Grado Black 1 Black1 phono cartridge - FOR U.S. SALE ONLY

Grado Black3 Black3 Phono Cartridge

SKU: GRADBLKSTD

  • $99.00

GRADO BLACK 3 BLACK3 PHONO CARTRIDGE

Ships to US only

The Grado Prestige series of cartridges are designed for high output and excellent stability under the most demanding conditions. All of the range uses Grado's patented Optimized Transmission Line (OTL) technology which makes your records sound quieter, improve the height width and depth of the sound stage and offer more detail than previously achievable. Grado's OTL technology is all about delivering more music, more performance. Grado cartridges are acclaimed worldwide by experts as virtually the finest pickups at their price points.

Grado Black 1 Phono Cartridge Specifications
- Type: Moving magnet
- Output voltage: 5mV
- Frequency response: 10Hz-50kHz
- Load impedance: 47k ohms
- Channel separation: 30dB
- Stylus type: Elliptical
- Stylus replacement: User replaceable
- Compliance: 20mm/N
- Tracking force: 1.0 - 2.0 g
- Recommended tracking force: 1.5 g
- Weight: 5.5 g

For stylus replacements, refer to Related Products:
- Standard stylus: Grado Stylus Black
- Upgrade stylus: Grado Stylus Green

Customer Reviews

Based on 1 review
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O
Owen LaPrath
ZERO fatigue, and the choire of little angels is singing on the tip of a sewing needle

This is a poor man's Soundsmith cart!
DON'T BUY THEM! THIS REMAINDER STASH IS ALL MINE! MINE! MINE!
Grado is now in a new production mode and has some improvements they also passed on to their entry line, which is now the Black-3.
This old Black is now on sale at a price so juicy, I just ordered another one!
At 200 bucks (old MSRP was 75), even this old model would be a good cartridge. At the current sale price, the old Grado Black, what has to be a New Old Stock, is a steal!
How good are these? Incredibly good. My headline says it all. Midrange is usually described as "lush", base is very pleasant and present, and the upper range detail has no limits, and the frequency range is unbelievable. If your amplifier chain has no filters and no cut-off, this cartridge sounds incredibly fluffy and open!
It does everything so right, it just fits my ear like those perfectly worn out old house slippers you sometimes forget to take off when you go outside!
On my vintage Dual belt drives, I like it better than my AT440ML, Ortofon OM40, AT-OC9, even better than my favourite, a vintage Shure M95 with SAS!
To be fair, let's talk about some problems some people have reported with Grado.
The real problem is not with Grado, but they are so good and revealing, that you may finally notice a problem you had all along.
20 years ago I had a Grado Green. The one real problem I encountered was a sausage finger attack, with a broken off stylus as a result. But nobody ever mentions operator accidents!
The "Grado Dance":
Exceedingly rare, because seriously bad arms are that rare! I personally had it happen to me on a Thorens TD146 turntable and Thorens TP11 arm, with a spectacular wobble, and the arm even bouncing off the record. It was a lousy arm!
I eventually chucked that machine, because the oh so hyped Thorens was a finicky beast with impossible to cure ailments. That was 20 years ago, and while I tried a few more Thorens players as loaners, they all went back to the store. So there you go, bad arm. In the 90s and early 2000s I had an apartment filled with "Goodwill" treasure turntables of many brands and with many different tone arms, and nothing else ever had this spectacular reaction, so Thorens really had a uniquely bad arm with the cursed TP11. So the "Grado Dance" is not any fault of the cartridge, but that of a lousy wannabe high end design arm.
The Grado hum:
Nope. I used them on Dual, Thorens, Technics, Pioneer, Yamaha, Fisher, Sanyo, Hitachi, belt and direct drives, and never had a problem with hum. I had to fiddle with grounding with every turntable I ever had, but once I got rid of hum with a Shure or Ortofon, mounting a Grado was no problem either.
So there you go. If you like a gentle sounding cart, with fatigue free listening for hours and days, that delivers all the sounds in the groove, is not a hard hitting disco-hammer but has rhythm, this is a super budget buy!


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★ Reviews ★

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3698 reviews
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M
FISHER MT-729 Turntable Replacement Belt
Meredith McFadden (Portland, US)
Belt

Hi guys, I’m sure this belt is just great. I actually need help getting the turntable to turn still. Is there a way that I can be on a phone call or even FaceTime to explain and show what’s going on with this Older turntable with any of your staff?

Good price for the stylus. Arrived quickly and easily. Will be ordering from them again!!

P
Stylus for Realistic System 1210 turntable
Phillip Pierini (Dumas, US)

Perfect fit, timely delivery, would order from them again

Great cartridge!

The solid low end was a surprise! I generally feel 2 gram tracking force is a bit high but am going with it as specified. I do a lot of LP to digital conversions and this cartridge tracks well on older worn LPs with little inner grove distortion. I did do a realignment as the cartridge/headshell as received was a bit off. The sound is unremarkable which is to say neutral which is a pleasant change from cartridges I’ve used in the past! Overall a great performer especially at this price point. Definitely recommended!

Exactly as described

Part was identical to the worn out original. Had the new one installed in 10 seconds.

Good sounding

A warm, balanced good sounding stylus for the money. Give it a little break in time for best sound.

Excellent Stylus

After I listened to a few records that had playback issues I had to adjust the anti-skate,rebalance the tonearm and adjust the tracking force. I've played back several records with no issues. The sound from this stylus is great you can tell the difference when you hear the upper,lower and mid frequencies.

Sounds fantastic

I upgraded a basic needle to this on my old automatic Technics SL-QD22. Sounds very very good. This is my first time upgrading a needle so I only have the basic needles I have used before as a comparison. Very happy with my purchase.