Grado Reference Sonata1 cartridge 5.0mV - For US sale only

GRADO REFERENCE SONATA 1 PHONO CARTRIDGE

The newly redesigned Grado Sonata1 cartridge offers four improvements over its predecessor. The coil design has been reconfigured. The size of the coils were reduced, cutting back on the number of turns, for improved sound quality. Grado Labs has developed a new process of potting the coils which helps control internal resonance in the coils which then lowers the noise floor even more than before. Also, the effective moving mass of their generating system has been reduced by 17%, thus allowing for a quicker and more accurate reproduction of music. All this is hand-assembled within a machined, new processed, Australian Jarrah wood housing. The wood enclosure has been changed from Mahogany to Australian Jarrah, which is a much harder and denser, thus adding greater stability to the cartridge as a generating device.

The Grado Reference Sonata 1 phono cartridge features a specially designed nude elliptical diamond and a modified four piece OTL cantilever technology achieving a 10% tip mass reduction over the Prestige series and ultra-high purity long crystal oxygen free copper wire in the coils.

Grado Reference Sonata1 Phono Cartridge Specifications
- Type: Moving Iron
- Output voltage: 5mV
- Frequency response: 10Hz - 60kHz
- Load impedance: 47k ohms
- Channel separation: 40dB
- Stylus type: Nude elliptical
- Stylus replacement: Factory replaceable
- Mounting: 1/2 inch
- Compliance: 20mm/N
- Tracking force: .075 - 2.0 g
- Recommended tracking force: 1.5 g
- Weight: 6.5 g

Reviews
"I'd go so far as to say that the Sonata reminded me more of my Koetsu Urishi ($4000) than of my 8MZ."
"No cartridge reproduces a female voice better than this."
"For the extra money, the Reference Sonata represents a leap of performance beyond the Platinum and hints at what an expensive moving coil can do." - Stereophile / Robert Reina Vol.21, No.6

"After a week of warm-up, during which the Sonata was most notable for the solidity of its bass and power of its subsonic bass, the sound started to become very musical." - Audio Ideas Guide (Canada) / Andrew Marshall