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Landed a NOS Grado F1+

Robert

Robert

Tapehead
Unassuming little ad for this cartridge - just said boxed Grado F1+ in excellent condition for £50. The vintage Grado bodies alone are well worth that so I took a punt.
What arrived was clearly an unused F1+ complete with accessories and unopened pack of bolts. It looks all shiny and minty, no bolt marks, and a look under a high power scope at the generator and stone shows its never been used.

Today when you buy a standard Grado you get selected styli as you move up the range, that's selected versions of a fairly basic, shank mounted and high mass stone.
I have a current Gold1 and it has all of the great Grado traits - the funky, bouncy bass, rich mids and expansive soundstage. But it also has lousy treble thanks to that nondescript stone which, lets be honest is typically found on a £25 entry level cartridge of DJ model. IGD is always a problem with the Prestige range.

Back in the day, moving up the range and not spending very much additional cash bought lower moving mass and more refined, nude styli. The better models such as the F1+ has a more advanced hyper elliptical or line profiles.

This F1+ sounds absolutely lovely. A really big and bouncy sound with fine dynamics but it completely trounces the current Gold for treble quality and HF tracing. It doesn't quite reach the AT MicroLine for HF tracing bit its up there with other good profiles such as Gyger, Vital and Shibata. The FL+ clears all bands on the Ortofon test disc including the torture track at 1.5g.

These cartridges like a low mass arm with some damping, so it loves being in the 774 with light fluid damping.

As an aside, I contacted Jico and asked if they had any plans for a SAS microline stylus for Grado. They said no, and in response to my question about commissioning a stylus they responded that they'd happily do so if I could find the 'tens of thousands of dollars' for the moulding equipment! :) - well if you don't ask.......

You can buy older styli from Grado designed for the 80's reference series and these have much nicer tips. However the US stockists won't ship them to the uk (I've tried) but I've yet to try their UK importer as I believe that is a route. But come on John Grado - bung an extra £100 on the price of the Gold and give us a low mass cantilever and fine line stylus. That would put the Grado Gold at £250 and it would be a killer cartridge in today's depleted market.

So if you come across a NOS or low hours mid-upper range Grado from yesteryear, give it a whirl. The operating principle is unique and has many merits over and above standard MMs. The low impedance generators confer real sonic benefits.


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Excellent! I bought one of those new in about 1980, it was bloody expensive as I recall. The advert in the magazines was along the lines of 'What a Grado can do in this arm (picture of the then lovely SME Series III) it can do in this arm (picture of a clunky 'S' shape job, maybe a PL12D', so I went and bought one and stuck it in my even clunkier Lenco L75 arm. It worked fine as I recall, I far preferred it to the rather ancient and worn Shure M75EJ that was in the deck when I bought it anyhow. That cart along with the GL75, FM3/33/303 and JR149s made up my first system.

PS Rob, have the wood Grados got nicer tips?
 
Hi Tony,

The Wood Platinum has the same stylus as the standard line - a bonded, shank mounted elliptical. The others have nicer nude stones but nothing up in ML or VDH territory.

The older standard body carts differ a little to today's range as the coils and internals were better potted with gunk. They were also a little longer and lighter - the F1+ only weighs 4.5g.
In the 774 the lateral resonance is at 12Hz with the vertical bang on 10Hz.
 
Nice one, Rob - a really good find that. :)

Always been a fan of the older Grados (ie the 'F' range as opposed to the Prestige) and remember the F1+ well. Never actually owned the F1, but did have the FTE+, FCE+1 and the F3E+ and liked them all. Still have the FTE body and have got to wondering about purchasing a Prestige stylus - although like you I yearn for them to produce a decent FL tip. Would be a really killer bit of kit with that clever Grado generator. :)
 
Cheers, I tried LP Gear but they refused to ship. Said I had to use a re-shipper. I can do that if necessary. Otherwise it's been suggested by Grado Labs that the people who distribute Goldring can order them.
 
For the Aro (which I have), Naim specify that this distance should be 7-10 mm. Anybody know the distance of the centre-line of mounting holes to stylus tip for these older Grado cartridges (TLZ, XTZ, 8MZ etc.).
 
Well jel. I loved this period of Grados. My understanding was that older carts could have knackered suspension because of the age of the "rubber", am I wrong (it this example if not elsewhere too)?
 
Although Grado no longer list 8MZ styli for sale in their store, LPGear have on offer what are billed as 'latest production' 8MZ replacement styli at $US 150. LPGear only ship to USA and Mexico, though.
AVShop.ca also carry 8MZ-STYLUS at $CDN 180. (and credit them as 'new production by Grado for LPGear'). Perhaps they'd be willing to ship one to the UK?

From LPGear.com:
  • Designed for Signature 8MZ cartridge
  • Fits and improves other Grado Prestige cartridges
  • Grado 'Twin Tip' diamond (Ed: Grado-speak for bi-elliptical with 'controlled frequency response' to 50kHz. It's bonded, 'bushed' in Grado-speak, though, so therefore highly unlikely to exhibit a 'controlled frequency response' to 50kHz)
Grado have always been vague about their tips and model differences. Back in my retail days we had to use the bit of green paper that came within the box (or bog roll) in order to discern the various tip dimensions. Even then, for other than spherical and standard elliptical, all was vagueness. I recall being assured by the distributor that, cantilevers also improved as one went up the model line, in an effort to approach what Joe Grado liked to call an 'optimized transmission line device', his 'holy grail' of design goals. If the Grado Store is anything to go by, in the Prestige series, at least, the cantilevers all appear the same (likely just Photoshopped in colours on the nubbins of the same pic, though)
 
serendipitydawg said:
I just found a F1+ body without a stylus. What are the best options for replacement stylus in 2020?
Click to expand...
8MZ , MCZ , MCX , Reference & Prestige best options for 2020 Grado do offer lots of stylus options covering ranges dating back over 30/40years & options to almost £1k & you get get them stock in the UK
 
I have a low hours original F1+ and I don’t like its sound at all. Funny that. Too gentle, mellow I’d say. Polite.
But it tracks well and images superbly, with a lot of depth.
 
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