Grado Opus3 review

[DaveyW]

Some pics of my repaired Opus 3

The stylus is definitely bonded, but it’s a neat job

More compact (lower mass) than say the bonded 8MZ

Note: Magnification is not consistent

As commented the body is rather on the chunky side

It certainly will not fit a Dual 1019 or 1219 without some form of modification

I had to file down the sides of a 1219 sled

You do need to be sure it will fit on your headshell/tonearm before splashing out

And it does look a little out of place on less hefty tonearms

 

[Ilikevinyl]

Like this
View attachment 2033876

Wish my Gold3 stylus looked like that! Nice!

 

[Ilikevinyl]

And it does look a little out of place on less hefty tonearms

I really like the look of the Opus3 hanging out of the headshell, you see more wood!

 

[cafe latte]

Some pics of my repaired Opus 3

The stylus is definitely bonded, but it’s a neat job

More compact (lower mass) than say the bonded 8MZ

Note: Magnification is not consistent

As commented the body is rather on the chunky side

It certainly will not fit a Dual 1019 or 1219 without some form of modification

I had to file down the sides of a 1219 sled

You do need to be sure it will fit on your headshell/tonearm before splashing out

And it does look a little out of place on less hefty tonearms

Still a very large bonded tip. My concern with the Opus is it is huge, and the cart itself is quite high compliance it is going to be a real challenge with the mass of the cart getting compliance matching right with todays arms IMO.
Chris

 

[Ilikevinyl]

Still a very large bonded tip. My concern with the Opus is it is huge, and the cart itself is quite high compliance it is going to be a real challenge with the mass of the cart getting compliance matching right with todays arms IMO.
Chris

That's what removable headshell designed arms are for, using a lighter or heavier headshell to match the compliance. So sad Jelco went out of business. Excellent tonearms!

 

[cafe latte]

That's what removable headshell designed arms are for, using a lighter or heavier headshell to match the compliance. So sad Jelco went out of business. Excellent tonearms!

Problem is the blue, silver gold etc are 5.5g the Opus which is same compliance is 8g so 2.5g heavier (looks heavier than that to me but lets believe the specs for now). Compliance is listed as 20x10-6, most of us believe it is more like 25 or more 10-6. Grado need an arm 12g or lighter, my Technics with the Kab damper (oil damping extends the compliance helps). Most arms are heavier than this, it is hard enough to get the Technics in the sweet zone with the lightest headshell possible with a gold which is 2.5g lighter. At best no matter what I do with an Opus there will be more of a compliance mis match.
Chris

 

[Ilikevinyl]

Problem is the blue, silver gold etc are 5.5g the Opus which is same compliance is 8g so 2.5g heavier (looks heavier than that to me but lets believe the specs for now). Compliance is listed as 20x10-6, most of us believe it is more like 25 or more 10-6. Grado need an arm 12g or lighter, my Technics with the Kab damper (oil damping extends the compliance helps). Most arms are heavier than this, it is hard enough to get the Technics in the sweet zone with the lightest headshell possible with a gold which is 2.5g lighter. At best no matter what I do with an Opus there will be more of a compliance mis match.
Chris

Have a Grado ME+ on a Technics SL-1650 with 12 gram tonearm. Using Audio Technica headshell that's two grams heavier than the Technics. Sounds better with the AT headshell. More bass punch over the Techncis headshell.

Yes, fluid dampening definitely benefits a Grado. Have the FD-200 Fluid Damper on my SME 3009 Improved arm.

 

[cafe latte]

Have a Grado ME+ on a Technics SL-1650 with 12 gram tonearm. Using Audio Technica headshell that's two grams heavier than the Technics. Sounds better with the AT headshell. More bass punch over the Techncis headshell.

Yes, fluid dampening definitely benefits a Grado. Have the FD-200 Fluid Damper on my SME 3009 Improved arm.

Maybe better headshell, dont know but the lighter headshell should be the best compliance match.
I will get an Opus (cant resist new carts) but it will get a retip almost right away. I still doubt it will match a retipped Prestige, but I need to wait and see.
Chris

 

[cafe latte]

IMO the Platinum (if one is buying woodies still think they are too heavy Reference is 10g!
Anyway Platinum is 400 US specs are identical apart stylus and cantilever from Reference as far as I can see a bit of smoke and mirrors aside. Anyway retip the Platinum with boron MR and you have a better stylus than on the Reference for less than half the price of the Reference and likely the same or better.
Chris

 

[Jbl Joe]

I know all this. I think the stock Reference Platinum kind of sucks and I’d rather have a Gold, but I’m telling you the Opus 3 is different. My mind is boggling at how much better it is than the RP using the same cantilever and diamond. I wonder what Grado did. A stock RP sounds a bit grainy and vague. The sound gets so much nicer when you go up to the Statement Sonata. I don’t automaticallly attribute a lackluster performance to a bonded elliptical diamond either. There are many cartridges that I think perform extremely well with basic cantilevers and diamonds, like the Goldring E3. The Opus 3 has to be different internally than an RP in some way because it sounds so much better with the same basic cantilever and diamond. I might even put the Opus 3 beyond the Statement Sonata. It’s crazy to me how nice it sounds. For $275 it’s the bargain of the industry.[/Q
It is the sweet spot in the line....just Audio Technica vm95ml is the bargain

 

[Punk_oldie]

Hopefully not going too far off topic, but I've just this morning mounted a brand new Blue3 on a Jelco SA370-H, which is on paper a bit heavy for this cartridge - arm is 12 or 14g, (depending on who you believe), without any headshell or cartridge. I've used an ADC LMG-1 headshell which weighs 5.6g, there's about 1.5g in the fixings and leads - so altogether c.19g or c.21g total mass. First impressions are the absolute 'slam' of the bass, (surprisingly distortion free though), I'm not sure I've heard bass drums sound so 'palpable' before! Everything else is there as well, perhaps a bit of a lack of top end refinement, but I'd expect that compared to my current 'reference' cart, an AT33PTGii, so the bass is not at the expense of anything else, but it really is quite surprising just how powerful the bottom end is, I can almost see the drummer hammering away, and the bass player banging at his strings. For a £100 cart I'm pretty surprised. Maybe the damping on the Jelco arm helps?

To bring this back on topic (!), if the Blue3 is this impressive, then the Opus 3, if it retains the amazing bottom end, but smooths out the slight lack of refinement, is definitely going on my list.

 

[Redd House]

Hopefully not going too far off topic, but I've just this morning mounted a brand new Blue3 on a Jelco SA370-H, which is on paper a bit heavy for this cartridge - arm is 12 or 14g, (depending on who you believe), without any headshell or cartridge. I've used an ADC LMG-1 headshell which weighs 5.6g, there's about 1.5g in the fixings and leads - so altogether c.19g or c.21g total mass. First impressions are the absolute 'slam' of the bass, (surprisingly distortion free though), I'm not sure I've heard bass drums sound so 'palpable' before! Everything else is there as well, perhaps a bit of a lack of top end refinement, but I'd expect that compared to my current 'reference' cart, an AT33PTGii, so the bass is not at the expense of anything else, but it really is quite surprising just how powerful the bottom end is, I can almost see the drummer hammering away, and the bass player banging at his strings. For a £100 cart I'm pretty surprised. Maybe the damping on the Jelco arm helps?

To bring this back on topic (!), if the Blue3 is this impressive, then the Opus 3, if it retains the amazing bottom end, but smooths out the slight lack of refinement, is definitely going on my list.

I consider the Blue3 to be my workhorse cartridge. Just an amazing bargain at $125 U.S.

 

[DaveyW]

After 4 months on the Dual 1219, last week I thought it was about time to give the Opus 3 a break and decided to replace it with my trusty MCZ shod potted Z+ ....... but .........disaster

Somehow in storage the diamond had gone AWOL

So I’ve popped the more than equally capable Astrion/XLM III on instead

I had been considering purchasing a Prestige 3 stylus for the Z+ and was looking at the Gold, but given the comments here maybe I should save some pennies and just go for the Blue

 

[Redd House]

After 4 months on the Dual 1219, last week I thought it was about time to give the Opus 3 a break and decided to replace it with my trusty MCZ shod potted Z+ ....... but .........disaster

Somehow in storage the diamond had gone AWOL

So I’ve popped the more than equally capable Astrion/XLM III on instead

I had been considering purchasing a Prestige 3 stylus for the Z+ and was looking at the Gold, but given the comments here maybe I should save some pennies and just go for the Blue

Sorry to hear that
I have a Z+ that Joseph retipped with the titanium cantilever/.2x.7 nude that Marc was so fond of. Awesome sounding combo.

 

[DaveyW]

Excellent!

I’ve had a few High Output carts over the years and have quite a soft spot for the Z series - I believe our dear friend Marc did too

Like yours, it deserves more than a standard replacement stylus - I’ll mull this one over a bit more

In the mean time I have the Opus and an 8MR to continue enjoying the Grado sound

 

[Grenadeslio]

Sorry to hear that
I have a Z+ that Joseph retipped with the titanium cantilever/.2x.7 nude that Marc was so fond of. Awesome sounding combo.

Had him retip my Denon DL301, excellent work and sounds amazing.

 

[cafe latte]

I know all this. I think the stock Reference Platinum kind of sucks and I’d rather have a Gold, but I’m telling you the Opus 3 is different. My mind is boggling at how much better it is than the RP using the same cantilever and diamond. I wonder what Grado did. A stock RP sounds a bit grainy and vague. The sound gets so much nicer when you go up to the Statement Sonata. I don’t automaticallly attribute a lackluster performance to a bonded elliptical diamond either. There are many cartridges that I think perform extremely well with basic cantilevers and diamonds, like the Goldring E3. The Opus 3 has to be different internally than an RP in some way because it sounds so much better with the same basic cantilever and diamond. I might even put the Opus 3 beyond the Statement Sonata. It’s crazy to me how nice it sounds. For $275 it’s the bargain of the industry.

I cant see the Sonata being so much better, maybe different set up or a bad cart or something. The Platinum and above are double the weight of the Opus which for high compliance are is way too heavy. All the carts measure the same only difference is cantilever and stylus on higher models and heavy wood which is a bad thing IMO.
Not sure what made you find the Sonata better, my though is probably the best woody if we stick to woodies would be retipped Opus, you get the wood but not overly heavy.
Much is in stylus with these carts guys, I cant say enough the massive difference a decent stylus makes, shimmering detail combined with the great solid Grado sound quite remarkable IMO.
Anyway I will consider getting a Opus to retip just for giggles.
Chris

 

[DaveyW]

Hi Chris
I believe the key difference with the Sonata is the the move to a much tastier nude diamond v’s the bonded Platinum

Here’s some pics of a Reference Sonata 1

I very much enjoyed this cart

All the Grado bottom end clout, but with added punch and added refinement up top over the bonded offerings at the time, including the Gold (1)

It’s weight didn’t seem to adversely affect it’s performance on the Ittok

 

[Jbl Joe]

Hopefully not going too far off topic, but I've just this morning mounted a brand new Blue3 on a Jelco SA370-H, which is on paper a bit heavy for this cartridge - arm is 12 or 14g, (depending on who you believe), without any headshell or cartridge. I've used an ADC LMG-1 headshell which weighs 5.6g, there's about 1.5g in the fixings and leads - so altogether c.19g or c.21g total mass. First impressions are the absolute 'slam' of the bass, (surprisingly distortion free though), I'm not sure I've heard bass drums sound so 'palpable' before! Everything else is there as well, perhaps a bit of a lack of top end refinement, but I'd expect that compared to my current 'reference' cart, an AT33PTGii, so the bass is not at the expense of anything else, but it really is quite surprising just how powerful the bottom end is, I can almost see the drummer hammering away, and the bass player banging at his strings. For a £100 cart I'm pretty surprised. Maybe the damping on the Jelco arm helps?

To bring this back on topic (!), if the Blue3 is this impressive, then the Opus 3, if it retains the amazing bottom end, but smooths out the slight lack of refinement, is definitely going on my list.

The Opus3 and blue3 are not even close in refinement. You would have to move to a tlz replacement stylus to match the Opus 3...which is a$300usd stylus. But I do agree the blue especially in the third version punches way above its class and in my opinion out classes in my opinion the overrated nagaoka and Ortofon carts

 

[AdlerW]

Reference Sonata these days are bonded, too—maybe why Chris is confused. Frankly, I don’t know what the difference is between a Reference Platinum and Reference Sonata when they are both bonded now.

But the Statement Sonata is still nude.

Well according to 4OurEars, the new Sonata 3 is nude:

"The Platinum3 model uses Grado's specially designed elliptical diamond, and the Sonata3 model uses Grado's specially designed nude elliptical diamond."