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Grace F-9 broken stylus

First tell me if i have the words right
Cartridge is what holds the coils in an MM
Stylus is the needle part
cantilever assembly is the replaceable part that hold the stylus

I have a Grace F-9 cartridge with a green cantilever assembly that has the stylus broken off a new cantilever assembly looks like its going to run $150 at the cheapest

can i get a cantilever assembly cheaper?

how much can i sell it for with a broken stylus, it worked before the needle got torn off

I have a NAD 5025 TT and just want to play some vinyl

is it worth getting a replacement stylus or should i sell the cartridge and get a cheaper cartridge, i was advised to get a sure mx97 somthing

thanks

sprinklz
sprinklz
acman3
4,271 posts
 
You can probably get around $50- $100 maybe more, for your F9 as is. As Tommyboy65 said, it is a very good cartridge. It may be one of the reasons you like records, so get the Shure and see if you want to have the F9 repaired latter. As you are finding, it is good to have a backup cartridge.

Fyi,Soundsmith has some ruby stylus assemblies for the F9 you may want to look into when you have some money.
davide256's avatar
davide256
399 posts
 
Agree. While I like the Grado MM family better, the Grace F9E was musical, robust, and well made. Try to get a nude mounted stylus retip...a solder mounted retip won't sound as good
dr_joe
160 posts
 
I concur 100% with Tommyboy65.

I have three F9s, all with Soundsmith stylus assemblies. These are not cheap ($200 to $500), but worth it.

The F9 with $300 Soundsmith stylus assembly chased a $600+ Ortofon 2M Black right out of my system. Several friends, who run $1000 to $4000 MC cartridges, could hardly believe they were listening to music reproduced by a 35 year old MM design.

The only other thing I'll say is that the better your phono preamplifier, the better the F9 will sound.
tommyboy65
12 posts
 
What was considered the top of the line Grace cartridge? Was it the F-9 Ruby?

What happened to Grace and why did they stop making cartridges?

Both of my cartridges sound teriffic, much better than the Ortofon 2M Bronze that I previously owned.
tommytom
16 posts
 
I have the same situation. Bought a table with the F-9, green stylus. The stylus was crooked so I went over to Peter at Soundsmith (local) and he straightened it out for me but said the needle was a little worn on one side due to anti-skate. He offered me one of his Soundsmith replacement stylus that was miss marked "ruby" at a discount for $250. I didn't bite figuring I would see how the original straightened stylus sounds first. It sounds ok but the addict in me wants the new replacement stylus. Oh well, we'll see!
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