Grado Prestige Black Phono Cartridge

Rating:
Summary: Prestigious and Honest...
Review: I liked this little cartridge for the under the $50 mark...It's a very honest cartridge in that it does not pretend to be an elite audiophile sounding cartridge and then show it's shortcomings.Basically, it would also be a moot point in trying to compare it with Grado's high end audiophile carts such as the Sonata, Statement or Platinum models---those are way ahead of the Black in terms of everything in sound and build quality ! The Grado Prestige Black is basically an entry-level hi-fi or audiophile cartridge that begins to give you a sample of what the more expensive good stuff could be like. It's just a "whiff"...

I utilized this cart for a few months on a secondary turntable I owned. It offered a natural but not completely neutral sounding quality.There was no mind or ear fatigue whatsoever as is often the case with listening to "bright" sounding or colored sounding cartridges that tend to exaggerate the mids and higher frequencies or give off a certain resonance. There was no exaggerated boomy bass (only firm and focused bass) or ear piercing highs.Period.One of it's strengths is it's uncanny ability to reproduce the mids as well as male and female vocals with near accuracy and believability. So, for the modest price range, it does it's job exceptionally well...

Now( and here's the "honest" part), the Grado Prestige Black is going to show it's slight weakness in overcoming inner groove sound distortion and it's inability in tracking harsh consonants/sibilants. It can be "spitty" at times and depending on the quality or condition of the record. Keep in mind, for the price point, you are getting something that's a bit above average in quality if you were to compare it with other name brands in the same low budget audiophile bracket...

The cartridge's specs, pricing, and playback qualities are right upfront and on the table...This is an elliptical stylus designed cart and not an advanced fine micro-line stylus tracer which would outperform the Grado Prestige Black in many ways (basically, while an elliptical needle performs way better than a spherical or conical shaped one, it still has it's sonic limitations).Even though the Grado Black Prestige will show very minimal tracking weaknesses or inner groove tracking errors, it gets four stars for it's exceptional budget value and noble performance in it's overall believable and natural musical quality !