
I love these carts.

 

I had a Grado Sonata and really liked it. They are a little more prone to hum.

 

This may be shocking but cart technology has improved since the 80s.

 

This isn't a reverse thread crap, but I've used nothing but Grado carts for the last three and a half years and I haven't had any problems and am very pleased with the sound. I am sorry to hear Grado is not working out for you.

 

fat lot of good all of that "improved technology" does on a cheaply made cart and/or styli that breaks upon even the slightest user error.

same goes for modern CD players, IMHO;
what good does a heavy aluminum casing serve when containing a joe-blo knock-off plastic DVD drive
with a crap laser pick-up that dies in 5 years or less?

 

I have a Grado Reference platinum and yes there is a little hum but nothing very serious and can only be heard at very high volumes standing very close to the speakers. Love the cartridge and when I need a new Cartridge I will updgrade to the Statement Reference.

This review is well worth reading.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/f...5&&&/Grado-Grado-Reference-Phono-Cartridge-Ca

 

Macgyver,

Most better cartridges are by their nature delicate. The Stanton 680/681/Pickering XV 15 the best sounding rugged cartridge ever made by mankind.

 

Yes I have been a fan of the Pickering XV 15 for sure.

 

The Grado Black is $60. Hardly criminal and hardly crap. I used one on a turntable at work, and never had an issue outside of the tonearm not being that good, which made alignment (and therefor tracking) problematic. I eventually got a Shure which tracked better under less than ideal circumstances.

 

I have used various Grado carts over the years. Never had any problem with them. I use a Dynavector now for stereo - which I like, but still have a Grado mono cart.

 

Not a fan. I've own a couple in the past, but never that excited about the tracking or the sound. I have never owned one over $150 I should add. It may be that the wood bodied ones are the ones to own.

I do love their headphones.

 

Grado's have a smooth mid range sound that is perfect with cheap electronics like pioneer.

 

In fairness to Grado, lighter cantilever = better tracking but obviously there's going to be a trade-off in strength. If you want better tracking AND strength you have to pay a lot more.

 

i've an XV-15. came along with the PIONEER PL-112D TT i recently acquired.

i gave both a shot, and found the ADC VLMmk.II to be the better sound to my ears.

perhaps i should give it another shot. perhaps i should hunt down a new styli for the PICKERING,
and then see how it all comes down...

 

The Black is one of the very least expensive cartridges on the market. And you call it crimially overpriced? I understand that plenty of people don't like Grados poor tracking abilities. But that modest cartridge sounds significantly better than an ultra-cheap $60 cartridge deserves to sound IMO.

 

I refused to ever consider using Grado cartridges decades ago. There was one Grado cartridge marketed once , that was for all intents and purposes, a ceramic cartridge masquerading as a moving magnet. Down the years their releases have been various "jack in the box" releases. Always trying to catch the latest trends ...and never mastering one.
We may have our sharp individual preferences in cartridge brands, but at least one can think of for example, particular brands as Ortofon , Denon or Shure etc and we have a straight away judgement / idea, what they are and what to consistently expect from them, in terms of sonics and reliablity. It was simply then a factor, of making a personal choice . Grado on the other hand...to me, draws a blank wall vision

 

Might be acceptable to some people that hum is present (in any form) - but not me.

To some what they want to beleive is "hearing what they heard".

 

Grados are fussy carts, no doubt about it. I've yet to have one fail, but they certainly do not sound good on all arms. If a Grado sounds dull or cloudy, that is an indication of a mismatch further upstream. The cantilevers are not very dampened, so they like little to no antiskate.

On my SL-1200MK2, my Grado Gold1 sounded like poop. After I added a KAB fluid damper, the Grado opened right up and sounds amazing with plump, bouncy bass, rich mids, and clear but smooth top-end. Superb imaging too, very 3D, and no tracking issues either. Lively but never edgy.

I have it set at 1.65 grams VTF, .5 gram AS, and the VTA set so the cart is parallel to the platter.

 

Any cartridge manufacturer whose carts are known to hum can't be any good. Hum is a very bad thing in the audio world. An audiophile's worst nightmare.

 

I briefly used the entry-level wood-body Grado on a Technics SL-1200M3D about ten years ago. Horrible tracker. Not a good match.