Grace Level ll

Dear Chakster, You may be correct about the excellence of the Level II Grace cartridges.  However, it is not always a good idea to judge a cartridge solely by the materials of which it is made or by the shape of the stylus.  My only point is that I would have to have heard a level II in order to throw caution to the wind and make such a purchase at the asking price.  Also, my reservations about the asking price of the cartridge on eBay are not only based on its age and unknown condition (although those factors are important, to be sure), but also on the fact that I have no opportunity to inspect the cartridge and no leverage on a seller who is 6000 miles away in another country, eBay rules notwithstanding.

By the way, the Ruby jumps up another level with the SS re-tip using their OCL stylus.  I own both an original elliptical one and a re-tipped one and have compared them extensively.  At first, I preferred the elliptical but not after the SS re-tipped one had about 10 hours of playing time on it.

@lewm  i hope you can find one in the USA, i have a sticker on my own Level II, Sumiko was their distributor in the states back in the day. The original Grace is always what i'm looking for, not the refurbished ones, not sure what is the compliance of re-cantilevered one you got from SS, but most likely not so high as the original. I think you don't have to worry when you buy factory sealed NOS sample. 

Compliance does not change much, unless you also change the suspension elements, which should not be necessary in most cases and was not done in the case of my Ruby.  On the contrary, I would think that an NOS OEM cartridge built in the 80s is more likely to suffer from stiffening of the suspension due to both elapsed time and lack of use, compared to a cartridge that has at least been used once in a while over that same period of time.  Anyway, I do have it both ways (one with original cantilever and stylus vs another re-tipped by SS), and the latter version is superior.

Just picked up a used Grace II RC but I think it maybe the Beryllium cantilever version as the plastic stylus holder is translucent brown.

It will be interesting to see how it compares to my Grace F9 Ruby.