Eagle_Driver
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2001
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Quote:
I had originally posted this quote in another thread about cheap phono cartridges. And I knew that the stylus on my then-current Audio-Technica AT92E had not been replaced in over eight years. So earlier today, I commuted over to the music direct warehouse in Chicago - and instantly narrowed down my choice of cartridges between two Grado Prestige P-mount cartridges: Red ($79.99, list $110.00) or Silver ($119.99, list $150.00). (The Silver is the model that the top-performing 5% of the samples become the Gold. And the Red is the model taken from the top 10% of the Blue production run.) Sure, I could have gone to my nearest Best Buy, and could have bought another AT92E cartridge for $39.99. But I really wanted something different from that. And after about 15 minutes of deciding, I went for the Silver. (So what? I bought the second from the top of the Prestige line.
)
Too bad the first Silver that I bought hummed loudly on the right channel, and the actual right-channel signal was very low in comparison to the left channel. I exchanged it, and the second sample was much better. Even so, it hummed a bit more loudly than my old A-T cartridge ever did, because the Grado cartridge actually outputs 4.0mV, quite a bit higher than the 3.5mV that the A-T cartridge puts out.
All I can say about the Grado Silver is: "Hmmm... I wonder why I had listened to such screechy sound all these years!" In other words, the old AT92E sounded thin and veiled in comparison to the Grado Silver. (I didn't pick the Grado Green or Grado Black, because I knew either of those would have been a sideways-replacement for my turntable, rather than a true upgrade: The sound from the bottom-of-the-line Grados was thick and syrupy, rather than the comparably priced A-T's thin and hollow sound.)
Keep in mind that I'll be using the Grado Silver only on my recent audiophile LPs and my other older LPs and 45s in good condition - which is to say, quite often. And since my table has a P-mount tonearm, I will consider the AT90 (with a 0.7 mil conical stylus) for under $20 just for use on the really old or heavily worn or badly scratched LPs and 45s.
| Originally posted by Eagle_Driver My current table is a Technics SL-QD33 with its stock tonearm (most low-end Japanese tables have non-user-replaceable tonearms, to the point that if you upgrade your tonearm, then the automatic start/return features may not work correctly). I currently have an Audio-Technica AT92E cartridge whose stylus had not been changed at all in eight years. Unfortunately, a new stylus costs almost as much as an ENTIRE new cartridge! [By the way, my cartridge has a bonded .3x.7 mil elliptical diamond stylus - but I should have known better: Bonded means that the diamond had been glued onto the metal cantilever (as opposed to nude-mounted, in which mounting method involves cutting an extremely narrow groove around the diamond tip, and trying to somehow jam it into a smaller hole in the metal cantilever). And bonded styluses (or is the plural of stylus "stylii"?) don't last very long: The glue or adhesive is apt to weaken and wear out, causing the diamond to eventually fall out.] So, I know the general rule of thumb is the appropriate cartridge for my Technics turntable shouldn't cost more than the original MSRP of that table (in this case, $199.99 - but I had paid $149.99 back in 1989). Given that, should I upgrade to a Grado Prestige Silver or Gold cartridge? Or, in the $80 range, a Grado Prestige Blue or Red, or an Audio-Technica AT331LP? Or, should I just go with another sub-$40 cartridge (such as another AT92E), or go with a Grado Prestige Black or Green? Or, should I just buy the cheapest cartridge available where I shop at [which means an A-T AT90E, with an 0.7 mil conical (spherical) stylus]? (NOTE: I'll need a P-mount cartridge for my particular table.) And for music listening, which type of stylus is better? Conical (spherical), or elliptical? |
I had originally posted this quote in another thread about cheap phono cartridges. And I knew that the stylus on my then-current Audio-Technica AT92E had not been replaced in over eight years. So earlier today, I commuted over to the music direct warehouse in Chicago - and instantly narrowed down my choice of cartridges between two Grado Prestige P-mount cartridges: Red ($79.99, list $110.00) or Silver ($119.99, list $150.00). (The Silver is the model that the top-performing 5% of the samples become the Gold. And the Red is the model taken from the top 10% of the Blue production run.) Sure, I could have gone to my nearest Best Buy, and could have bought another AT92E cartridge for $39.99. But I really wanted something different from that. And after about 15 minutes of deciding, I went for the Silver. (So what? I bought the second from the top of the Prestige line.
Too bad the first Silver that I bought hummed loudly on the right channel, and the actual right-channel signal was very low in comparison to the left channel. I exchanged it, and the second sample was much better. Even so, it hummed a bit more loudly than my old A-T cartridge ever did, because the Grado cartridge actually outputs 4.0mV, quite a bit higher than the 3.5mV that the A-T cartridge puts out.
All I can say about the Grado Silver is: "Hmmm... I wonder why I had listened to such screechy sound all these years!" In other words, the old AT92E sounded thin and veiled in comparison to the Grado Silver. (I didn't pick the Grado Green or Grado Black, because I knew either of those would have been a sideways-replacement for my turntable, rather than a true upgrade: The sound from the bottom-of-the-line Grados was thick and syrupy, rather than the comparably priced A-T's thin and hollow sound.)
Keep in mind that I'll be using the Grado Silver only on my recent audiophile LPs and my other older LPs and 45s in good condition - which is to say, quite often. And since my table has a P-mount tonearm, I will consider the AT90 (with a 0.7 mil conical stylus) for under $20 just for use on the really old or heavily worn or badly scratched LPs and 45s.
