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June 8, 2009 - 10:20pm
#1
Grado Gold1 review.
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Hi Lionel,
Very nice piece- but I'm a happy Grado (Silver) user, so that figures. I, too, am using a vintage turntable for less legitimate reasons, which sound like excuses, but so what. The Philips 212 (circa 1975) is such a pure Scandinavian design I can't part with it yet (though someday I'd like to try the Marantz/Clearaudio model). Found it on eBay for $75 and the owner was loathe to sell it- it's almost as new. Combined with the Bellari 530 and the Grado I get exactly the same results you've stated. I commented recently on the "Last Night I Listened To...thread re a Tower Of Power album, that baritone sax just didn't sound as real on digital- the Grado is so sweet and liquidy. Distorted rock guitar ala Jack White and Carlos Santana sounds like a vintage Fender amp is in the room (I don't know what they use, for lack of a more accurate descriptor). Congas, percussion, cymbals- all snap and shimmer with amazing presence.
It's not the ultimate set-up and purists may scoff, but there is something very satisfying about getting such great sound from budget components- and the reaction from 2 younger generations of music lovers in the house is priceless. When I roll the vinyl, they start dancing.
Awesome. Congrats, Lionel. I know you've been thinking about this for awhile, so I'm glad to hear that it's all working out. I'll also be interested to hear how the Denon compares to the Grado. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. Well, a spare Dual headshell insert arrived today after an extremely long trip from Germany, so I should be able to set up the Denon in the next few days. I'm expecting very good things from it-- not least of which because I went to the library, dug up Sam Tellig's review of it from 1983, and saw that he loved it-- it was relatively cheap given its quite good performance; he was still the Audio Cheapskate back then. (It peaked at Class C in Stereophile. I discovered a while back that my local library has a complete set of Stereophile back to Vol.1 No.1-- comes in handy for someone who's into old equipment)
I was kind of surprised that Art Dudley had such a negative reaction to the Gold (I assume the original Gold and not the new Gold1). I can definitely see where a longtime MC user would have issues with the Gold (or Gold1's) sound-- MCs tend to tip up in the EQ spectrum right where the Grados start tapering off, which sure can sound like loss of information, even if there isn't much to lose (I would suspect that the Denon 103 discards just as much information by virtue of its conical stylus-- it just sounds like it has more than it does because it has a wider bandwidth in that it's not -6db at 15khz like the Grado...). I also agree with him 100% about the tracking, which is mediocre, and the fact that it doesn't seem to deal well with sudden crescendi (which may be related to the tracking-- I've actually had the thing pop out of the groove when Keith Jarrett hit some big chords). And the hum is certainly there if you've got an AC motor right under the platter (he might have done better than the P3 humwise if he still has his spare TD124 with the Rega arm) I'm just not convinced that there's much better for $200-- I haven't tried the Benz, yet (not having a step-up, though that may change, as Old Colony is having a significant sale and appear to have some decent Jensens in stock), but the thing certainly, on the basis of fit'n'finish and its elliptical stylus, doesn't *look* like it's much more. Looks can be deceiving, though. I'm also curious, for my own edification, whether changing the loading on the Grado will make much of a difference-- that Grado Signature that AD raved about at the beginning of his review did best into 10k ohms, rather than the typical MM 47k, legend has it. I'm quite familiar with the '103, having hung around a lot of college radio studios back in the day, and it's a very nice cartridge if you've got an arm that can deal with it and records in decent shape, but I don't think it's night-and-day better than the Gold, especially when you're talking another $150-$200 for a step-up, even if you buy the transformers from ebay and do the soldering yourself.
Well, let's see how the DL160 goes. I'll report back when I get a sense of it.
I have to agree with Art about tracking issues in the standard Rega RB tonearms. Once I replaced the original counterweight with the Michell Technoweight counterweight the tracking greatly improved. I do find Grado's too warm and dark for my tastes. In a low mass arm like the Duals I would go with a Grado over the Denon.
I'm on board with Lionlag's take. Dudleys switch to a Grado after long using coils was probably a little too shocking for him. The new Grados are not a huge diversion tonally compared to the old grados. I don't understand why he felt there to be a significant difference there (and I dont know if he actually pulled out an old one to compare). Now as then the oft used "It's a Grado" descriptor holds true in much the same way.The Grados strengths are'nt in razor detail- but they get to the meat of the music. While it might leave some things out, it also presents the music in a way other budget cartridges do not match. Its way with female vocals and acoustic instrument timbres are class beating. In fact the Grado has a little of that "like live music" quality we sometimes associate with tube amplifiers. I also think the Denon 103 is not better than a grado on a Rega. But his mention of hum and tracking are mostly accurate and the main reason to approach with caution. Musically there is no reason to pause and I give Grado/Rega a green light. To me the Denon 103 sounds too stiff and dry on the RB arms- while the Grado can work some magic on the Rega arm/table....as if the fast quality and slight leaness of the Rega sound are tempered by the Grado cartridge- with the net result being very "musically involving".
I used some old Dual turntables many years ago, until I read a number of technical articles explaining why the idler wheel design was extremely poor for isolating motor rumble and hum from the platter, FAR inferior to belt-drive designs for some reasons which are pretty obvious. Wow and flutter are also notoriously bad with an idler-wheel drive.
Belt drive is far superior, which is why almost every modern turntable from $400 to $100,000 uses it. Idler wheels were dumped because they sucked; end of story. They still do. No modern engineer would consider that type of design for a millisecond.
I also later found that most Dual turntables had rather poor bearings in the tonearm, which affected sound quality. Cheaply made, poor quality.
Your comments about the bass differences etc. are hilarious nonsense. The drive system has nothing to do with this. The type of platter and arm are the issues that are far more relevant.
I dumped my Dual in the early 1980s and bought a Harman-Kardon T60, which was much much better in every respect, and sounded 300% better; what a revelation!
More recently, I replaced IT with a Music Hall MMF 2.2, which in turn delivers significantly better sound quality again.
To make a long story short, based on my direct experience I can say that you are using a turntable which is a 3rd-rate design and sounds crappy compared to a Music Hall MMF 2.2 or some other comparable turntables (Pro-Ject, Rega) that can be bought for around $400 currently.
You would do the sound quality of your system a great service by dumping that 2nd-rate antique, which was only mediocre when it was new, and getting a good turntable.
Probably true. I can't imagine a Grado cartridge on Dual having a whole lot of clarity. I agree sticking his grado on a good belt drive would probably work wonders. I never heard Duals as sounding all that good even even back in the day, I was a Thornes man.