The Eagle has landed. In this case, the eagle is a Grado Reference Platinum 1 cartridge. It came a day early. Nice
It's on the Technoarm, right now, running in.
I'll give a little run-down of my first impressions.
Firstly, Grado have done a great job of making you know you've got a quality cartridge when you open the cardboard box. The Denon 103 came in a little plastic box, the Grado comes in a beautiful wooden box, with 'Grado, Brooklyn, New York etched into it and with a nice metal clasp keeping it closed.
When you open the box, you're met by the cart, which is seated in a really nice green foam bed. The top of the box is lined in green felt. What you are looking at in the photo below is the bottom of the stylus, and you can see the stylus guard, which is made from the same wood as the cartridge and simply pulls off. It's another nice touch by Grado. It makes a nice change from the normal plastic guards.
So far so good, then. Things carry on in a good vein once I took the cart out of the box. It has captive nuts, which I made attaching the cart a doddle. Yet another nice touch, especially for a mid-range cart.
I'll talk a little about set-up. Firstly, I've got to say that I got lucky. Grado recommend a level tonearm, if not then maybe even a little backward slope. Because the Grado is a few mm deeper than the Shure cart that it's replaced, it gave me the right angle for the arm, without having to muck around with VTA.
The actual set up was very easy. As I mentioned before, the captive nuts meant that there was no fiddling around with little nuts. Just line the screws up with the holes that have been drilled into the cart and screw em in.
Alignment was a breeze, too, which surprised me because the cart body has angular sides. However, I used the front of the cart, which is straight, and it worked just fine.
Seriously, I had the cart attached to the headshell and aligned in five minutes.
I set the tracking to the recommended 1.5g and spun my first record.
I wasn't expecting miracles with this cart, straight off the bat, as I realise it's new and will take time to run in. That said, it's blummin brilliant. Better than I expected.
It's better than the Shure with vocals, it's very realistic. I'm listening to Terence Trent D'arby's first album and the way the Grado is making him sound has given me goosebumps twice. It's really impressive.
The trable is beautiful. I tell you the best way I can think of describing it: it's similar to the treble that I was getting off the MC Denon 103, in that it's really light and twinkles, but without the hardness that the Denon had. it's silky and, well, just cushty
It's lower frequencies don't have the absolute slam of the Shure, but they are strong and really well defined.
It tracks very well. Much better than the Denon and equally as good as the Shure. There's not a hint of Inner Groove Distortion.
It's a very revealing cart, and shows up knackered records flaws. For example, my copy of Terence Trent darby isn't great. it has lot of crackles on certain tracks. The acapella track on side two 'As Yet untitled' is the worst offender. With the Shure, it was just crackly, but the Grado shows up the true extent of the damage: there's a slight echo, but in reverse, if that makes sense. Just before he sings something properly, you can hear it a second before, very faintly. I've never heard anything like it before. Very weird. I need a new copy of Terence!
After the real disappointment of the Denon, I was a little anxious about this cart buying lark, but i'm so happy with this. I genuinely can't fault anything about it, and that's straight out of the box. It's gonna get better too, over the next couple of weeks
I'll update the review once I listen to some other genres.
Soz, boys (and Clare), this has turned into a loooong post. For those that read to the end: good on ya!
Here she is, in action:
It's on the Technoarm, right now, running in.
I'll give a little run-down of my first impressions.
Firstly, Grado have done a great job of making you know you've got a quality cartridge when you open the cardboard box. The Denon 103 came in a little plastic box, the Grado comes in a beautiful wooden box, with 'Grado, Brooklyn, New York etched into it and with a nice metal clasp keeping it closed.
When you open the box, you're met by the cart, which is seated in a really nice green foam bed. The top of the box is lined in green felt. What you are looking at in the photo below is the bottom of the stylus, and you can see the stylus guard, which is made from the same wood as the cartridge and simply pulls off. It's another nice touch by Grado. It makes a nice change from the normal plastic guards.
So far so good, then. Things carry on in a good vein once I took the cart out of the box. It has captive nuts, which I made attaching the cart a doddle. Yet another nice touch, especially for a mid-range cart.
I'll talk a little about set-up. Firstly, I've got to say that I got lucky. Grado recommend a level tonearm, if not then maybe even a little backward slope. Because the Grado is a few mm deeper than the Shure cart that it's replaced, it gave me the right angle for the arm, without having to muck around with VTA.
The actual set up was very easy. As I mentioned before, the captive nuts meant that there was no fiddling around with little nuts. Just line the screws up with the holes that have been drilled into the cart and screw em in.
Alignment was a breeze, too, which surprised me because the cart body has angular sides. However, I used the front of the cart, which is straight, and it worked just fine.
Seriously, I had the cart attached to the headshell and aligned in five minutes.
I set the tracking to the recommended 1.5g and spun my first record.
I wasn't expecting miracles with this cart, straight off the bat, as I realise it's new and will take time to run in. That said, it's blummin brilliant. Better than I expected.
It's better than the Shure with vocals, it's very realistic. I'm listening to Terence Trent D'arby's first album and the way the Grado is making him sound has given me goosebumps twice. It's really impressive.
The trable is beautiful. I tell you the best way I can think of describing it: it's similar to the treble that I was getting off the MC Denon 103, in that it's really light and twinkles, but without the hardness that the Denon had. it's silky and, well, just cushty
It's lower frequencies don't have the absolute slam of the Shure, but they are strong and really well defined.
It tracks very well. Much better than the Denon and equally as good as the Shure. There's not a hint of Inner Groove Distortion.
It's a very revealing cart, and shows up knackered records flaws. For example, my copy of Terence Trent darby isn't great. it has lot of crackles on certain tracks. The acapella track on side two 'As Yet untitled' is the worst offender. With the Shure, it was just crackly, but the Grado shows up the true extent of the damage: there's a slight echo, but in reverse, if that makes sense. Just before he sings something properly, you can hear it a second before, very faintly. I've never heard anything like it before. Very weird. I need a new copy of Terence!
After the real disappointment of the Denon, I was a little anxious about this cart buying lark, but i'm so happy with this. I genuinely can't fault anything about it, and that's straight out of the box. It's gonna get better too, over the next couple of weeks
I'll update the review once I listen to some other genres.
Soz, boys (and Clare), this has turned into a loooong post. For those that read to the end: good on ya!
Here she is, in action:
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