Modifying any 400x series to take a p mount Grado cartridge

a friend of mine in the States sent me this interesting URL 

http://aminaaudio.com/phono.html

he had an old and unloved 4002, but sent it to Modular Electronics (Amina) and paid 600 bucks for the Grado Gold conversion, he said it was like new when he got it back and is now busy buying new 180g vinyl to play on it and really enjoys playing vinyl on this deck again.

Is the Grado Gold that good ?

 

NB  Have been advised that this is not the sort of thing to do to the venerable 400x turntables, better to get Alex to re-tip your stylii

 

ouverture:

NB  Have been advised that this is not the sort of thing to do to the venerable 400x turntables, better to get Alex to re-tip your stylii

It's definitely not the thing to do with those lovely turntables!!! That looks awful
If he's comparing a 35 years old B&O cartridge with the brand new Grado, them maybe the new is a little better...
But as you write: Get it retipped by Alex and it can easily be compared with the Grado.

Steffen:

It's definitely not the thing to do with those lovely turntables!!! That looks awful
If he's comparing a 35 years old B&O cartridge with the brand new Grado, them maybe the new is a little better...
But as you write: Get it retipped by Alex and it can easily be compared with the Grado.

Furthermore, he cuts the arm to length, that means, never go back unless you buy another arm/ TT.

I have a MMC4 original still playing OK, and a SMMC4 from Soundsmith that of course sounds better, its 30 years newer.

I would strongly suggest that this a poor idea. Soundsmith are producing cartridges that review very well in the modern press which are developments of the MMC range. They use new materials and cover a huge price bracket so there should be something for anyone. I personally prefer the sound of the original MMCs, especially when refurbished by Axel, but I know some with prefer the crisper sound offered by Soundsmith. Do at least think about this before destroying a work of modern art!

I do think Soundsmith need to make the cartridges silver though - if they can make them mounted in bits of wood (why?) then a bit of silver colour on the cartridge body does not seem much to ask!

Maybe painted silver just looks too cheap. I think it would have to be a metal finish similar to the originals and this might be too costly!

Peter:

I would strongly suggest that this a poor idea. Soundsmith are producing cartridges that review very well in the modern press which are developments of the MMC range. They use new materials and cover a huge price bracket so there should be something for anyone. I personally prefer the sound of the original MMCs, especially when refurbished by Axel, but I know some with prefer the crisper sound offered by Soundsmith. Do at least think about this before destroying a work of modern art!

I do think Soundsmith need to make the cartridges silver though - if they can make them mounted in bits of wood (why?) then a bit of silver colour on the cartridge body does not seem much to ask!

 

I entirely agree with Peter. Kind of sacrilegious to me.

I also agree about the Soundsmith. The blackness of their (otherwise excellent) cartridge (I own an SMMC20EN) ruins the experience somewhat.

I used to hate Grados, finding them very dull, not to say plain boring (but cheap). But perhaps they are better today, although they are now expensive for what they look like! To say that they outperform a 20CL seems a bit bold to me!

On the second photo the cartridge isn't even parallel to the detector arm!

I have decided to send my MMC20CL to Alex for re-tip, and keep the 4000 original, my decision to do this is mainly down to the re-tip lasting 500 hours or more, so as I only listen to vinyl for a few hours every week, I should be OK for another 4 or 5 years :-)