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Grado Opus3 review

Blewpernt said:
What is the difference between a TLZ stylus and a Blue stylus?
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John is tight lipped on this but the toletences are tighter and since this was the stylys used on a late 70's early 80's big buck Grado at the time l suspect the cantilever and stylus are more advanced.
 
AdlerW said:
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."
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4ourears is Grados site basically for Amazon
 
Jbl Joe said:
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
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Retips can be had for less with far better tips and better cantilevers.
I know you are a family friend, but difference between a blue 2 and a gold 2 is zero, well almost, the gold 2 has bitumen on the cantilever the blue does not but bodies and cantilever, even the diamond are identical. I am playing with a green 2 which is apparently a three piece cantilever, I am getting used to it before I cut it up to check what it really is, my belief is stylus construction on black and green is identical to blue red silver and gold, we will see.. Grado make great carts but lots of smoke and mirrors.
Chris
 
AdlerW said:
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."
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pop a boron cantilever on a platinum with a MR you have a master for a fraction of the price. I still though think 10g is way way to heavy for a highish compliance cart so not something I would do unless using a very very low effective mass arm.
More I look at it any mods should be Opus others way too heavy.
Chris
 
cafe latte said:
Retips can be had for less with far better tips and better cantilevers.
I know you are a family friend, but difference between a blue 2 and a gold 2 is zero, well almost, the gold 2 has bitumen on the cantilever the blue does not but bodies and cantilever, even the diamond are identical. I am playing with a green 2 which is apparently a three piece cantilever, I am getting used to it before I cut it up to check what it really is, my belief is stylus construction on black and green is identical to blue red silver and gold, we will see.. Grado make great carts but lots of smoke and mirrors.
Chris
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Then how do explain the sound quality improvement as you move up from a blue to a gold....by the way the gold3 uses a 8mz stylus..
 
Jbl Joe said:
Then how do explain the sound quality improvement as you move up from a blue to a gold....by the way the gold3 uses a 8mz stylus..
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There isnt, I have them both, tested them both and examined both stylus the blue and gold diamond are identical, cantilever is identical apart god has bitumen. I even recorded them both digitally at the time of testing trying to find any difference at all and eventually I decided the gold was slightly softer on high mids this is after going back and forth about 20 times listening back to back to the same notes with blue and gold. This slight softness IMO is the bitumen stylus damping, it was so subtle and to be honest too much detail was lost so really the blue won in sonics. The blue actually measured better channel balance and stylus was slightly better aligned on the blue which says a lot for Grado picking the best of the blue to be red and best of red to be silver and best of silver to be gold, when blue measures better, hmm...
Ask John what each of the 4 pieces of the cantilever are (there are only 3) I am curious what he says..
Chris
 
Redd House said:
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.
0210191426.jpg
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Joseph put that combo on my Platinum and it’s an amazing cartridge.
 
cafe latte said:
There isnt, I have them both, tested them both and examined both stylus the blue and gold diamond are identical, cantilever is identical apart god has bitumen. I even recorded them both digitally at the time of testing trying to find any difference at all and eventually I decided the gold was slightly softer on high mids this is after going back and forth about 20 times listening back to back to the same notes with blue and gold. This slight softness IMO is the bitumen stylus damping, it was so subtle and to be honest too much detail was lost so really the blue won in sonics. The blue actually measured better channel balance and stylus was slightly better aligned on the blue which says a lot for Grado picking the best of the blue to be red and best of red to be silver and best of silver to be gold, when blue measures better, hmm...
Ask John what each of the 4 pieces of the cantilever are (there are only 3) I am curious what he says..
Chris
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Is your system resolving enough to hear a difference. I hear differences between each through Grado GS3000e cans....Linn LP12 with RB1000.
 
Jbl Joe said:
Is your system resolving enough to hear a difference. I hear differences between each through Grado GS3000e cans....Linn LP12 with RB1000.
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Emm yes, Speakers ATC scm 100's, turntables 8 of, Technics sl1200G, SP10mk2 with Eminent Technology air arm, Sl1210mk2 modified, Commonwealth 12d3 with 12 inch Jelco, and some others, Denon, Lenco etc.
Preamp DNM, current amp in use Mosfet biased heavily into class A all in 9 meter by 8 meter purpose built dedicated listening room. I also have a valve amp that gets a turn now and again, Conrad premier 4 power amp and a conrad premier 3 preamp. I also have a head amp I play with and around 70 other carts I play with. Digital is just as good but we are talking vinyl. I also have Grado headphones..
Chris
 
Jbl Joe said:
Is your system resolving enough to hear a difference. I hear differences between each through Grado GS3000e cans....Linn LP12 with RB1000.
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Also my comments dont come from just listening to these carts. Have you dismantled gold and blue down to the individual coils? Have you measured gold and blue? Have you dismantled Grado cantilever down to individual parts? (why I question Grado saying 4 piece cantilever) and have you looked at the Grado diamond under a microscope? I have which is why I say there is no difference, that on top of listening tests. Not putting your gear down but I never liked the very coloured presentation of the Linn, I spent my youth around Linn and never rated them much.
Chris
 
cafe latte said:
Yes the 8MZ used to be different, I had two here for retips (old ones), they were different, but now the gold and all the others are the same.
Chris
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Chris...no l have never done any the dismantling you speak of...l worked for JBL for 25 years outfitting recording studios...speakers are more my thing. You do have some nice gear. The 8mz is built to tighter tolerances than gold3...but 90% of golds ship with 8mz's.
 
cafe latte said:
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
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Yes, that would be very interesting about the different sound quality with both having the same retip stylus. :thumbsup:
 
Jbl Joe said:
Chris...no l have never done any the dismantling you speak of...l worked for JBL for 25 years outfitting recording studios...speakers are more my thing. You do have some nice gear. The 8mz is built to tighter tolerances than gold3...but 90% of golds ship with 8mz's.
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Joe, I know what you are being told by your friend, but I have two gold and dismantled another few for retip and they are identical to what is on the blue totally identical, same diamond, same cantilever, same magnet ring, same MI disc, apart gold having bitumen paint they are the same. Under microscope they are the same, tip alignment is the same this tighter tolerance is nonsense, my blue was the better made in this respect. I just retipped yesterday a blue 2 for someone with their own boron with nude Shibata, they had a AT with a broken tie wire and stylus and stylus had low hours, they bought a new stylus and sent me the donor to put on a Grado for them. Normally just fit my boron MR to them, but this stylus was virtually new so did it, sound is stunning. These are the tips the Prestige range should have had from the start. Joe I am recently taking quite a few Grado stylus apart I know what if any differences there are. Love Grado but there grading system of Prestige is nonsense, I am yet to cut the green up but I know what I will find and that is the same number of parts as the gold which is not right IMO from an honesty point of view. I am really intrigued what this 4th piece is, paint, epoxy damping (glue) cant see anything else that is a part of the cantilever no matter how many times I look I am only seeing 3 parts not 4.
Chris
 
cafe latte said:
Joe, I know what you are being told by your friend, but I have two gold and dismantled another few for retip and they are identical to what is on the blue totally identical, same diamond, same cantilever, same magnet ring, same MI disc, apart gold having bitumen paint they are the same. Under microscope they are the same, tip alignment is the same this tighter tolerance is nonsense, my blue was the better made in this respect. I just retipped yesterday a blue 2 for someone with their own boron with nude Shibata, they had a AT with a broken tie wire and stylus and stylus had low hours, they bought a new stylus and sent me the donor to put on a Grado for them. Normally just fit my boron MR to them, but this stylus was virtually new so did it, sound is stunning. These are the tips the Prestige range should have had from the start. Joe I am recently taking quite a few Grado stylus apart I know what if any differences there are. Love Grado but there grading system of Prestige is nonsense, I am yet to cut the green up but I know what I will find and that is the same number of parts as the gold which is not right IMO from an honesty point of view. I am really intrigued what this 4th piece is, paint, epoxy damping (glue) cant see anything else that is a part of the cantilever no matter how many times I look I am only seeing 3 parts not 4.
Chris
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I am aware the blue up to the gold are almost identical. The difference is in tolerances and diamonds l believe. I myself have a blue2 with a xtz stylus which performs flawlessly in my Yamaha GT2000.
 
Jbl Joe said:
I am aware the blue up to the gold are almost identical. The difference is in tolerances and diamonds l believe. I myself have a blue2 with a xtz stylus which performs flawlessly in my Yamaha GT2000.
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If there are differences with the diamond they cant be see at 250x magnification so I would say there are not there, alignment is equal with both.
Chris
 
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