Grado Cartridges

[bikerhifinut]

I was messing about getting a nice old PL12D fettled up for my Great nephew who is a very sophisticated youngster in asmuch as he's got the LP bug off his dad and me.
So I thought, (the boys 16 next month so this is a present to upgrade the excellent nick but obviously limited BSR MP60 we started him off with) I'll try a different cartridge to the venerable Shure M75EDit had (new jico stylus out of my toybox).
I remembered I had a little used grado precision black in the stash that had been on a Rega Planar3 I bought a bit back off greg of this parish, beautiful condition. However the Grado hummed like a buzzsaw from the AC motor, apparently a known issue so it was replaced with a Rega carbon to get the kid going.
So I've got this grado, and i put it on the Pioneer and even with a metal platter and a pressed steel chassis screening the motor it hummed very obtrusively.
The annoying thing is aside from this godawful hum issue, its a bloody nice cartridge for £100 last time i checked. Really nice for a MM.
Now heres the killer, I put it on my Michell Gyro, DC motor no Hum fields anywhere and it still thrummed like a bumble bee.
I was puzzled and then thought hmm theres the CD player and the Rega Cursa3 preamp below but separated by a good couple of feet. switched CD off and the hum dropped substantially, Then I swapped over to my Valve CF pre where the Psu is a lot further away and when I turned the Cursa off.............. blessed silence.
Now the point of this is, would you spend good money on a cartridge, no matter how good it is meant to be that didnt have the most basic hum shielding, NONE of my other carts display this issue on ANY turntable.
Frankly I think that renders the Grado prestige range "Unfit for purpose" and if I'd bought it new I'd be demanding my money back.

What would you do?

Andy

[bob orbell]

Hi Andy, nice to hear you are still about. I have always had and stuck with Ortofon almost from the beginning and still use one today, Cadenza Bronze , although a long time ago I tried a Decca London, strange device with only three terminals, and this hummed gently, nether the dealer or myself could sort it, so I returned to Ortofon and to be honest I will stay with the company and MC, even though the price is now very high the SQ is stunning running in my LP12 with a SME IV, the SME came up on ebay late last year, new old stock in sealed box, I said to my Janet, I must buy that, the rest is history. Contrary to what you hear about fitting the SME's on LP12's, they were made for each other. Keep in touch A. Bob

[bikerhifinut]

My tablet PC had an attack of the weirds Bob so the post went on twice, I'm sure a mod can remove the duplicated one.
Now you confess a preference for Ortofons, I do agree with you there, I settled on the brand after trying quite a few others and although expensive, which I am fairly certain is a lot to do with the UK distributor, and I got that from someone in the business, dictating a high retail price and getting all bully boy on any entrepeneurial retailer who bought his stock elsewhere (i.e Europe) and selling them at a more reasonable price. That's why mantra Audio stopped selling ortofons because the official importer got very awkward about him being in competition. I won't say any more because there libel laws but the whole thing as related to me didnt sound nice and if true I thought it contravened the competition and trading laws at the time (still in EU etc).
But yeah I've been using a 2M Bronze since about 2020 as a new MC was not economically justifiable and I'd say that is about as good as an MM can get, given that I never really got on with the Shibata tipped carts preferring the Line contact on the Bronze. This also held for the Quintet, I like the bronze over the black. Personal taste and all that.
So a while back I picked up a Rondo Red for an absolute song at an Audiojumble that had been reworked by Dom Harper, I know some here have mixed feelings about Doms work but this thing showed real promise and after a side or so it went off colour, examination reveaaling that it was sold cheap because some person (Not me!) had managed to loosen the bond of the new solid rod cantilever so it was able to rotate in its mount. Anyway a phone call and £200 later it's back in having been examined and re aligned and fixed. Gyger S tip, solid rod cantilever and bob it sounds way better than I remember any Ortofon MC I owned, bearing in mind my last ones were a Rondo Blue and quintet black and bronze so take that in context against your top end cadenza. total cost was still less than a new 2M bronze so I'm a very happy Bunny.
I'll say though that the 2M are really ace and I was happy when that was the best cartridge I had. It's a very personal thing anyway i feel. What one man loves another prefers something else. You like Linns, I'm not a fan of the LP12, i had one and traded it for a Michell. I did like my Axis though. But who's right and who's wrong? Hence I shy away from denigrating and dissing kit that I personally don't favour. I know what I like and so do you.
The other brand of cartridge I'd recommend to someone on a tight budget is AT and the latest VM95xx range is phenomenal value with its stylus range from cheap and cheerful conical "get you started" tip up to a Shibata at a lot more but still cheap ish and OK not high end but by eck they give a right old bang for the buck!
But the danish guys have my vote they do know their business.

Ok I said I wouldnt diss any products but the Grado really is spoiled by its lousy hum shielding as when I got the deck clear as in well clear of transformer fields etc I was suitably impressed by the sound.

Hope you get your knee done Bob, fingers crossed, I was waiting a year to get my gall bladder out and I had less than 2 weeks notice from getting the call for a pre op to being wheeled into theatre for a laparoscopic procedure. 6 weeks recovery and apart from 4 small slit marks you'd never know..........
I've been off the boil because my missus has been in hospital 4 times last 12 months, for really bad infections and sepsis and currently back in with a very scary delirium that we can only hope will subside with time. It's happened before in last year but it aint fun. I havent been out on my flashy Scott eBike much this year, havent felt motivated but I should. Dont knock eBikes Bob if you live where i do with a 2000ft summit climb more or less in the back yard and getting out of our village requires a several hundred feet in less than a mile climb in any direction then that wee bit off assist is welcome. The better ebikes, ike mine with a sophisticated bosch motor and battery system and good desgin only need assist on the really hard bits, the rest of the time the motor stays switched off and the drive disengages. clever stuff.

73 as they say in amateur radio land

Andy