Review on GRADO Prestige Gold3 Phono Cartridge with Stylus - Standard Mount by Jacob Diego

Be patient with this cartridge and you will be rewarded. This is a high compliance carriage that pairs perfectly with the lightweight carbon fiber arm on my Music Hall mmf 7.3 turntable. The resonance of the hand with gold 2 set is 9 Hz, ideal. After the initial setup, I let the cart run in for a good 30 hours before I started fine-tuning. Right out of the box, the first thing that struck me was the large open soundstage this car offers. The bass was deep but a bit muddy. This has cleared up over time, especially after I started making adjustments. The highs were rolled up a bit right out of the box. This also changed after some time and a lot of fine tuning. I've been listening to the Gold2 for about 4 weeks now and am tweaking the VTA, Protrusion and Stylus Force. After a lot of effort I think I've finally arrived at this magical place where the music has this transparent 3D effect. The left and right speakers disappear and the music seems to pelt you from all sides. Sibilence is virtually non-existent unless pre-recorded on an album. Gold2 is a great tracker. The pen cuts deep into the track. The surface noise is dead. I have a lot of old jazz albums from the early 60's that were part of my father's collection. Many of these albums had no protective insert. Needless to say, the records are in a sorry state. Gold2 did a great job bringing these old albums back to life. Surface scratches mean nothing to this car. C Zentner and his orchestra play Desafinado, Liberty record LST-7273, bloody amazing. The texture of the horns coming out of the right channel and the woodwind coming out of the left channel is accurate. Cute trombone C front and center. Gold2 is a very musical pickup. On my system, the bass is deep, well-defined, and packs a powerful punch when needed. The mids are silky smooth and warm. Both male and female voices can be heard effortlessly. This wagon works well with anything jazz, blues, acoustic, folk, classical. If you're into rock music a lot, this cassette might not be for you. I feel rock hit and miss with this car hence my 4 star rating. Perhaps Gold2 is too subtle for rock, but most likely I should say it faithfully reproduces the source. Most of my rock collection is from the 70's (good stuff). Unfortunately, Gold2 faithfully reproduces the recording quality and poor quality of American records of those years. I recently listened to Rush 2112, it sounded great. I followed 2112 with Allman Brothers Eat a Peach and it sounded flat and lifeless. Unfortunately, most of my collection consists of rock. The sound quality of this car matches and in most cases exceeds my digital music on CD and FLAC. The Gold2 output goes through a Yaqin MS23b tube preamp to my Pioneer Elite SC07 receiver. The speakers are Swan Diva 6.1 Tower. built into it. Pool parts and air were simply missing. I kept tuning in to try to bring him in. There is a really good review of the Grado Gold car by HiViNews on YouTube. The reviewer mentions what he calls altitude suction. ::: I just replaced the Gold 2 with my old vintage Empire 600LAC from my Luxman TT. The Grado and Empire carts are moveable iron configurations ideal for light weaponry. When I bought the mmf 7.3 table, I didn't think about installing the 600LAC because of its age and the hours of use with the pen. Empire was an exceptional artist in his time and still is. Despite the 600LAC's age and wear and tear, it has everything the Gold 2 has in terms of sound, but the 600LAC has the high-frequency detail and airiness that the Gold lacks. I'm saving 4 stars for the Gold 2 just because it sounds damn good playing acoustic jazz, classical, chamber music, etc. I have to say the HiViNews reviewer describes the Grado Gold accurately. The old 600LAC is still class in my book and I'm now hearing high end detail that the Gold just couldn't reproduce.