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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
chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
But in a MM cartridge the body is 5% of the cost.

Do you mean the cost for the manufacturer or for a consumer?

In terms of the market price for a consumer I think it's the other way around, the MC body is useless without stylus/cantilever and cost almost nothing, while the MM cartridge body is expensive because we can manually insert the stylus in 3 seconds to return it back to life. So i think it can be easily 30-50% of the total cost, but the stylus is the most expensive part of MM/MI, definitely.  
lewm
12,448 posts
 
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.
lewm
12,448 posts
 
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.
chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
@lewm what is the correct way of hooking it up then? Each headshell designed for stereo and has 4 pins, Mono cartridge has 2 pins. The "Y" type leadwire is original Grace, and the headshell for this MONO cartridge is also original Grace.

Not every phono stage or an amp have a mono switch. 
hdm
1,055 posts
 
Chakster:

Try this. But be careful with that cartridge. If it has fairly high tracking forces and you cannot establish whether it has vertical compliance, I would not advise you to be playing any mono reissues that have been cut with a stereo cutter head with it.

You may experience hum problems as well within a stereo setup. 

http://www.google.com/search?q=denon+102+wiring&rlz=1C1AOHY_enCA749CA749&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=xclgTPv1sazu3M%253A%252CK4jBPuDiDNIHhM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTy_u_ZhRJQe9iOv6aMGMfvsVmFgg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjs2c_fj7XgAhXiqFkKHYxbAw0Q9QEwAHoECAQQBA#imgrc=xclgTPv1sazu3M:
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