Grado Sonata 1 Low Output

[JohnMichael]

According to USPS tracking the Grado will be delivered today.

[frenchmon]

According to USPS tracking the Grado will be delivered today.

Great...but then I guess you will have break in time.

[JohnMichael]

The Sonata is here and mounted. I was a little nervous installing a cartridge without a replaceable stylus. Since this was the most I had spent on a cartridge I did not want to trash the cantilever. I had paid under $300 for the AT F7 and The Benz MC Gold. The Gold I sent in a trade and received a good discount.

The Grado Sonata is the largest cartridge in my collection. The wood body weighs more than the others so I used the larger weight of the Michell Technoweight. Even though the body had tapped screw holes, so you did not have to bother with nuts, it was not too easy to mount. When I would tighten a screw it would move in the cartridge slots of the tonearm and throw it out of alignment. Settled on snugging the cartridge and then carefully twisting it to correct alignment.

I set the tracking force at the recommended 1.5 grams. Tracks beautifully and better than the AT F7 which is the most recent cartridge mounted. No sounds of mistracking or distortion at the end of a record. Of course they have all been mounted in the same way using the MoFi Geodisc and a Shure stylus force guage. Anti skate was also set at 1.5. I am currently using the 2mm to set the VTA. I may remove it and listen to the cartridge but it sounds good now so I may leave well enough alone.

Initial impressions are of the cartridge being a refined version of the plastic bodied Grados. Female vocals are incredible. So much so that I have not listened to any male vocalists yet. The AT F7 had a layered soundstage but the layers were cardboard cut-outs caompared to the body the Sonata brings to instruments and singers. If the cartridge gets better as it is broken in great but right now with the limited time and number of records I am pleased. You could listen to this cartridge for hours on end without fatigue.