postjack

I listen so loud that up to a half hour after finishing a session, I can go to the bathroom and pee decaying transients.

Sounds like a good deal, but I'm going to sit on this setup for a while and see if I can't make it sing. I don't want cart rolling to turn into tube rolling. I'll end up buying half a dozen of those little wood boxes Kevin Barett sells to keep technics headshells in. Sound update: the Platinum seems to exhibit not just a midrange hump, but unfortunately an upper midrange honkiness that reminds me of the W5000. This can be heard strongly on male vocals placed prominently in the mix and some higher pitched horns. This wonkiness is much more noticeable with the GS1000 then with the 22Ls. My latest tweak was to set my arm height to zero, which I did when I found out the height of the Platinum is 15mm. This did a lot to bring out the bass and further flesh out the mid-mid range. I was delighted to see my cart riding the pizza with the front of the cart slightly higher then the back, as most of the reviews I've read say that this is the best way for this particular cartridge to ride (most of the time we want the cart to ride evenly on the surface), and that Grado woodbodies are particularly sensitive to tonearm height. I would agree with this statement. So far the PH-1 + Platinum combo isn't a pure winner. It has some faults (upper midrange honk, grado wooliness) and some strengths (great midrange, decent bass, great soundstage, smooth and pleasing sound, nice steady PRaT).

Yes, sorry Ronnie, the 999es is long gone. I'm out of the hirez game altogether, though I still have a bunch of discs.

the statement is low output, the reference is high output.

Billy, is your Sonata the Reference version or the Statement version?

Sounds about right. I may swap the Statement for a Reference and just run the phono stage on low gain. This should still give me the Grado sound without the hiss.

<3

No, score zero for you. The Platinum Statement is a LO cart, as I painfully explained in my post directly above your confusing celebration. This means that when used with a lo gain phono, the music is way too quiet. So when the PH-1 is in L gain, the music is way too quiet.

Well I'm with Jack, who believe it or not did do a smidgen of research before dropping hundreds of dollars on new gear. There are two versions of every Grado wood bodied cart: the Reference, which is high output, and the Statement, which is low output. Both are MM designs, with the exception of the Statement Statement, which I think is MI? Here is the breakdown: Platinum Reference Platinum Statement Sonata Reference Sonata Statement Master Reference Master Statement Reference Reference Reference Statement Statement Statement The PH-1 was customed designed to work with all Grado carts regardless of output. In H gain, the PH-1 is intended to work well with the LO Statement series, while in L gain, the PH-1 is intended to work with the HO Reference series. Which is why I expressed surprise that there is such a large amount of hiss for a phono stage custom designed to work with its corresponding cartridges. So thanks to both of you for your (perhaps unintentional) condescension, and I'll be sure to come here if I ever do decide to blindly purchase analog gears without any thought as to whether or not they will complement each other. And I say all the above as gently as possible to my friends nato and roxy doxy. Happy Thanksgiving!

mjg, if the ebay guy you are referring to is "hounddogcorp", that is the sales arm of Alessandro. At least, that was the email address I communicated with when I tried to order an MS2i new from them. Ended up canceling my order because it wasn't in stock and that made me angry.

Here is a good pic of the new design. I don't own them, this pic was taken from a thread on HF: They don't look as bad as I originally thought. I'd like to hear them before passing damning judgement.

Thanks. My 1200 is my heart.

good eye. ryan adams' analog recordings lend themselves so well to vinyl. And I think the flash in that first picture made the licorice pizza look creamy delicious shiny.

Quick update: the PH-1 exhibits a fairly significant amount of hiss when in high gain. \ The hiss is extremely noticeable when no music is playing, and even a bit when music is playing. It is definitely the phono stage, as it is present even when the TT is off. Apparently it is working as intended, as others have experienced similar hiss on VA. I'm really enjoying the sound though. We'll see.

I'm sure one day a wild hair will get up my ass and I'll just have to have a MS-Pro. I'll do a comparison then. No wild hair yet though.

I don't have any venom towards the Ed. 9 or Ultrasone. Yes, I did buy them and spent lots of time with them in my own system. My final analysis summarized: amazing bass (I didn't find it out of control, nor do I subscribe to the "bass cloud" phenomenon popularized by markl), cold midrange, and I couldn't quit put my finger on the treble. Sometimes it was bright, sometimes not so much. The soundstage is superb (yay s-logic). To me, the Ed. 9 was a can best listened to loud as hell, son, and it gave me some of the most visceral rock experiences of my headphone career on tracks like "March Of The Pigs" and any given heavy Opeth track. Its biggest failing to my ears was the cold midrange and the colored Ed. 9 "rubbery" sound. The "rubbery" sound reminded me of the Sennheiser "veil" sound. This comparison made me realize that, just like the Sennheiser "veil" doesn't bother me one bit, I'm sure there are those who are not at all bothered by the Ed. 9's "condom" sound, and this is fine. More power to those who enjoy it. The sound just isn't for me. And no, I'm not just saying nice things because I'm in the middle of a sale for these phones.

Grado Platinum Statement Cartridge and Grado PH-1 Phono Stage. I'm proud of myself for setting up the cartridge well. I used a Technics Baerwald Arc Protractor I downloaded and printed, along with the HiFi News Test LP. Grados are known for being poorer trackers, but the Platinum handled the first three anti-skate tracks on the Test LP with aplomb (it failed the fourth "torture test" band miserably, but so do most carts). Still not as solid a tracker as my ProS30 or AT440MLa, but we'll see what some more tweaking can accomplish. Upon playing the correctly aligned and setup cart for the first time, immediately I realized this is what vinylphiles call the Grado "house sound", primarily characterized by the famous bump in the midrange that we all know (and love, we all love...) from the RS-1. The bass doesn't reach all that low (again, like the RS-1), certainly not as low as my ProS30, but it is true, and still sufficient (vinyl, by its nature, as the kick ass bass). I don't think the cart is as bright as my ProS30, but the treble is light and quite lovely. Overall sonically I find it detailed, pleasing to the ear, with a superb midrange, and drastically different from my previous experiences with cartridges. I look forward to spending some more time listening as it settles into my system. As far as the phono stage, supposedly the PH-1 is optimized for use with the LO Statement series of Grado cartridges. So I guess it is doing is RIAA curve correction thing to perfection. I can't really compare it to my Bellari, since the Bellari is unsuitable for LO carts.

grados are probably the most unangled drivers in the headphone world.

Yes, this is pleasing to me. First, I want you to feel this shirt. Soft, isn't it? I bet you think this shirt came from one of those ritzy department stores in NYC, right? Wrong. I got a shirt this nice, from Confederate Products, on my own personal store website, www.makemoney99999998.com, and you can to with a FREE information starter kit. I sell these shirts from my own home, and last month I made $14,000!

No worries nibby, I'm not technologically savvy at all. I just post a lot and do whatever grawk tells me, no matter how sleazy.

I'm not new, but Earl told me about it.

Well OK. But I can't make a lot of meetings. \

still in the middle!!

Ordered Sunday evening, arrived Tuesday mid-morning. So effectively I am inserting foot into mouth.

You are of course right, Nate, and I will post pictures now.