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Grace F14 MONO cartridges and styli

Dear all, i have to start this thread because i’ve come across first MONO cartride in my system.

The cartridge is extremely rare Grace F14 (MONO) LC-OFC from the mid 80’s.
I’m a huge fan of the Grace stereo cartridges, in stereo world the F14 LC-OFC is superb, this MM generator is the best ever made along with LEVEL II LC-OFC. As you might know the Grace made so many different styli with different cantilevers and different diamonds for F14 and LEVEL II series in the 80’s.

BUT I know nothing about mono cartridges, because i’ve never used any of them.
And i don’t even have enough MONO records, but i got some for sure.

I don’t play 78rpm SP ... and most of my mono records are 45 rpm (7’inchers) from the 60’s, 70’s, maybe a little bit from the 50’s.

My F14 LC-OFC cartridge has ONLY 2 PINS (not 4 pins like stereo versions). The special lead wire designed for use with mono is included, no problem with that.

Looking at the MONO stylus on my F14 MONO cartridge i realized it is not an SP version described here (definitely not a huge 3 mil. tip), but a nude stylus tip, small just like stereo tip on some other Grace styli that i have in collection. So it’s a good news, because i’m not gonna play 78 rpm anyway.

What i realized by trying this cartridge/stylus on my mono records is a lower compliance of the stylus compared to normal Grace (they are high compliance). The stylus replacement designed for F14 (not for older F9), the plastic shape of the F14 is always different compared to F9.

I’ve searched for MONO styli shapes online and i’ve seen many articles about oldschool conical styli of the different size for the mono records from the different eras. Also about the mono cut on stereo cutterhead.

I could find only one more Grace mono cartridge (LEVEL II) with 1 mil. conical tip described here. 

BUT this post on another forum is the most interesting:

"I play a number of vintage monos (primarily stuff from ’58 to the mid 60’s, admittedly no pre ’57 stuff) here with a modern microridge stylus and would never go back to using a conical on them (having done so in the past). They sound incredibly good with the microridge...

Based on my experience, I feel all the talk of conical styli being necessary to get the best out of mono records is urban legend at best, if not patently false."

If this is true i can use any stylus on my Grace MONO cartridge for my records pressed in the 60s/70s in mono ?

I don’t have a mono switch anywhere on my gear, but since the cartridge pins are designed for MONO only, i believe, i’m safe to cancel vertical noise caused by conventional stylus with vertical compliance ?

I can not detect a stylus shape yet, it can be Conical, Elliptical, Shibata (or maybe even Micro Ridge). I’ve heard they are all good for MONO made with stereo cutter head in the 60’, 70’s or even today.

Let me know what you think, it can be my first mono cartridge then.
128x128chakster
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
Why do manufacturers bridge the two channels of a mono version of a stereo cartridge? Wouldn’t it be more sonically accurate to take the signal from only the horizontal coil?
lewm
13,110 posts
 
I’m not sure that’s a good question.
It seems that Lyra orients one coil of a stereo cartridge such that it doesn’t react to vertical displacement. But it’s there.
hdm
1,062 posts
 
Somebody can correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that stereo cartridges will typically be 2 coils at a 45 degree orientation to allow pickup of both vertical and horizontal signal. 

Mono cartridges will either be a single coil mounted horizontally (think Denon 102, Chakster's Grace, both with 2 pins only) or two separate horizontal mono coils to work a bit more gracefully in a stereo set up (think the various Lyra, AT 33 Mono etc. with the typical 4 pin configuration).

Manufacturers bridge the stereo version because it's cost effective, not because it offers the best performance, which it won't. For that, they'd have to totally build another cartridge with the coil(s) in the horizontal orientation. 
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
But in a MM cartridge the body is 5% of the cost. Seems to me they could just wire both channels to the horizontal and call it a day. 
chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
But in a MM cartridge the body is 5% of the cost.

Do you mean the cost for the manufacturer or for a consumer?

In terms of the market price for a consumer I think it's the other way around, the MC body is useless without stylus/cantilever and cost almost nothing, while the MM cartridge body is expensive because we can manually insert the stylus in 3 seconds to return it back to life. So i think it can be easily 30-50% of the total cost, but the stylus is the most expensive part of MM/MI, definitely.  
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