Grace Level ll


has anyone had any experience with these cartridges? Seem to be compatible with the earlier F8 cartridges, but with better cantilvers and stylus.
Ag insider logo xs@2xmitcho
the Grace Ruby Cantilever and the Grace Line Contact Stylus (as opposed to the Super Oval of the REAL Level II) @halcro

Your RUBY stylus is for old generation F8 cartridge, also compatible with better LEVEL II, but the diamond is ELLIPTICAL, none of the RS-8R comes with LineContact tip. I will tell you more - none of the RS-9R for F9 Ruby comes with LineContact tip. They are all nude ELLIPTICAL.

LineContact is what SoundSmith can provide, but it is not the original Grace.
Do you have your Grace Ruby refurbished by SoundSmith?


According to your philosophy....the Line Contact should be an improvement over the Super Oval....?

I’m not sure that "Super Oval" is correct translation from Japanese language, probably it is Super Elliptical or Hyper Elliptical. Probably LineContact is better, but one problem - there is no LineContact RUBY from Grace for any model.

The best from Grace was MicroRidge but only for very expensive models such as F14 and LEVEL II with BORON PIPE cantilevers.

For some reason Grace made Utility-4 and Decrete-4 styli for LEVEL II and F8 and F9 with LineContact type and Shibata type diamonds, but the cantilever is aluminum.

I also have the LEVEL II Disco with BERYLLIUM CANTILEVER and boy....am I ever glad I don’t have it with the Boron cantilever as there is not a single boron-cantilevered cartridge that I listen to or is amongst my top 10

Nice, i remember you told me about it. The DISCO version is what i need in my collection, these cartridges made for DJs and Broadcast Radio Stations. It’s so nice than Grace offered amazing sound quality even for professional needs. Actually my "F14 Excellent" was a special calibrated broadcast version for mastering studios and critical listening.

P.S. I have F14 LC-OFC with Beryllium cantilever, also NOS stylus with Beryllium cantilever for F12 cartridge (still sealed). 


Dear friends, some new facts discovered and i want to spread the light on LC-OFC coil wire material and the story behind it. This is interesting.

LC-OFC is not a new mantra or an illicit drug. It stands for linear crystal-oxygen free copper utilized in this Grace LEVEL II BR/MR cartridge coil wire and terminal pins. High technology finally flatters humble copper. Copper ranks behind gold and silver as a conductor of electricity. Unfortunately, gold and silver, being precious metals, generally are far too expensive for electronic use. As electronic circuitry becomes increasingly sophisticated even the quality of wiring becomes important. The LC-OFC patented by Hitachi in 1975. Frequently dubious innovations come from unknown companies in West Podunk, but the fact that one of the world`s largest corporations produces LC-OFC lends credibility. Hitachi occupies roughly the same niche in Japan as General Electric does in the U.S. When viewed at a microscopic level, copper appears as a series of crystals. The boundaries between these crystals detour audio signals. A standard 1-meter length of copper wire contains 150,000 boundaries. Oxygen free copper, a refinement, reduces the number of boundaries by two thirds. Linear crystal-oxygen free copper contains only about 20 boundaries per meter! Almost a decade of research led to these revelations. In ordinary copper, the space between the crystal boundaries creates a microscopic vacuum. This muddies audio signals and alters high frequency response. Oxygen free copper removes the rectifiers but leaves the capacitance. LC-OFC eliminates all interference, allowing the audio signal to meet only simple resistance has little effect on the sound quality. Some major audio companies voted their belief in the superiority of LC-OFC by incorporating it in their products. For example, the line of Grace LEVEL II and F-14 high-end cartridges incorporates LC-OFC in their top models. Audio-Technica did the same in the late 70’s.

This image explain a bit about difference in copper wire from the basic TPC and OFC via LC-OFC to the OCC.

P.S. You can replace the cantilever and stylus tip, but you can't replace the coil wire !
This is the reason to look for the best LC-OFC version of the Grace cartridges. 


I remember when interconnects made from LC-OFC copper were a marketing tool.  I think Hitachi was one of the first companies to brag about it. Then many users (including me) found out it was no big deal in terms of any enhancement of sound quality.  Further, there is no evidence that a coil made of LC-OFC would operate any differently from a coil made of any other good quality copper; even its adherents recommend it for ICs and the like.

The notion that "gold and silver, being precious metals, generally are far too expensive for electronic use" surely must seem specious even to you, Chak.  We have gold this and silver that all over the place in audio.  Also, gold ranks well behind copper and silver in conductivity (with silver being slightly better than copper and both being way better than gold), not the other way around. The chief virtue of gold is its stability; it tends not to oxidize, which is a problem with silver and copper, although silver oxide is still an excellent conductor whereas copper oxide is not. Thus gold is often used as a plating over copper to prevent oxidation. 

And finally, you say above that F8 and F9 series were not made with exotic cantilever materials, among which you list sapphire.  But we do have the F9 Ruby since the 70s; as you know, sapphire and ruby are synonymous terms, maybe not for a jeweler but for cartridge manufacturers.  I would submit that an F9 Ruby re-tipped by Soundsmith with their OCL stylus ought to have many of the same virtues as the Level II and F14 models, albeit not the rarity.  I am happy for you that you own and enjoy so many unobtainium cartridges, but let's keep this in perspective.
@lewm
I’ve come across the article from 1985, the LC-OFC invented in 1975, then Grace went out of business by the late 80’s, but Audio-Technica is still in business and none of their top models have coil wire lower than OCC grade today, which is better than earlier OFC and LC-OFC. As you can see it’s important for modern cartridge manufacturer, but maybe not important for you?

In 1985, Professor Ohno, from the Chiba Institute of Technology invented Ohno Continuous Casting copper (OCC copper) and this is Audio-Technica standard since that day!

Here is a fresh article if you want to read.

The different conductor types typically used in audio applications. Oxygen free copper was developed in Japan around 1975 as it became increasingly apparent that sound quality was related to the quality of copper and the processing used during cable manufacture. Also around 1975, Hitachi developed their own method for reducing grain or crystal boundaries. Linear Crystal-Oxygen Free Copper (LC-OFC) is Hitachi’s patented process and their exclusive product. After extrusion, the copper wire is re-heated, or annealed, which reduces impurities between the crystal boundaries as the copper crystal grows and leads to a longer grain length. A typical crystal (or grain) in a 1mm diameter LC-OFC conductor is 130 mm long compared to only 4mm (typically) long in TPC or OFC conductors.

Phono cartridge coil wire material is extremely important for the sound quality, always look for LC-OFC or OCC if you want the best!

I am not a fan of Silver Coil wire, but it does make a huge different compared to Copper Coil.

Personally i have compared not only MM with different coil wire, but also LOMC like various Ortofon SPU and the best sounding one was the SPU Spirit with extremely rare 8N Copper Wire.

It’s funny to read a comment that coil wire is not so important from people who’s buying short headshell lead wires just because they are silver, or rewire every tonearm like our Mexican friend.

F-9 Ruby is nothing special, just an overpriced old cartridge with elliptical profile. When i am talking about exotic cantilevers they are paired with exotic diamonds too (not elliptical) when we’re talking about Grace LEVEL II or F12 or F14 models.

I don’t care about refurbished cartridges, they have no value for me.
My passion is original design only.

For those who prefer SoundSmith cantilevers and diamonds for the Grace MM i would recommend to use them with Grace LC-OFC generators for the best result, those generators made only for F14 and LEVEL II (not for the F9). So the F9 is nowhere near the LC-OFC F14 or LEVEL II.

For the owners of the original Grace:
Once you upgrade to the F14 or LEVEL II you don’t want to go back to the F9, believe me. It’s natural progress, they did not just changed the numbers on their cartridgeы with no reason, they are entirely different cartridges with different LC-OFC coils, best cantilevers (Beryllium, Boron, Sapphire and even ceramic) and best diamonds (MicroRidge etc).


Oh, please..."Oxygen-free copper" was and is a marketing tool.  And the Hitachi wire is at best nothing special, if not even inferior to some other choices, like pure silver, in my opinion of course.  Note that Hitachi is no longer in the high end audio business; they didn't exactly take over the world with their copper.Like I said before, I have no doubt that your Grace F14 and Level II cartridges sound wonderful.  Congratulations.  But you don't know exactly why, and neither do I.  Just enjoy them. Correlation is not causation.