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Grado P-mount question

Interesting. After reading this post, I looked at the diamond in my XF-3. I must have a different stylus on mine. It seems to be a relatively large diameter round shank diamond pressed through an aluminum cantilever. If I had to guess from looking at ton of these through one of the lighted loupes, I would say it is probably a .4 x .7 mil elliptical. I would not quantify it as a "tiny" diamond at all. I also found it interesting that the standard XF-3 stylus sounds better than the 8MZ. I tried looking up the specifications on these styli last night and couldn't find anything except the standard blurb on the Grado website simply stating both are a "special" elliptical. I have no idea what that means. The good thing is the diamond on my XF-3 appears to be in excellent shape. I guess I really do need to try it out before spending $ on an 8MZ.
 
Decibel_116 said:
Interesting. After reading this post, I looked at the diamond in my XF-3. I must have a different stylus on mine. It seems to be a relatively large diameter round shank diamond pressed through an aluminum cantilever. If I had to guess from looking at ton of these through one of the lighted loupes, I would say it is probably a .4 x .7 mil elliptical. I would not quantify it as a "tiny" diamond at all. I also found it interesting that the standard XF-3 stylus sounds better than the 8MZ. I tried looking up the specifications on these styli last night and couldn't find anything except the standard blurb on the Grado website simply stating both are a "special" elliptical. I have no idea what that means. The good thing is the diamond on my XF-3 appears to be in excellent shape. I guess I really do need to try it out before spending $ on an 8MZ.
Click to expand...

Hello Decibel_116

"I also found it interesting that the standard XF-3 stylus sounds better than the 8MZ"

Did you find this yourself too.
And did you compare it to an actual Blue or Red , who is suppose to be an limproved version of the XF-3
Because if yes, I'll need to hunt for an XF-3 too

Mario
 
After I made my post,
I went back and I read the beginning of this discussion,
and Marc Morin previously said on post #2:

"The XF3 was a mid level cartridge. in todays line, the equiv would be the blue/red. If your diamond is in good condition, replacing it with a blue or red stylus would be a lateral move. The 8MZ stylus will work fine, and be a big step up in performance"

So I'm not the only one with this idea, and your not the only two with your idea.
But this guy is long time in this business and know by experiment lot more then me on this subject.
Lots of audiophile consider him as an reference.
But I'm happy that the research I did today confirm what he previously said.

So I'll try to find somebody in my area with an XF-3 and will compare to my 8Mz and my Red,
then I will be able to make my own idea about that subject.
But if Grado corporation and Marc Morin confirm this, I doubt I will find something really different.
But one thing I'm found apparent, is that you look like if you really enjoy your cartridge and this is the most important things.

So enjoy,
and if somebody in the area of Montreal have an XF-3 body and stylus, just PM me if you want to do the comparison yourself too.

Thanks

Mario
 
I replied to this in another thread on this page, with links to what the diamond shapes are, and what causes "noise"

Would I trade an original top shape XF-3 stylus for a current production Red?........No
Would I trade an original XF-3 body for a current production Red body? ........No

The comparative I used in XF-3 = Red........is only to show where in the line for both they would fall respectively
 
For the record, I implicitly trust marcmorin's analysis of these cartridges and styli. marcmorin, can you provide the link to your post with the diamond shapes here please? I am interested in reading it. Thanks very much. David
 
Ok, so im running a Technics SL-QX300. Quartz direct drive TT with adjustable tracking force. Im interested in the Gredo because it seems like its a higher quality Cartrige than alot of the other p-mounts on the market. Im getting a general sense that most of the folks who dont like it as much as an AT, feel that way because of the 5.5 gram waight, or because of the (flat) affect related to a light tracking waight.

Its just not making sense to me that that would be the issue that renders the Gredo blue less disirable than other p-mount carts. Wouldnt it be agreed that a Gredo would almost certainly NEED to be run on a P-mount TT that HAS adjustable tracking force? If you plugged in a Gredo on your plastic plater p-mount TT with no adjustable tracking force on it, and found it to be a bit flat sounding, i would think that the issue is not that the Gredo is flat sounding, but insted that your budget TT is limited to 6g p4m carts.
 
In my experience, the current Grado p-mounts do weight 6 grams in spite of the published specs. Why Grado doesn't publish correct specs, and recommends a tracking force of 1.5g when the T4P standard is 1.25g, I do not know. I do know I own a good two dozen p-mount cartridges that I prefer to my Grado Silver, even on my p-mount turntables with adjustable tracking force. I guess I could fiddle-fart around with a replacement stylus or capacitance loading, but I'm too happy with their competitor's products to bother.
 
SA-708 said:
In my experience, the current Grado p-mounts do weight 6 grams in spite of the published specs. Why Grado doesn't publish correct specs, and recommends a tracking force of 1.5g when the T4P standard is 1.25g, I do not know. I do know I own a good two dozen p-mount cartridges that I prefer to my Grado Silver, even on my p-mount turntables with adjustable tracking force. I guess I could fiddle-fart around with a replacement stylus or capacitance loading, but I'm too happy with their competitor's products to bother.
Click to expand...
no sense fiddling with the capacitance, it won't affect the cart.........not much inductance to speak of.
 
Resistance, capacitance, whatever. I tend not to sweat the details of things I'm not doing. I have enough trouble keeping up with what I am doing.

I know I sound negative about Grados. Just because I don't care for them dosn't mean they don't perform well for others. Different strokes for different folks and different systems.
 
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