Where to go from Grado Gold?

@chakster
Just realized that XTZ is very expensive. Not worth upgrading my Grado Gold with a XTZ which costs aprox $475.
But what about 8MZ. Will 8MZ make a noticeable difference?

Styli for every MM or MI cartridges with advanced profiles are expensive, Grado XTZ stylus was the best stylus profile (twin tip) selected by Joseph Grado himself, XTZ was his signature model. All you need for Grace is a new stylus. Any of those 3 are better than your gold.

The goal of inexpensive Grace F9 is that you can just buy cartridge body for about $200 and then you can use any SoundSmith styli for Grace F9 (he’s offering them with different profiles and even with different cantilevers).

There are so many amazing MM cartridges, if you want F.Gyger tip then you can look for Garrott Optim w/F.Gyger (don't be shocked by price in AU$) 

Note that the F.Gyger, Replicant-100, MicroRidge, MicroLine ... are just different names for nearly the same advanced profile. F.Gyger is more popular in Europe (Goldring is a British brand). In Japan the MicroRidge, SAS, MicroLine are more popular.

I just found a Goldring 1020 in a box amongst other old hifi stuff. So I just have to buy the D42 stylus and than I will have a Goldring 1042 much cheaper than buying a new cartridge:)

Thanks for the input!

I forgot I have one of these somewhere. I need to dig it out for a spare.