With so many cartridges to choose from, I should give the reason I bought the Gold in the first place, sight unseen (or should I say “sound” unseen). Long story, but this summer I was able to borrow a Grado Prestige Green cartridge, gave it a listen, and was blown away by the sound – very warm and musical, though a little dark on detail nuances for my liking. That said, I decided the Gold would likely be similar, just a little better at everything.

The Gold delivers quite a bit more detail than the Green, but gives away just a little bit of the warmth to achieve this. I would say it personifies the sought after vinyl experience; it does not draw attention to itself or become analytical (I have CD’s for that purpose).

Despite comments I’ve read regarding the Grado’s background hum, mine is dead quiet.

What’s also remarkable is how the surface noise on so-so albums all but disappears. My collection consists of many albums picked up at second hand shops, therefore, history unknown. Many of these had too much snap, crackle, and pop with my older cartridges (Ortofon, Pickering, Empire, Shure, Stanton, etc.), but with the Gold, the albums sound very clean.

If I was in the habit of buying brand new release audiophile pressings at $40 - $50 each, I would probably be tempted to spend a lot more on a cartridge, just because they’re out there. But after spinning records for 40 years, and going through over a dozen cartridges, I can safely say the Gold delivers a very satisfying sound…Acoustic, Jazz, Classical, Classic Rock.

The rest of the system is made up of a Creek phono pre, an ASL tube integrated, DefTech speakers.

Medium

Very low and very high frequencies recessed ; fragile plastic body

The Grado Prestige Gold has an excellent midrange and is very dynamic, but lacks the (subjective ?) very low and very high frequencies of a Shure V15.
The weakness is the plastic body ; it is very easy to break the plastic around the holes for the attachment screws, when installing the cartridge on the tonearm.

Similar Products Used:

Many Shure, ADC, Ortofon cartdridges