Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!info-high-audio-request
From: Steve_Graham@ub.cc.umich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Grado
Message-ID: <8566@uwm.edu>
Date: 27 Dec 90 14:11:30 GMT
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Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

I'd read that Grado might have finally gotten their act together as far
as tracking is concerned.  Sad to say, not so.
 
A friend recently bought a ZCE+1 (I think...it's the "selected" version
of the "cheap" grado that everyone keeps handy) and it mistracked quite
badly on the first band on each side of the Shure TTR103 test disk that
I use for initial set up.  Any cartridge worth it's salt (tracking-wise)
will make it through the third band on each side of the disk without
showing this level of distress.
 
That holds true in virtually every table/arm combo too, as long as the
bearings arne't binding or something, so we're not talking about problems
with the table here.
 
In actual use it wasn't as bad as I had expected, because unlike most
cartridges, it tracks cleanly up to the point where it loses it, then it
just suddenly falls apart.  But it did mean spitty sibilances on bright
vocals, as expected.  Increasing the tracking force and fiddling with
the antiskate only makes for marginal improvement.
 
Unfortunately Grado does not seem to acknowledge the problem, though if you
return particularly bad specimens you can get them replaced.
 
--Steve Graham