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Grado Stylus Upgrade

I currently am using a Grado Gold cartridge from the Prestige line. The cartridge was bought new about a year ago and has not seen heavy use. Basically, still like new. Although the Gold is not anywhere near the top of Grado's line of cartridges it is still decent with my system. I have read numerous forums and almost all Grado users recommend upgrading the standard Gold stylus to the 8MZ stylus for superior performance. That stylus goes for $150 which is more than half of what the Gold cartridge with standard stylus costs. I am not interested in a complete cartridge upgrade at this time but am curious if the 8MZ stylus upgrade is worth the expense? I guess that any users that have this cartridge and have done the stylus upgrade consider it a worthwhile upgrade.
  
jrpnde
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
Chakster, Frogman,
Thanks for the advice/experience. Looks like XTZ is is. 
Springreen,
It will be few weeks out but will post my experience/opinion once it's broke in. Currently breaking in a new JICO stylus in an empire 4000 D/III cart. So far not liking it as well as the Grado 8MZ, but it is improving. 
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,460 posts
 
I knew Joe Grado personally.....his lab was in Westfield, New Jersey.   You always knew when he was in the area when you saw his Lambo tooling around town.  He sang with the Met.....a great friend.  His state of the art reference system was an AR1W for the lows and electrostatics on top.  
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
He is certainly an audio legend. Do you remember what table he used?
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@stringreen 

nice, i have posted this video before, but for those who missed it
https://youtu.be/L2ZpJHGYMC8 

This is a tour to Grado Lab 
jrpnde OP
271 posts
 
Thanks to all who have responded to my original post regarding a stylus upgrade from the original stylus of the Grado Gold cartridge. Certainly, most of you have much more experience with the Grado brand. Sure, better sound can be obtained with a complete cartridge/stylus upgrade. But, my original question was if the 8MZ would offer an improvement. If the Gold isn't capable of noticeable sound improvement with just a simple stylus upgrade then I will just wait until a later date and upgrade everything.There were styli mentioned besides the 8MZ. If those other styli are superior that is of interest. My phono stage is a Graham Slee Reflex with it's PSIU. It is only capable of support for MM cartridges. I know Slee has an extra piece (Elevator) that will provide increased settings for a MC cartridge but I'm not yet ready to make the change.As far as the Grado Gold cartridge goes....will all of the styli mentioned in this post fit into the Gold cartridge body?Thanks to all.

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