Joseph Grado Signature Holographic Microphone ~ new images

Earlier in the New Year, I had promised to check back with the Forum when the waters went down some for me. Unfortunately that won't be for another month yet as our spring semester winds down.

However I had some new images to share with those of you who had express an interest in the new Joseph Grado Signature Holographic Microphone and Power Supply. Please see the following link:

Flickr: Photos from ctrainbow2005

As mentioned earlier as well, keep an ear open on your local NPR stations for the upcoming national broadcast of the "2007 Spoleto Chamber Music Series":

PRI: Public Radio International: National and World News, Talk, Arts, Entertainment and Music

To check local listings for date and time the following link may be helpful:

Find Programs In Your Area

As also mentioned at the Flickr site above, if your local station is not planning on carrying the Chamber Music series from Spoleto Festival USA 2007 there will be exerts of the recording aired on, “Performance Today”, which hopefully you will be fortunate enough to hear. Alternatively, you might consider urging your local station to be in contact with the executive producer for this series – Shari Hutchinson at shutch@scetv.org - to discuss the possibilities.

Best regards,

Martin

Well, Joe has a treasure trove of equipment in his new lab. With it he has been performance and compatibility testing his products against combinations of what most feel would be the state of the art of recording equipment, but also with many items used by someone of modest means.

His rational is that when he makes a product, to the very best of his ability, he tries to anticipate how audio engineers will use it as well as with what equipment. If there are pitfalls with different combinations of recording gear and his new mic then his strong preference is to resolve these during the R&D phase of production.

Below is a partial listing of some of the equipment in the room shown in the photos of his lab, which are just the tips of the iceberg.

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Grado HPA2 Headphone AMP (no longer made)
Korg DSD MR-1000 Direct Stream Digital
Grace Lunatec V3 portable mic preamplifier (off camera)
Grace Design m902 Reference Headphone Amplifier
Lexicon 300 Digital effects system
Weiss ADC2
Weiss SFC2
Weiss EQ1-MK2
TASCAM DV-RA1000HD High-Definition Recorder
EMM Labs (Meitner) MK IV DAC-8 (has 2 of these)
NAGRA-DII (has 2 of these)
Marantz PMD670 (off camera)
9 foot Steinway Concert Grand (off camera)
Various iPods, portable listening devices and video cameras (off camera)
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He has made very sizable investments in technology and his time in developing the Joseph Grado Signature Holographic Microphone and its matching power supply (both made in the Southeastern US). The evolving results continue to be spectacular, and reminiscent of a July 4th fireworks show as each bursting shell is even more incredible than its predecessor. Over the past year each of his prototype mics has greatly surpassed his earlier efforts! He is now ready for the production phase and the mic featured is serial number 0002 (just might be another of those HP1000 type of devices (;-))

The Chamber Music recordings mentioned made last spring at the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, SC as a part of Spoleto Festival USA 2007 mark a new phase in the state of the art of audio recording. His latest mic, which I recently posted on Flickr, is an order of magnitude of an improvement of what we were using last spring. I’m looking forward to doing additional field recordings / sea trials in the coming months as “my civilian job” hopefully slows down. Please stay tuned (;-))

Martin

Joe says that, at 84 years old, the things he wants to do now are enjoy his wife’s good company, build the worlds finest microphones and service his headphones. The other ambition, being discussed over lunch yesterday, was that he felt his wife should open a gelato shop in our area as well as sell her homemade pies and cakes there (;-)) While she seemed dubious, I have to admit Joe definitely has an eye for high quality when it comes to desserts as well as cutting edge technologies.

Folks; her lemon meringue pie, which was left-over from Easter dinner, was the best I've had in many years (since my grandmother’s). Likewise her two gelatos - maple and rum raisin (also left-over from Easter) were sublime!

Culinary speculations aside, while he may well discover new ways of improving his microphones, as he continues to make more of them, each of what he has been building for the past year are little masterworks. They are like the fine little handcrafted watches he repaired in his youth; back when he amazed his earlier employer – Tiffney and Company as a gifted teenager in the late 1930’s.

He has a set number of microphones and power supplies he’d like to make each month. Each of these will easily sell due to the level of imaging reality they capture. However, while he enjoys staying busy, Joe also wants to have the time to enjoy his wife, friends and a comfortable pace of life.

As a result of his contributions to mankind he’s already a very successful person. While this awesome microphone is another milestone for him, he still places a very high priority on servicing his headphones for those lucky enough to have a set of these treasures. It just boggles my mind why someone would consider entrusting these headphones to any other source than the master. While others may speculate about repairing or tweaking the Grado HP1000 headphone, only Joe Grado knows what Joe Grado knows; also the last of the original parts for the HP1000's are sealed away for safe keeping in his new lab (;-))

"Gone fishing"

I'm in complete agreement with you regarding his outlook on life. I also share your enthusiasm for the success of his mic.

In talking with him this afternoon he feels it'll still be awhile before his mics are on the market as he's still tweaking things. Once they become available I'll be happy to help pass the word and would suspect folks will notice articles being written about them in the trade journals etc. as well.

Again I’d say to listen to the concerts when they air locally on public or classical stations. Also to consider that often times broadcast transmitters may use compression etc., which may affect the sound some, as with any musical source. That being said, you should notice a difference in the way recordings sound when recorded using this new technology, which I would also think you’ll enjoy.

I’ll be out of touch from the forum due to a hectic schedule, but will try to respond back to PM’s sent to me using this feature between now and when things slow down for me. Many thanks to all for your feedback and I hope you each enjoy a fine spring. I should be back on the forum in a few weeks or so.

 

Many thanks GreatDane. Sorry for the slow response, but as mentioned earlier, unfortunately I’m only an occasional user of Head-Fi. 

 

I've pulled the images you had mentioned, for the time being.  Joe Grado is no longer making this model of mic, although it's still sublime and we used it again this past May and June to record chamber music at Spoleto Festival USA.  

 

Here's some new links which I made back in May in Charleston:

 

http://unkamartin.smugmug.com/Other/Spoleto-USA-2010/12327801_6H2W5

 

Also, here’s a link to his latest mic’s, which I also enjoy using, depending on what I’m recording:

 

http://unkamartin.smugmug.com/Music/Joseph-Grado-Signature-HMP-1/12235029_EU4VZ

 

On another subject; are you going to the upcoming CanFest in Charlotte?  Here’s another link, this time regarding the upcoming event:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/449203/the-carolina-canfest-8-14-10

 

The reason I ask is that I see you seem to be in Virginia and likely not all that far from Charlotte, NC. 

 

Regardless, If Joe feels up to it I’ll pick him up from his home and drive him over for the day and make mention of the event, just in case you were attending and haven’t had an opportunity to talk with him.  At 87, he’s one of the last of a great generation who are the pillars of hi-fidelity. 

 

Thanks again for your earlier comments.  Again I'm sorry for my slow response.  I was looking up something else just now in this old thread and noticed your observation / complement and realized I never got back to you.