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GRADO Vs Audio Technica

marcmorin said:
The "G" body pictured is a prestige body. it could be anything from a Black to Red body. the Silver and Gold bodies have the gold coil cover. Models preceding the Prestige series had the model type printed in the front plate.
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Thanks Marc. It looks like sticking a Blue1 stylus on it should have been a decent choice then. The main reason I chose the Blue1 was I got the cartridge as a "bonus" on a turntable deal with no stylus. I have a good friend who is a Grado dealer. He had a Blue1 in stock and at dealer cost it was hard to beat.
 
beatcomber said:
Again, a Black and Green are at the very bottom of the product line, and can't be regarded as representative.
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I've had much better results with an AT-112 (a $32 stylus); then a Grado Green1 (a $60 dollar stylus). The cantilever is much lighter on the AT and it tracks way better. The bottom of the line should be representable as well. This is what gets you customers.
 
I have a lot of experience in P-mounts and Technics tables. Grado is, and always will be to me, the worst possible choice for a P-mount. The AT's match up EXTREMELY well on those tables however, especially the older-style AT p-mounts (122, 142, ect.). They 'come alive' on them - they 'breathe'. Grados have a more drier or 'dead' sound to them.
 
Vinylmasters said:
I have a lot of experience in P-mounts and Technics tables. Grado is, and always will be to me, the worst possible choice for a P-mount. The AT's match up EXTREMELY well on those tables however, especially the older-style AT p-mounts (122, 142, ect.). They 'come alive' on them - they 'breathe'. Grados have a more drier or 'dead' sound to them.
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Grados generally don't work well on (stock) Technics arms in my experience.
 
Bugler said:
I put a Grado Gold1 on a Technics SL1700 and gave it to my eldest son. It sounds wonderful.
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I found that the Gold1 that I used to have on an SL-1200MK2 didn't really come alive and pop into 3D until I installed a KAB fluid damper. It sounded OK before, but kind of blah. The damping brought out more of what it was capable of.
 
Bugler said:
Must be your tonearms are not compatible. I've had great results as have many friends.
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"Beauty is in the ear of the beholder". I have two JVC QL-Y55f's, a Dual 1229 and a slew of other tables like Technics and such. And the only time I used them is when a customer specifically requested them. From a personal standpoint, I'd rather use a $20 AT p-mount. Seriously.
 
needlestein said:
100jibhgxbpmy.JPG
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I have one shaped like that, except it says ATN152LP on it.......

THIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP' :p
 
needlestein said:
However, the biggest resident Grado aficionado and expert among us (marcmorin) uses a belt drive AR table and maybe the Grado is an exceptional fit for that table and arm. I do know that marc knows his stuff, and if he likes Grado then there's something to it.



.
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FTR, on my ES-1 with Linn Akito arm, my Sonata-1 bests my 8MR, 8MZ, MCZ mounted on the Akito. However, on my rebuilt AR arm on my XA those three carts best the performance of the Sonata-1 mounted on the linn arm. The Linn Akito bested any Jelco arm i tried on it, including up to the Roksan Tabriz, Mayware arm, Mission arm, and SME lll running the Sonata-1. The ATN 152LP/Signet is real close to the performance of my 10MR on my XA arm.
 
NOMTW said:
I bought a technics belt drive turntable a while back (don't judge) and it came with an old grado p mount cartridge and the stylus wasn't in very bad shape so I've been using it and it has sounded great, but I'm thinking it's probably time to replace the stylus.
Would it be a better idea to buy a new stylus for 50 dollars or buy a new AT p mount cartridge for 18-30 dollars (and if so, which one?)
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beatcomber said:
Rolled off treble and ponderous bass describes a Grado arm mismatch.

Grado and AT have different house sound presentations. An AT will give you a more exciting, possibly bright/lean sound, whereas the Grado will be fuller and lusher, but a bit more laid back.

You can see from my sig file below which brand I prefer...
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grottyash said:
I'd go for the AT. If I remember correctly, Grados never really met the T4P standard, plus I think the ATs are better balanced cartridges than the Grados which tend to have a rolled off treble and a slightly ponderous bass. Lovely midrange, though.
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I have three linear tracking turntables, Technics SL-DL5, JVC LE-22B and Sony PS-LX-55 and the best performance is from the Techincs SL-DL-5 which I had serviced at home. I had changed all capacitors and improved the power supply section by using LM317 and 7805 voltage regulators which removed practically all ripples in the dc supply. Next the arm motor since it was almost 35 years old it had lost its capacity to respond to voltage signals below 2.5 volts due to the weak permanent magnet of the motor. I found an exact replaced from Ali express for $6.00 and adjusted the tracking voltage to 1.8 volts. The tracking motor responded to 0.50 to 9.0 volts with ease!!! Checked the tracking errors with a Test LP which showed that the arm was tracking all the test tracks highly accurate and with no distortion what so ever.....
Later I change the JVC and Sony tone arm motors with same success.
I am using Audio Techinca AT311EP MM cartridge with Shibata stylus ATN-3472SA (from LP Gear) the cartridge out performs both Shure and Grado.
 
needlestein said:
But, for regular P Mount, one of the very best-sounding carts I have ever used is a second hand AT402EP with a $12 Pfanstiehl 4212-DE, you know the grey one with the little green "E" on it. I have a ton of P Mount carts, but this combo truly shocked me. Yes, I normally run a Pickering TLZ-7500S with a sapphire cantilever/Paratrace D81 retip. No, this AT402EP/Pfanstiehl 4212-DE is not at that level. But it's got its own magic.

100jibhgxbpmy.JPG


Contrasted with the amount of fuss that has to go into getting a Grado to sound its best (which is next to impossible on most T4P turntables), this little AT that can be had second hand for very cheap paired also with this very cheap stylus and the results to my very experienced ears is nothing short of alchemy.
It sounds a lot closer to a 150MLX than most would be comfortable with admitting. Sure, the detail retrieval is not exactly on the same level of course, but the next question might be "But do you really miss it?" It's unbelievable how good this sounds. If you're still not convinced then put 150MLX stylus on it and your out of pocket expense is still basically whatever peanuts you got the cart for (perhaps you've already got one lying around) and the $200 for the stylus. That's $150 less or thereabouts than a 150MLX cartridge, which won't fit your P Mount table anyway.
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OK. I gotta try one of these.....
 
I think musicians kind of like Grado over AT's , acoustic instruments , jazz , vocals etc are to my ear the best , but I am a fan of their headphones also . I had a fairly high end AT155LC cart but could never warm up to it even though I wanted to as it was worth a lot of money so sold it off , as the cheap Grado green sounded better to me , go figure .
 
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