Sean,
Hmmm, I should have posted a request for info on the Black Widow tonearm a long ago, but I only just discovered this website recently, and I bought the BW a while ago. I love the info on the Stanton, a cartridge I've been meaning to add to my collection for a while now (sicko that I am, I collect 'tables, cartridges and tonearms: I just can't get over the fact that a rock dragged through a groove can reproduce a violin). I assume KAB sells the NOS stylii?
As to higher mass for tonearms for the Grado, which is a high-compliance design, calculations show that to attain best performance, the Grado should be accompanied by a tonearm in the 6-8 gram area, being 6.5 grams in weight, and requiring a total system mass of around 13 grams, which definitely means a low-mass tonearm. The Regas are medium-mass tonearms, and so not particularly well-suited to the Grados, where, however, they still manage to sound good. Those who have speakers which reach lower into the bass can actually see the famous Grado wiggle at work in the form of woofer-pumping, which is far more pronounced in medium and high-mass tonearms than in low-mass tonearms. I have put the Grados (an 8MX, a Silver and a Platinum) in a variety of tonearms, Regas, air-bearing, unipivots, etc., and so know from experience as well as from calculations that they gain significantly in detail, dynamics and at the frequency extremes in low-mass tonearms (I tested them in a Grace and the BW) as well as tracking like a bloodhound, as compared with a Rega or air-bearing tonearm, where they are, however, smoother, but more "muffled". I don't think anyone who hasn't heard a Grado in a low-mass tonearm knows what these cartridges are capable of. I think that claims as to this or that cartridge being significantly better than the Grados in detail and slam at the price are pronouncing themselves due to the Grado being traditionally partnered with Regas (an obvious partnership due to price and the fact that almost no one is actually producing low-mass tonearms these days, one of the few being the Morch), which is a mismatch. In fact, I was thinking of starting a thread to this effect, but seeing as the Grado is almost always matched to Regas, I thought this would generate too much flak.
While I'm at it, I would suggest that those who haven't heard Grados through tube equipment also haven't heard what a Grado can do, for the Grado retrieves an enormous amount of information in exactly those areas where tubes excel, retrieving the resonances and full bodies of the instruments in a recording in a natural and beautiful manner. If you want to identify the type of lacquer of an instrument, or the strings, then here the Grados are practically unsurpassed by any cartridge. In case anyone is wondering, I'm also a Decca and Shure fan, each cartridge having its strengths and flavours. So Bro57, the BW gives you an opportunity to hear what a Grado woody can really do. For an ode to the Woody Grados, go to the late, great Dr. Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg's Gizmo Awards website at http://www.meta-gizmo.com/Tri/awards/awrd00.html. Throw out all your preconceptions.
