OUR THOUGHTS on the GRADO JD series cartridges.
GRADO's an "old" very well respected name in the land of headphones, and more recently, becoming equally interesting for phono cartridges.
The DJ series features all the clever, & unique cantilever design elements, as used in their incredibly well spec'd and sensibly priced "hi-fi" cartridges, but, with >3gram tracking weight ability.
Pros:
Very extended frequency response, both hi & low, leads to MUCH more detail recovery than, say, a Stanton.
Far more musical, smooth & kind of "expensive" sound quality than typical spherical tipped cartridges.
Elliptical tip stylus, tracks high level/high frequency more accurately resulting in less "S" distortion. (Bare in mind we can cut treble at levels un-trackable by a spherical tip!)
Cons:
The unique cantilever requires a special tool to get the stylus off the cartridge - not a problem, they give you the tool of course, but this might be an issue "in the heat of the moment" on a Saturday night when you've just bent the bloody stylus back on itself, and you need to get a new one in, in, less than 5 minutes, with low light levels, a degree of alcohol in the blood stream, some daft punter banging on about a Faithless track in your left ear, and the need to cue up the next track.
A lower output level than many known and trusted DJ cartridges. You need to be sure your mixer has enough gain, or, that you make up the level somewhere else in the audio chain, to not suffer a sudden "wheres all the volume gone" heart stopping moment.
It's not a tchnical problem or impossibility or anything, but you need to be aware.
Overall: Cartridges like the Stanton 500, are, (given their frequency response tail off at 18k & a spherical tip) great sounding very "gutsy" beasts, which might well suit some DJ's or even some venues better than the smoother Grado. But, all said, there's something to the Grado "expensive" sound, and, technically, an eliptical tip will allways track high level/high frequency better.
As a matter of interest, we use a Stanton 500 to check cuts, but a Grado to "really listen to them".
Sunday, 8 February 2009
The GRADO DJ cartridge
OUR THOUGHTS on the GRADO JD series cartridges.
GRADO's an "old" very well respected name in the land of headphones, and more recently, becoming equally interesting for phono cartridges.
The DJ series features all the clever, & unique cantilever design elements, as used in their incredibly well spec'd and sensibly priced "hi-fi" cartridges, but, with >3gram tracking weight ability.
Pros:
Very extended frequency response, both hi & low, leads to MUCH more detail recovery than, say, a Stanton.
Far more musical, smooth & kind of "expensive" sound quality than typical spherical tipped cartridges.
Elliptical tip stylus, tracks high level/high frequency more accurately resulting in less "S" distortion. (Bare in mind we can cut treble at levels un-trackable by a spherical tip!)
Cons:
The unique cantilever requires a special tool to get the stylus off the cartridge - not a problem, they give you the tool of course, but this might be an issue "in the heat of the moment" on a Saturday night when you've just bent the bloody stylus back on itself, and you need to get a new one in, in, less than 5 minutes, with low light levels, a degree of alcohol in the blood stream, some daft punter banging on about a Faithless track in your left ear, and the need to cue up the next track.
A lower output level than many known and trusted DJ cartridges. You need to be sure your mixer has enough gain, or, that you make up the level somewhere else in the audio chain, to not suffer a sudden "wheres all the volume gone" heart stopping moment.
It's not a tchnical problem or impossibility or anything, but you need to be aware.
Overall: Cartridges like the Stanton 500, are, (given their frequency response tail off at 18k & a spherical tip) great sounding very "gutsy" beasts, which might well suit some DJ's or even some venues better than the smoother Grado. But, all said, there's something to the Grado "expensive" sound, and, technically, an eliptical tip will allways track high level/high frequency better.
As a matter of interest, we use a Stanton 500 to check cuts, but a Grado to "really listen to them".
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