Company Address: Grado, 4614 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11220, USA.
Joe Grado is one of the true legends of American audio. In the early 1950s--though it seems like several hundred years ago--he shifted from watch-making to making phono cartridges, and has kept at it ever since.
He also branched out into designing turntables and tonearms, became an operatic tenor, and even learned to cook. But he has devoted much of his life to making the best possible cartridges, and he has had amazing success with them.
It was Grado, in fact, who helped create the current wave of high-priced cartridges. First, in an era where $100 seemed far too much to spend, he priced his own hand-tuned Signature model at $275, starting cartridges on the path that has led to top prices of more than $4,000. Second, he developed some of the original patents on moving-coil cartridges, helping to trigger the moving-coil boom that now sol idly dominates high-end audio.
What Joe Grado is most famous for, however, is his "moving iron" design.
Having developed several successful moving-coil cartridges, Grado came to the conclusion that the moving coil had high inherent flux distortion, and that it had to have so heavy an armature and so much mass that stylus contact ac curacy was reduced, resulting in a hard and edgy sound. At the same time, he concluded that most moving-magnet cartridges had high and irregular impedance curves and introduced considerable electrical distortion. His solution was a moving-iron pickup with carefully controlled impedance, minimal flux distortion, and a magnetic gap with most of the properties of a moving-coil magnetic system.
Other cartridge designers might take issue with Joe Grado's theories, but few audiophiles would question the sonic results. Since the mid-1970s, so famous for their midrange that word-of-mouth has been virtually the only advertising needed. Further, Grado has turned away from trying to lead the pack in terms of price. His top-of-the-line cartridge now costs $300, and he also makes the least ex pensive "high-end" cartridges around.
One of these, priced around $20, has been the ideal audiophile "starter." This brings us to the three cartridges under review. They are the XTE + 1, at $20: the Signature 8MX, at $200, and the Signature MCX, at $300. Ironically, even the MCX seems almost cheap by today's high-end standards.
The XTE +1
The Grado XTE+1 is not a great cartridge, but for all of $20, it is a darn good buy. It has high output and a good 7-by-3-micron elliptical stylus with a nude diamond tip. It is not a great tracker, but it does reasonably well at 1.5 grams and should ensure long record life. The XTE + l's strengths are a good sound stage and good midrange with reasonable bass and treble. However, it does not have great transparency or detail, and its sound stage is limited in size. Dynamic. If this were all, the XTE+1 would simply be one more low-cost cartridge.
What makes it stand out, however, is its ability to provide a musically convincing timbre and to preserve the emotional impact of music in spite of the compromises it makes in performance. Most inexpensive cartridges involve compromises that make their sound fatiguing and remove much of the pleasure from music. This is particularly true when they are edgy, striving for a false illusion of detail which is never apparent in live music and which rapidly tires the soul and the ear. This Grado is obviously made by someone who knows and loves music, and it errs on the side of a forgiving and musically natural sound.
The XTE+1 preserves much of the sound character of the expensive Sig nature series. If you have to operate on a really tight budget, it is probably the cartridge for you. If you are on a tight budget and you love strings, wood winds, and male voice, it is definitely the cartridge for you.
The Signature 8MX
The Signature 8MX is the latest evolution of Grado's classic Signature series, and has a number of major design improvements. The generator mass has been reduced by 75%, and the stylus has considerably more resolving power. Like all previous Grado Signatures, it uses a twin-tip elliptical diamond stylus. The magnet and wire used in the cartridge have been up graded, however, and the electrical system has a smoother impedance.
The resistance is rated at 475 ohms, the inductance is 45 mH, and the out put is 3.5 mV. This is an exceptionally good load for virtually any standard preamp phono input.
Like all of the previous Grado Signatures, the 8MX has a superbly natural midrange. Because of this, it does a remarkably good job of surviving the test of being compared to live music.
You can return from a concert, put on a good recording of the same program, and hear much of the same overall balance of midrange and timbre you heard live. Few cartridges can meet this test. Most seem relatively hard or edgy by comparison, and most recent designs provide too much upper-mid range information. Further, only a few cartridges have the high amount of lower-midrange energy common in live music, and few of these provide as much natural detail as the 8MX.
At the same time, the Signature 8MX is better than its predecessors-the Signature 8MR and 10MR-at the frequency extremes and in virtually every other respect. The upper octaves have previously been the weakest aspect of the Signature line. But the 8MX has smoother and more extended highs than its forebears, with a great deal more life and energy. The 8MX is not an overly "live" or forward-sounding cartridge; its treble balance is more mid-hall than front row. There also is some loss of fine detail compared to the best moving coils, and there may be just slightly too much forgiveness with strings and brass. The Signature 8MX does, however, provide all the treble data and energy you expect in a live performance. While this cartridge isn't perfect, no one looking for natural musical sound is going to complain about its highs.
The bass is also better defined than in previous Grado Signatures. The 8MX now combines power and deep bass extension with excellent control.
This control removes most of the slight tendency towards warmth common in previous Grados, and also seems to improve the ability to track in any de cent arm of medium to low mass. The Signature 8MX is less tonearm-sensitive than previous Signatures, and while this lack of tonearm sensitivity is most apparent in the bass, it also improves performance in the rest of the frequency spectrum.
Dynamics are improved over previous Grados, and there is more apparent contrast between very low-level and very high-level passages. This gives the Signature 8MX more of a moving-coil character, although without an exaggeration of the upper mid range. Only a few moving-coil cartridges--such as the better Koetsu’s and Kiseki’s--have the Grado's combination of dynamic energy and mid range smoothness.
The sound stage is very good; width and height are excellent without being exaggerated, and there is no "hole in the middle." Depth is very good. In fact, only a few moving coils (which cost at least twice as much as the 8MX) create a more natural illusion of a large sound stage--when the music justifies such an illusion. The imaging and placement of instruments are excellent and very natural. Musicians and singers have a natural and stable location, without the spotlighting and artificial etching of the image common in some moving coils.
The Signature MCX
The Signature MCX is a major departure for Grado. In many ways, it is an attempt to combine all of the advantages of moving-magnet and moving coil designs. The cartridge's high-frequency resonance has been raised to 25 kHz, and it uses a very low-mass generator system. It also has a very low rated impedance of 70 ohms and an inductance of only 9 mH. This gives the Signature MCX many of the superior electrical characteristics of a low output moving coil, though it delivers 1.5 mV into a 47-kilohm load. The Sig nature MCX can be thus used with the standard magnetic input on any good preamplifier; no pre-preamplifier is required.
Like the Signature 8MX, the Signature MCX has a superb, natural mid range. The MCX, however, does an even better job than the 8MX of surviving the test of live music. You do not hear dramatic differences between the two Signatures, but the MCX clearly has more harmonic detail or air. To my ears, the music seems cleaner and less "hi-fi." Furthermore, it carries more conviction in the midrange and has more impact. The timbre is remarkably musically correct without being forgiving, and complex string and choral passages seem to be tracked more cleanly.
The 8MX has smooth and extended highs. The MCX, however, has still more life and energy. It is more "live" and slightly more forward-sounding; its treble balance and overall timbre and dynamics give it the character of a sound about one-third of the way back in a concert hall. Like the Signature 8MX, this is not a cartridge with more treble energy than a live performance.
If you are a moving-coil buff, you will have to listen for some time before you realize that all the highs are there, with the proper energy and detail, but with out the upper-midrange/lower-treble rise common in many moving coils.
While the Signature MCX does not rival the moving coils with van den Hul or complex long-contact-area styli in the ability to extract every bit of treble detail, it is relatively forgiving of setup, and it provides a significant improvement in resolution relative to the 8MX. If there is any real weakness in the MCX's treble or upper midrange, it is that it sometimes seems to lack the natural bite or harshness of brass and strings. This, however, is hard to deter mine. (Many moving-coil phono cartridges exaggerate this harshness, and there are very few musically natural recordings.) Few listeners will regret this failing, since it comes as a trade-off for an absence of the grain and hardness of many competing high-end cartridges.
The MCX's bass performance is very similar to that of the Signature 8MX, but seems to have slightly more detail and resolving power. The bass dynamics are also better, as is every other aspect of dynamic performance. This is a great cartridge if you want to hear orchestral and operatic dynamics in a musically natural form; in both very low and very loud passages, there is an exceptional lack of grain and no other loss of detail. The MCX will, however, run into some difficulty with over-cut records or problem passages. You do not get the "track everything" capability that is characteristic of the best Shure cartridges.
The Signature MCX's soundstage is excellent. As is the case with the Sig nature 8MX, width and height are out standing without leaving a hole in the middle. Depth is also exceptional. The MCX does even better with imaging and placement of instruments than the 8MX. There is more feeling of air and location in three-dimensional space, and those few recordings with real depth have this depth revealed in full.
Oddly enough, recordings also generally seem quieter in terms of surface noise and other sonic garbage, and you can hear more chair movement, score rustling, and other original activity on the sound stage.
The latest round of Grado cartridges clearly demonstrates that Joe Grado continues to improve upon his own leg- end. More important, these are very musical and pleasurable cartridges.
They all have the common characteristic of sounding exceptionally good if you have just heard live music and are not expecting some kind of special "hi-fi" character, life, or detail.
The choice of a cartridge is highly personal and should always be done on the basis of careful and extended listening. Cartridges vary more in sound character than any other component except speakers, and they must be carefully chosen to blend into a given system. Nevertheless, the Signature 8MX and the Signature MCX are really outstanding. They compete in sonic terms with such superb moving-coil cartridges as the Talisman Virtuoso DTi, the van den Hul Model One, and the Koetsu Red Signature-all of which are far more expensive. They also offer a uniquely natural midrange and sound character that may well be just what you are looking for.
--Anthony H. Cordesman
[AUDIO magazine/June 1987]
[adapted from Audio magazine]