chakster, so your saying that replacing the stylus with XTZ on a $200.00 Prestige cartridge will out perform a $600.00 Sonata? Anyway, isn’t this the same service Soundsmith offers with there stylus and cantilever replacement?
A pitch too High!
Recently, I damaged the V2 MM cartridge of Clearaudio Concept Wood turntable, so had it changed with a Grado Prestige Blue. The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g. I took someone’s help to fix this. He even made azimuth adjustments and it sounded fine. But I soon realised that the sound had become thinner, voice being the primary indicator and just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. I called the guy back, and he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked and it seemed the voice thinning issue had also vanished. But last night, I put on the first pressing of Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace, and all along I found her pitch way higher, it was all too high pitched and uncomfortable. Seemed the bass had gone missing a little. On my Boulder 866, I could immediately hear the difference when the track was played through Roon. It was not as high pitched, thin as it sounded on analogue. I intend to call the guy again but wanted to know from experts here as to what the issue could be.
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I am not familiar with Sonata, but I have the original Grado XTZ, it was Joseph Grado signature model, his best cartridge in the 80's (the price tag on the box is $750, not cheap in the 80's).
Genuine replacement styli are always different from those parts assembled together by re-tippers, you can't get Grado cantilever/stylus from SoundSmith. It's not the same "service" because replacement stylus for Grado is user replaceable, anyone can buy instal (very easy).
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chakster, the XTZ is a cartridge from the 80's, are you certain that Grado will have the XTZ stylus and cantilever in 2021? I had a Grace F12 and they are now defunct, so having the stylus replaced by Grace was impossible. But if you know Grado still has XTZ parts, then it's still an option. It just seems odd that Grado would still have XTZ cartridges or parts from nearly forty years ago. That being said, I have dealt with Grado where it pertains to repair and they honored a warranty that had expired by about a month. They are top notch when it comes to customer service. |
Once I got the HiFi News test record, I did everything all over again before I played the Hifi news record. Please do let me know what you guys feel. Turntable Balance: Test done with the paper disc that comes with the HiFi news record. To get this right, I had to unscrew the cartridge a little and adjust. https://imgur.com/hZt0lwi. (Shows alignment with the tonearm) Test done with Mofi Geo Disc: https://imgur.com/mmaSH43 (Shows alignment with the tonearm) @chakster I am pasting YouTube links of the results of the test record, let me know what you feel as this came highly recommended by you: Side 1 | Band 6: https://youtu.be/3xVdC9zIHhA Side 1 | Band 7: https://youtu.be/sG-SQGZz44w Side 1 | Band 8: https://youtu.be/n0pXWX43gZA Side 1 | Band 9: https://youtu.be/XyP5DFrpREo Side 2 | Band 2: https://youtu.be/655x0JJvnII Side 2 | Band 3: https://youtu.be/P5Yh89r5Yjc Side 2 | Band 4: https://youtu.be/-8A6YkmBT_E I felt everything was kosher, but then you are the experts. |
@mijostyn if you could look at the tests I have conducted after getting the HiFi News test record. Please do let me know if something is not right.
The video links may not be working above so here they are again: Side 1 | Band 6:
Side 1 | Band 7:
Side 1 | Band 8:
Side 1 | Band 9:
Side 2 | Band 2:
Side 2 | Band 3:
Side 2 | Band 4:
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- 143 posts total