Budget Cartridge review in Hi-fi news

In the latest UK Hi-fi news There's an interesting comparative review (complete with test results) of The AT440mla, The Grado Red, the new Ortofon 2M Red, and a newer Goldring model. They liked the reds best (Ortofon and Grado).

 

Cool. They are the "hundred dollar heros".
-Bill

 

Got a link?

 

Got a link?[/QUOTE]
Sorry not a freebie, It's a magazine you can get at Borders Books and larger News Stands or I think you can pay for downloadable issue. Here's a link
http://www.hifinews.co.uk/content/this.html

 

Did they state a reason for their preferences since the 440 is so highly regarded here?

TIA

 

One track they used was dire straits Sultans of swing, and on this song they said the reds did a better job on the bass line and vocals. The 440 had less punch and definition. The Grado was also described as having good weight on orchestral music. To be fair I think they are all great in different ways. If only Grados didnt hum and tracked a little better, I do love their tonality. The only type I have'nt used is the Ortofon MM, I have used their MC's though and familiar with the house sound. One thing that seemed suprising was the Grados measured treble distortion peaked out at 15%....way more than the others. And yes the "brightness" lift people sometimes talk about on the 440 does appear on the graph.

 

That's easily correctable. Do they point that out? I haven't read the review.

 

I used to have a Grado Prestige Gold, and I preferred the bottom end on that to what the AT440 gives (or gave when it was new and I could remember what the Grado sounded like.) I did have major issues with the Grado though... Is the Grado red new & outside of the Prestige range?

 

No, the Red is below the Silver which is below the Gold. I had the Red and hated it.

 

It didn't handle sibilance well at all and it wasn't tonally accurate. Definitely no easy fixes for it unlike the 440MLa.

 

I wonder if other things were considered as well. I once had a Grado Signature 8mz (which by today's comparison, was probably a step above the Grado Gold) and it tracked so lousy, I couldn't understand what the big deal was about them. The Audio Technica AT440ML was so much cleaner, it was a welcome change/improvement to my system compared to the Grado it replaced! I ended up giving the Grado to a friend (and ironically, it actually sounded good on his system). As for my own experience with Audio Technica cartridges, I've never had any real problems with them. So I guess tonearm and phono stage matching is important, especially with the Grado.

......As for the Ortofon 2m "red", I'm not sure how it would compare to the Ortofon OM series (I have the Super OM with Stylus 40), but I'm guessing it sounds similar (since the "cutaway" view of the two seem similar, even though the "2m" looks more like "eye candy" with it's attractive new packaging). Perhaps I could be wrong, and there may be some genuine improvements in the 2m series (when compared to the OM series).

 

Wow, I find the opposite. My friend's Koetsu Black is 50% more sibilant than my Grado Red. It also tracks like a dream (inner grooves included).

Then again, I had my TT set up by second greatest TT tweaker behind maybe Fremer, so maybe I have that working for me.

 

Well, I'll definitely concede that the tonearm was not an optimum match for the Grado. Also, at the time I was comparing the Grado Red's ability to handle sibilance with the Shure V15VxMR as well as with the older Audio-Technica 440ML. Those two were no slouches and worked very well in my system back then. So that's a bit unfair to the Grado. Regardless, the overall tone of the Grado was far off from what I wanted.

I'm definitely glad it's working out for you. But I am worried about your friend's setup!

 

Ummmm, that makes two of us. They haven't changed the belt on their Well-Tempered for 19 years. They also don't care that their turntable sits on a slanted table. I could go on...

 

Just got back from the newstand (of course this does not mean I bought the magazine!). They used an SME 10 table on all cartridges, a project SE phono stage and an Arcam Integrated and I think Paradigm speakers. He concedes the Grado lacks some hi-fi finesse, but found it to do certain things in a way that served music better and so kept going back to it. The Ortofon was judged to be the clear "best all rounder". On the measurement graphs the Ortofon had the flattest frequency response along with fairly low distortion. I wish more magazines would do this kind of cartridge testing.

 

Not sure about the generator assemblies, but the 2M styli descriptons sound remarkably similar to the OM/5xx series as you go up the range

Red = elliptical = OM10/510
Blue = nude elliptical = OM20/520
Bronze = line contact = OM30/530
Black = Shibata = OM40/540 (Gyger)

 

As far as the aluminum styli, they are indeed the same (the OM stylus body even physically fits on the 2M stylus carrier). The main difference is in the updated generators, with more/rearranged coil windings (which translates in higher output, but also higher inductance).

 

This leads me to wonder about their associated equipment.

 

surely there can't be a better budget cart than our precious 440!?!

it's an outrage!