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Wood body Grado cartridges ?

MisterDK said:
Mine is very happy tracking at 1.8g and with armtube level. It sounds excellent here. Been keeping the playtime off of it though and using a Reference Platinum 1 on an RB250 arm. That one sounds quite nice as well..

Opus3 on Audiomods Six:

View attachment 3023374

..and the Reference Platinum 1 on my RB250 arm - this one tracking at 1.6g, armtube also level:

View attachment 3023379

These are on two different Sony 2251 tables.
Click to expand...

Great looking photos Duane!
 
maxhifi said:
Thought I'd add a quick question here... what are you Opus 3 owners tracking at? I initially set mine to 1.9 grams, but yesterday I reduced it to 1.6 with no loss of tracking ability.

I have the VTA set slightly tail down (stock rega arm with no spacers - the Grado instruction sheet says use either a parallel arm or up to minus 2 degrees)

The sound is wonderful.
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Headshell level here. I initially started out at 1.6, went to 1.85. I get more depth at 1.6. It is a very cartridge.
 
mkane said:
Headshell level here. I initially started out at 1.6, went to 1.85. I get more depth at 1.6. It is a very cartridge.
Click to expand...

I've had it going all morning, and 1.6 is sounding great. Not a hint of mistracking. I can't really say if there's more depth or not than at 1.9, but it certainly sounds good. My Ortofon stylus scale won't measure to two decimal places, so I suppose it really could be anywhere from 1.55 to 1.64.
 
MisterDK said:
Mine is very happy tracking at 1.8g and with armtube level. It sounds excellent here. Been keeping the playtime off of it though and using a Reference Platinum 1 on an RB250 arm. That one sounds quite nice as well..

Opus3 on Audiomods Six:

View attachment 3023374

..and the Reference Platinum 1 on my RB250 arm - this one tracking at 1.6g, armtube also level:

View attachment 3023379

These are on two different Sony 2251 tables.
Click to expand...

In speaking with Joseph Long Grado was specifying 1.5 - 2g but dropped the 2g when light tracking forces became popular and the cart performed fine at 1.5.

But Joseph feels they have better separation at 1.65 and above up to 2g so your liking 1.8 isn't surprising. He also stated zero anti-skate and a tad tail down as directed by Joe Grado himself.

Will be interesting to see how it responds on the WTL arm.
 
Sgt Shultz said:
That's my hope, Joseph stated it's 1/2 the mass of the nude elliptical he offers which was already 1/2 the mass of the original stone. He also stated this would most likely be the type of stone Grado would use in their top tier carts if they offered a Shibata, they're known for having tiny stones lol?

I have no reason to doubt his comments.
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Shibata is a conical with two rear cuts overlapping. A simple elliptical is two cuts one front and one rear.
The issue with the Shibata cut is it results is very very thin tips on the contact patch which literally come to a point with a minor radius of almost zero.
This is great for reading a Quad carrier frequency, but not so great in longevity.
These ends are so thin they are erased in very few hours. Really only a new Shibata performs as it should. If Shibata did not have such a sexy name it would have died a natural death years ago.
Joseph is right about tip mass and it will sound much better than the original. My only grip is the poor life of Shibata. They won't damage vinyl when the tips are gone but the highs go soft. I think this is the difference people gear between Shibata and Micro ridge.
Have you tried any other later Grado retipped?
Chris
 
Sgt Shultz said:
In speaking with Joseph Long Grado was specifying 1.5 - 2g but dropped the 2g when light tracking forces became popular and the cart performed fine at 1.5.

But Joseph feels they have better separation at 1.65 and above up to 2g so your liking 1.8 isn't surprising. He also stated zero anti-skate and a tad tail down as directed by Joe Grado himself.

Will be interesting to see how it responds on the WTL arm.
Click to expand...
I disagree with zero antiskate. I have tested this with a Grado and a test record proves you need it the same as with any other cart.
I examined a stylus ( micro ridge) that had been running with only 0.5 antiskate when it clearly needed 1.5. One fin on thr micro ridge was totally worn away and the other had plenty left and this was 700 hours. I estimate that with the correct antiskate he would have got at least 300 hours more, but due to too low skate the stylus was finished with heavy uneven wear.
The forces on stylus are the same in the grooves regardless of cart make.
Tail down is not ideal if the new tip is aligned properly when installed on thr cantilever.
Separation does not change changing tracking force, but it will with alignment and accurate stylus mounting. If a stylus is not mistracking then the lighter is the way to go
Chris
 
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cafe latte said:
Go with what sounds correct.
The stylus length sems to vary a bit too and the angle of the foot which will both affect tracking force.
Retipped they will need less.
Chris
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Always using headphones while listening. I can hear differences very well with headphones. :thumbsup:
 
It's finally back, was supposed to be here on the 2nd but was lost in shipping, was worried there for a bit lol. Will install it later tonight on the Well Tempered Lab and give my thoughts on it with the new Shibata stylus.

Screenshot_20231106-162344.png

Screenshot_20231106-160502.png
 
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OMG, right out of the box this thing has my jaw on the floor, man did Joseph work some magic here. I became a huge fan of the Shibata profile with the Windbell cart so decided to go that route with the retip for the Grado, good decision, man is the Well Tempered Lab singing.

Running at 1.65g, Baerwald alignment, arm level.
IMG_20231106_233409098.jpg
 
MisterDK said:
Mine is very happy tracking at 1.8g and with armtube level. It sounds excellent here. Been keeping the playtime off of it though and using a Reference Platinum 1 on an RB250 arm. That one sounds quite nice as well..

Opus3 on Audiomods Six:

View attachment 3023374

..and the Reference Platinum 1 on my RB250 arm - this one tracking at 1.6g, armtube also level:

View attachment 3023379

These are on two different Sony 2251 tables.
Click to expand...

When it's time to retip the Platinum I can highly recommend a Shibata stylus, great HF retrieval with outstanding bass, just as you would expect from the profile.
 
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