Grace Level ll

Took some pictures of my LEVEL II with RS8 RUBY 
Designed made this cartridge so attractive, love the shape of the old RS8 in red. And this is the close up on my macro with focus on Ruby Cantilever. 

And now i need your help, please

I have one virtually unknown stylus for Grace LEVEL II and F8, the stylus index is RS-8US and you can see it on my cartridge (on the right), the plastic insert is clear, "US" written in white on the front side. I can't find any information about this particular RS-8US stylus. Anyone can help?

I know that RS-8U (blue) stands for Utility-4 and has a decent nude LineContact type stylus tip just like RS-9U and the closest is RS-9F (Discrete-4 with Shibata). Those "U" and "F" both have very impressive specs, but i can only refer to the F9 series catalog. 

But what about RS-8US for F8 and LEVEL II ?
Any ideas?

I only have RS-8US MR (Micro Ridge stylus) for Level II so the "US" series must be really good.

Not to shift the focus of the thread but I thought I'd mention my experience with the F-9e, which I owned but sold, and the F-14, which I currently own.

I bought the F-9e as NOS, factory sealed, from LPGear maybe four years ago. With its stock stylus it was pretty OK to my ears, if a little closed in and unresolving relative to my stable of MC carts. It really had to be loaded at 100K to open up, and even then it didn't sound altogether right, becoming a little arch yet wispy. At 75K it was neither fish nor foul. Swapping in a Soundsmith CL, it definitely improved in all areas but remained less than fully satisfying. Don;t get me wrong: it was good into 100K, fundamentally natural if not quite properly balanced, at least in my system. Even with the improved stylus it was not a cartridge I would choose to play over others I own. So it went in the drawer.

I was intrigued enough  by the Grace sound, however, to become curious about the F-14. I had read that the internal resistance was around half that of the F-9, which meant it would probably load naturally at 47K. Add better internal wiring, and it seemed highly promising. So when I found a sealed NOS unit without stylus (yes, they sold them that way) from a Japanese seller on eBay, I bought it, just to see. Right off, with the NOS F-9 stylus, it was better than the F-9. As I suspected, 47K was optimal loading. The SS CL improved on that, also as suspected. But not until I bought an OCL replacement did the F-14 really come into its own.

Now I find the F-14 to be a terrific performer, with all of the naturalness that I perceived in the F-9 but  none of the drawbacks. It resolves like a good MC but seems more transparent. It's lively but carries weight. Excellent midrange. No real faults, though maybe doesn't dig as deeply into the bass as some MCs. Nonetheless, I can readily move from listening to MCs like A90, Benz Ebony L or TR, or SPU A95, e.g., without feeling a fall-off in fidelity, just hearing a different take on high-quality playback. Really nice.

@wrm57

Now I find the F-14 to be a terrific performer, with all of the naturalness that I perceived in the F-9 but none of the drawbacks.

No doubt. Thank for your comment. The stock F14 is much better cartridge than F9 for sure and the price difference between those models today is huge, the F14 is almost 3 times higher in price than F9. I lost my interest to F9 when i first time auditioned F14 Excellent and LEVEL II BR/MR models.

But before you went to the SoundSmith CL replacement did you try any top of the line original styli from Grace? Probably not.

For my F14 (for example) i have various original styli with the best cantilevers such as Beryllium, Ruby and even impossible to find Ceramic.

For Grace Level II i have Boron Pipe, Sapphire, Ruby, and Ceramic.

Some of the original Grace styli comes with MicroRidge diamonds, so there is no disadvantages of the original top-of-the-line Grace in comparison to the SoundSmith modern replacement. Actually with a MicroRidge stylus and Boron Pipe cantilever the original Grace stylus is better than SoundSmith Ruby. Also the SoundSmith Ruby construction is different compared to original Grace Ruby construction if you will look under microscope.

I think SoundSmith replacement if for those who does not have the original Grace top models, and i’m sure it is the only alternative to pimp your Grace.

But the Grace made so many different styli for their best models (LEVEL II and F12 and F14) and the only problem is to find them :)) But if you can find them there are all types (Aluminum, Beryllium, Boron Pipe, Ruby, Sapphire, Ceramic).

I’m still trying to figure out how many different styli were made by Grace for LEVEL II models in the 80s, new one on my radar is orange square US-8MR, but this is not the one i have mentioned before. I thought there was only Boron cantilever BR/MR version of Micro Ridge stylus for LEVEL II, but there is an Aluminum cantilever US-8MR version with Micro Ridge stylus too! Same color and shape of the plastic insert (orange). I’m surprised. The only "US" stylus i’ve seen before is this (on the right).