Grado upgrade

[Willeve146]

First day with a new Grado Master 4; wow! I have had a Grado Sonata 1 since 2013 and it sounded great. Then I bought a new set of Grado headphones and while on Grado’s site I did some window shopping in the cartridge section. This is where I saw that Grado has a trade-up program for their wood bodied cartridges. I emailed Grado and found that they would buy back my Sonata 1 towards a Master 4 meaning I could get a Master 4 for a hair more than a new Sonata 4. I talked to the comptroller (the wife) and got the ok to go for it (love that woman!). I was a little worried because would I actually be able to tell the difference? The Sonata 1 was really good and it wasn’t like it had gone bad, but I have to say wow!. The Master 4 is a step above. I don’t believe that I am a “golden eared audiophile”, but I can tell that there is a definite difference. The Master 4 is brighter and more present/alive, if that makes sense. Everything is a magnitude better than the Sonata 1, which surprised me because the Sonata was good. This is a great deal in my opinion. Like I have said in posts long ago get the best cartridge possibly can, steal from the kids college fund, lie to the the about that bonus you got, whatever it takes, but a great cartridge is a game changer.

 

[cafe latte]

First day with a new Grado Master 4; wow! I have had a Grado Sonata 1 since 2013 and it sounded great. Then I bought a new set of Grado headphones and while on Grado’s site I did some window shopping in the cartridge section. This is where I saw that Grado has a trade-up program for their wood bodied cartridges. I emailed Grado and found that they would buy back my Sonata 1 towards a Master 4 meaning I could get a Master 4 for a hair more than a new Sonata 4. I talked to the comptroller (the wife) and got the ok to go for it (love that woman!). I was a little worried because would I actually be able to tell the difference? The Sonata 1 was really good and it wasn’t like it had gone bad, but I have to say wow!. The Master 4 is a step above. I don’t believe that I am a “golden eared audiophile”, but I can tell that there is a definite difference. The Master 4 is brighter and more present/alive, if that makes sense. Everything is a magnitude better than the Sonata 1, which surprised me because the Sonata was good. This is a great deal in my opinion. Like I have said in posts long ago get the best cartridge possibly can, steal from the kids college fund, lie to the the about that bonus you got, whatever it takes, but a great cartridge is a game changer.View attachment 3753677

The 3 series and the 4 are internally identical, just the body changed and the use of a Shibata on higher models. Internally thry are all the same apart the two top models which have gold wire ( not a good thing in my opinion higher resistance and inductance but ok).
The 3 and 4 series are a massive step up from the 1 series, I have a master 1 and a retipped Opus is miles better, the highs are way better than older series.
In your picture is the stylus ok? It looks like it is bent outwards.
Cheers
Chria

 

[Willeve146]

In your picture is the stylus ok? It looks like it is bent outwards.
Cheers
Chria

I think it is just the angle of the picture. I set up the arm light in accordance with the Grado; 0 degrees on standard LPs which gives a less than +2 degrees on the 180 gram LPs. Used a protractor to adjust the placement in the head shell, which in my case is all the way back in the slots, but it meets spec. Then I checked the azimuth: good. Tracking is set at 1.75 grams (measured) and anti skate set accordingly. The more it plays the better it gets.

Second look at my picture; oh yea, dust ball!

 

[mkane]

What's the degrees reference?

 

[Willeve146]

What's the degrees reference?

The angle of the arm to the surface of the record. Grado says the cartridge should be parallel (0 degrees) or could be tilted back slightly (2 degrees max according to the instructions). That is, the back of the tonearm could be a hair lower than the shell.