Grado Statement 1

The Grado Statement 1 works best at 47K ohm.
The Hovland HP-100 could originally be fitted optionally with either the MM or MC phono stage, not both. You have the MC phono stage installed which loads at 450 ohm, which Hovland thought was ideal for most MC cartridges. If available, you could install the Hovland MM phono stage, or use an outboard MM phono stage capable of loading at 47K ohms through the AUX input. However, the Hovland MM phono stage loads at 1 megaohm, not 47K ohms. Not sure how that would sound with the Statement 1.

I have the Statement1. 47k sounds best to me.

Jazzgene, are you able to load your Statement at 450? What differences vs 47k do you hear?

I tried it at 100, 200, 1k, and 47k. For me, 47k sounded the best. Air and detail was better and the lower loading seemed to put a veil to the sound. 1k was okay but I still preferred 47k.

Stickman451 - The Grado Statement is a fantastic cartridge designed to sound best at 47K. Anything else will detract from its magic. There's no way around it unless you are willing to accept less.

It sure is. I had tried Benz, Nagaoka, and Koetsu before. I really enjoy the Statement1. I just went over to Grado in Brooklyn one afternoon and picked it up.

Sidebar question: Why would Hovland build a MM phono stages with an input impedance 20X the industry standard?

That said, Grado's low inductance design is relatively unaffected by either capacitance or resistance loading.

The thread is 14 years old, but apparently you can still buy the Statement 1 from LP gear. Its output is only 0.5mV, so you do need around 60 db of phono stage gain, depending on ancillary equipment. The internal resistance is only 2 ohms, but as an MI type, it does present 2mH inductance, which is 100 to 1000X higher than a typical LOMC, and it is probably the reason why Grado recommends 47K ohms loading. I suspect the Hovland phono used an internal SUT for MC. Because of cartridge inductance, you want to be careful about mating it with any SUT. In short, if the Hovland does use a SUT inside, it is probably not suited to the Statement cartridge. In MM mode you wouldn’t have sufficient gain.