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Grado Gold Upgrade Path

radiohead

radiohead

Active Member
I have a Grado Gold 1 on my Dual 1219; happy with it but will need a new stylus sometime this year. I’m considering the following as an upgrade:

Grado Gold 2 stylus
Grado 8MZ stylus
Retip existing stylus to nude (famous service on eBay)

or

new cartridge: AT-VM95ML

Appreciate any opinions or other suggestions under $200.

Thanks.
 
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If you like the Gold1 I would go with the 8MZ, although there has been speculation that the current Gold2 and 8MZ styli are the same assembly. I cannot make direct comparisons but I can get close because I own a Silver1 with Silver2 stylus, and I also own a retipped Blue1 (from Joseph Long, aka Needlestein) that I like. Last, I own a VM95SH. Of the three I prefer the 95SH. It is a beautiful cartridge, quite surprising really, and available at great pricing compared to the competetion, and my Grado cartridges haven't been getting nearly as much playing time since I bought the AT. Just my experience...
 
Grado fans have been kind of holding their breath, due to a post from a couple months back by @Jbl Joe . His post claimed that Grado would be releasing some new products this month, including a new improved 8MZ which he already had in his possession. The release date was supposedly the 11th, but the day came and went with no big announcement. There's seemingly been radio silence since, and the thread fizzled. An update would be nice...
 
The 8MZ does fit the Gold1, Frank has been running this combo for a long time.

There is another modification that can be made to the Grado Prestige line:

The Grado Longhorn

rotatedgrado-400x300_480x480.jpg
 
Multiplex said:
Grado fans have been kind of holding their breath, due to a post from a couple months back by @Jbl Joe . His post claimed that Grado would be releasing some new products this month, including a new improved 8MZ which he already had in his possession. The release date was supposedly the 11th, but the day came and went with no big announcement. There's seemingly been radio silence since, and the thread fizzled. An update would be nice...
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Interesting. I’ve got time so I’ll wait and see how this develops. Thanks
 
radiohead said:
I have a Grado Gold 1 on my Dual 1219; happy with it but will need a new stylus sometime this year. I’m considering the following as an upgrade:

Grado Gold 2 stylus
Grado 8MZ stylus
Retip existing stylus to nude (famous service on eBay)

or

new cartridge: AT-VM95ML

Appreciate any opinions or other suggestions under $200.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
The Gold 2 is way better than the gold 1 with better highs. What Grado have done is increase the coils length old DC resistance was 475 ohms, now with Gold 2 dc resistance is 680 ohms (Grado still use old instructions so advertise the same)
This increase is interesting as some older Vintage Grado were 800 ohms and they had great highs so looks like Grado are going back closer to how they used to be.
Now re the gold 2 and other in the line up, I did some tests between a gold 2 and a blue 2 both on the body and on the stylus checking it under a microscope etc. There was no significant differences between the blue 2 and the Gold 2, actually the ONLY difference I could find was on the Gold 2 stylus cantilever there was some bitumen damping that was not present on the blue 2 everything else seemed identical, apart the coils matching were oddly better in the blue 2 than the gold 2 resistance and inductance wise.
I also own a AT-VM95ml which is a great cart, but it is never going to worry my Grados. I have been doing some stereo separation tests yesterday on all my carts and Grado come out well and truly on top. Most of my carts (I have around 50) are around 20-25db separation, but the Grado are around 40db separation.
My advice is get the gold 2 or even get the blue 2 as it I cant find a reason for getting the gold 2 and spending the extra money. When the stylus is worn out buy a ATvm95 ml stylus and send it to someone who is able to do a retip (I do my own as it is not that hard) and you will have an ML Grado gold 2.
Chris
 
radiohead said:
I have a Grado Gold 1 on my Dual 1219; happy with it but will need a new stylus sometime this year. I’m considering the following as an upgrade:

Grado Gold 2 stylus
Grado 8MZ stylus
Retip existing stylus to nude (famous service on eBay)

or

new cartridge: AT-VM95ML

Appreciate any opinions or other suggestions under $200.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If his pricing is near the price of the 8MZ or Gold2..........I suggest sending him your existing Gold 1 stylus for a rebuild
 
If you like your Grado, go ahead and get the retip done.

I don't like Grado cartridges much and wouldn't bother personally.

The 95ML is a great cart but needs low capacitance in order to sound best and works best on medium mass to medium heavy tonearms. I'm not sure what the effective mass of your Dual arm is. If it is lighter than 12g, I would probably choose something like the higher compliance AT VM500 series instead, or the Ortofon OM series.

Re: stereo separation, that is one dimension of cartridge performance. I tested the 95ML at 27dB, which exceeds factory spec and is more than good enough for any recording on vinyl and most human ears. Where the Grado will fall apart is tracking tests. I use the Ortofon test LP for this. The 95ML will track the 90um before losing contact with the groove. Legendary cartridges like the best OOP Stantons and Shures can clear the 100um band.

Grado Gold (previous model) was tested by Miller Audio Research and struggled to hit the 70um band (it crapped out at 65um) on a test record. That is very middling to poor performance for a supposed top of the range cartridge. If you play a lot of tamely cut records you might not care. The problem is in the suspension design of Grados. It doesn't matter that they tweaked the electrical specs for a more balanced FR curve. Not gonna fix the tracking problems. This was on a 10g tonearm also, so save the arguments that Grado needs a light arm.
 
Blewpernt said:
What a Prestige 3 now???????!
Description says “Twin Magnet System” which I think is the same as the 2 series. I noticed that the 2 uses to cylinder magnets placed side by side along the roof of the cartridge where the old ones used a single rectangular block. But I don’t remember the 2 series specifically mentioning the twin magnet system.
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They were using those little cylindrical magnets in the Prestige1 series, too. I wonder if there is a difference, or if this is just marketing mumbo-jumbo.

I guess the main question is, is this just an electrical/body upgrade, or is there also a stylus/suspension upgrade?
 
Blewpernt said:
So Rich Grado’s response on Amazon is that they have improved the isolation between coils.

Doesn’t sound like an update worthy of a new model designation. I wonder if they’re just back to using the black tarry bituminous goo/wax. None of my 2s has it and I asked Rich about it and he said the 2s don’t use it because they don’t need it. But I guess they needed something anyway.

I wanted some of the black goo nevertheless, and I asked if he would sell me a small amount. He said “No.”

I persisted and asked him what it was and maybe I could go find it at the hardware store and he said, “It’s made for us and is not available in stores.”

So he refused to sell me a tiny amount to put in my Grado cartridge, and he wouldn’t tell me what it is. I just can’t have any. Period.

I think it’s his own ear wax because he definitely was not hearing me. Maybe he needed relief from the buildup and now they’ve harvested enough to put in the new cartridges and call them a new model. But he only oozes so much of it a day, so he can’t sell any to a loyal customer who owns a ton of Grado cartridges.

I won’t be running to Grado with my checkbook this time.
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@marcmorin has potted Grados in the past. In fact, I have one of his potted bodies, and it sounds great. The material he used is not the same as what Grado used, but it really shouldn't matter, so long as the end result is the same. You might ask what he uses...
 
Multiplex said:
@marcmorin has potted Grados in the past. In fact, I have one of his potted bodies, and it sounds great. The material he used is not the same as what Grado used, but it really shouldn't matter, so long as the end result is the same. You might ask what he uses...
Click to expand...
Betcha it's Hondabond... He loves the stuff! :banana:
 
This is how it went down with the Grado Prestige2 series as well. They started showing up in the wild, listed on Amazon for example, and only later did we see the Grado site updated and thereafter reviews started to roll in. The general view seems to have been that the Prestige2 series was improved, so we can hope that the Prestige3 series takes it to another plateau.

Still, I wish very much that Grado would sell Styli from Silver and up (including 8MZ) with nude tips, and also that they would more clearly identify the cut on their tips. I love Grado but don't love that they sell so many bonded tips, and really don't love that they don't identify the cut of their tip shapes. It's not aligned with other manufacturers and I believe it hurts customer perception of their cartridges.
 
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