Grace F14 MONO cartridges and styli


Dear all, i have to start this thread because i’ve come across first MONO cartride in my system.

The cartridge is extremely rare Grace F14 (MONO) LC-OFC from the mid 80’s.
I’m a huge fan of the Grace stereo cartridges, in stereo world the F14 LC-OFC is superb, this MM generator is the best ever made along with LEVEL II LC-OFC. As you might know the Grace made so many different styli with different cantilevers and different diamonds for F14 and LEVEL II series in the 80’s.

BUT I know nothing about mono cartridges, because i’ve never used any of them.
And i don’t even have enough MONO records, but i got some for sure.

I don’t play 78rpm SP ... and most of my mono records are 45 rpm (7’inchers) from the 60’s, 70’s, maybe a little bit from the 50’s.

My F14 LC-OFC cartridge has ONLY 2 PINS (not 4 pins like stereo versions). The special lead wire designed for use with mono is included, no problem with that.

Looking at the MONO stylus on my F14 MONO cartridge i realized it is not an SP version described here (definitely not a huge 3 mil. tip), but a nude stylus tip, small just like stereo tip on some other Grace styli that i have in collection. So it’s a good news, because i’m not gonna play 78 rpm anyway.

What i realized by trying this cartridge/stylus on my mono records is a lower compliance of the stylus compared to normal Grace (they are high compliance). The stylus replacement designed for F14 (not for older F9), the plastic shape of the F14 is always different compared to F9.

I’ve searched for MONO styli shapes online and i’ve seen many articles about oldschool conical styli of the different size for the mono records from the different eras. Also about the mono cut on stereo cutterhead.

I could find only one more Grace mono cartridge (LEVEL II) with 1 mil. conical tip described here

BUT this post on another forum is the most interesting:

"I play a number of vintage monos (primarily stuff from ’58 to the mid 60’s, admittedly no pre ’57 stuff) here with a modern microridge stylus and would never go back to using a conical on them (having done so in the past). They sound incredibly good with the microridge...

Based on my experience, I feel all the talk of conical styli being necessary to get the best out of mono records is urban legend at best, if not patently false."

If this is true i can use any stylus on my Grace MONO cartridge for my records pressed in the 60s/70s in mono ?

I don’t have a mono switch anywhere on my gear, but since the cartridge pins are designed for MONO only, i believe, i’m safe to cancel vertical noise caused by conventional stylus with vertical compliance ?

I can not detect a stylus shape yet, it can be Conical, Elliptical, Shibata (or maybe even Micro Ridge). I’ve heard they are all good for MONO made with stereo cutter head in the 60’, 70’s or even today.

Let me know what you think, it can be my first mono cartridge then.
128x128chakster

Showing 6 responses by lewm

Chakster, you’re doing nothing wrong. The purist approach would be to hook up only one channel to the cartridge. No need to go that far. A mono switch would make no difference as far as impedance matching at the headshell.
Sorry, I forgot one thing.  Chakster, the way you have hooked up your Grace to your stereo system could cause a degradation of performance, because each channel of your stereo phono stage is now seeing the output impedance of the cartridge in parallel with the input impedance of the other channel.  But since you are probably running a 47K resistor on each channel as cartridge load, which gives a fairly high impedance in parallel with a much lower one at the cartridge, I am guessing the effect is not too terrible for performance. Conversely, the cartridge is driving the two channels in parallel.
I don't disagree with anything HDM wrote above.  That's pretty much what I said too.  But I would not go overboard to say that mono cartridges derived by bridging stereo channels are to be dismissed out of hand.  First of all, that would drastically limit one's choice, as the market is quite thin on "true mono" cartridges.  And second because I have had a great result just using a mono switch on either of two preamplifiers that I own that provide for same.  The mono switch acts further up the chain to bridge the stereo input, so it is subject to the same caveats as are bridged mono cartridges.  Yet it works dramatically well to improve the mono LP experience.  Lower noise, better high frequencies, etc.

And finally, the manufacturers have made it very difficult for buyers to figure out how they have constructed their mono cartridge offerings.  If you want to see double talk that rivals only the drivel of politicians, go to one of those websites and read about mono cartridges.
I’m not sure that’s a good question.
It seems that Lyra orients one coil of a stereo cartridge such that it doesn’t react to vertical displacement. But it’s there.
Chakster, You wrote, "4 lead wires from the conventional headshell are "Y" type for use exclussively with just 2 pins on the MONO cartridge."  I am not sure I understand.  How do you attach your 4 lead wires from the headshell to two pins on your mono cartridge?

Where did I say that all true mono cartridges are LOMC types?  I didn't say that; nor is it true.  However, if you ask me to name some current MM cartridges that are true mono, I cannot do that, because I have not looked for one.  I am pretty sure Audio Technica makes one that is widely advertised on eBay. Also, you've got one, and it's vintage.

As I wrote above, what I call "true mono" cartridges are cartridges that are built such that they cannot "read" vertical deflections of the stylus tip.  Stereo cartridges that are also marketed as mono variations usually have intact two internal channels that are simply bridged at the output.  These CAN read vertical motion at the stylus, but because of the bridging, the electrical signal produced by vertical motion of the stylus is cancelled.  The result is the same.

Read the Miyajima website. They make mono cartridges for 78s, but they also make mono cartridges for modern mono LPs, using a different stylus from the dedicated 78 rpm type. They probably sell more mono LOMCs than any other company.

You should try a mono 33-rpm LP some time, using your Grace cartridge.  You'll be pleasantly surprised at how great such LPs can sound, and in some cases you won't care that they are not in stereo.

But do tell me how you are connecting 4 wires to two pins.
I don't recall ever reading that a spherical tip is to be preferred for mono.  Rather, I have often read that the spherical shape is OK for mono, whereas it would be regarded as out-dated for stereo.  Miyajima make some of the best mono cartridges, and I believe without having checked recently that some of their models use spherical tips.

Mono cartridges come in two very different "flavors".  Most modern mono cartridges are stereo cartridges in which the two channels are bridged, internally, to provide mono output into two channels of a stereo system.  In that case, the signal derived by vertical deflection of the stylus is present but cancelled before it goes anywhere. Only a very few modern mono cartrides, like those made by Miyajima and maybe some of the Lyra mono cartridges, are "true" mono, designed so that they cannot read a stereo signal, which is to say they cannot read signal derived from vertical deflection of the stylus.  Your Grace is vintage and evidently is of the latter type.  So, I am curious, do you somehow run the output into both channels of a stereo system, or do you listen to it over just one speaker of your stereo pair?

Last year when I was in Tokyo, I bought a Shelter 501 series II mono cartridge.  It has 4 pins, so is probably a bridged stereo type. I have yet to install it on a tonearm.  I really should do that.  In one of my two systems, the phono stage has a mono switch.  Engaging the switch for mono LPs affords a huge improvement, and I think you will find the same at least with your mono cartridge, on mono LPs.  Using the mono switch on a phono stage is really just like using a bridged stereo cartridge that produces a mono signal into both channels.  I've wondered whether it is even better to use both a mono switch AND a mono cartridge, for mono LPs.