Grado - Black3 - Prestige Series Turntable Phono Cartridge

Grado - Prestige Series - Black3 Turntable Phono Cartridge

What's the difference between Black3 and Green3?
Approximately 15% of the Black3 production run meet higher specifications. These are hand selected from the batch and designated as Green3.

Grado’s OTL, or optimized transmission line, technology provides an ideal transfer of signal from the surface of the LP to the generator of the system. This technology rejects unwanted resonances and lowers distortion preserving the fundamental and harmonic frequencies of the music. This also helps keep noise generated by the motor system in the cartridge to a minimum.

Grado’s four-piece OTL stylus/cantilever design makes records sound quieter, improves the height, width, and depth of the soundstage, and present more detail than previously obtainable. All four pieces are made of different materials, to offer more sound detail than previously obtainable.

The Black3 is hand assembled by Grado's team in Brooklyn, Ny with some builders having over 25 years of experience, including John Grado himself. This updated series of cartridges offers excellent tonal balance, dynamics, and realism, for a most rewarding reproduction of vocals and instruments. The coil winding techniques using ultra high purity copper wire, which were honed during the development of the Lineage Series, have let the electrical circuits achieve unison between the four coils in each phono cartridge. This allows for a precise balance between channels and accurate stereo imaging.

As in all Grado phono cartridges the Black3 is powered by a twin magnet system that optimizes the balance between stereo channels. All internal magnetic circuit parts are held to extremely high tolerances creating the desired stereo imaging. Grado’s patented Flux-Bridger design allows the Black3 to have one of the lowest effective moving mass generating systems while creating an excellent balance throughout the full frequency range.

Optimized Transmission Line (OTL) Cantilever/Stylus Assembly
Grado's OTL provides an ideal transfer of the signal from point to point, e.g., stylus to cantilever to magnet to coils, etc. This has been achieved by eliminating resonance at each of these key junctions. The transmission line cantilever consists of separate sections that are telescoped into each other. All sections are made of different alloys, some sections hollow, other sections solid. These sections are bonded together with materials that act as dampers, and are coated with a black proprietary material which controls and absorbs resonances that travel on the surface of the cantilever (known as skin effects). The OTL stylus/cantilever design will make your records sound quieter, improve the height, width, and depth of the soundstage, and offer more detail than previously obtainable. Cartridge Holography does exist...and that is what Grado's OTL technology is all about, more performance.

Pivoted-Fixed Axial Cantilever/Stylus Generator
This design feature is basically quite simple. The "OTL" cantilever shaft is brought to a fixed axial pivot that supports the entire cantilever assembly. A miniature element attached to the end of the cantilever is allowed to move freely within the lines of flux of a stationary magnet and coil structure. This system of support is mechanically more accurate (more linear) than conventional "teeter-totter" designs that utilize an iron armature to balance the mass of the cantilever. The teeter-totter design is supported in the center with a rubber donut mounting. The fixed axial design has a very low tip mass, which results in lower distortion, improved transient response, and longer record life.

Flux-Bridger Generator System
The Flux-Bridger design uses four separate magnetic gaps that the miniature element of the cantilever bridges. The miniature element moves between opposing flux gaps creating an increase in flux in one gap while reducing it in the other. The four separate magnetic gaps create a highly efficient and perfectly balanced system. This design requires fewer coil turns than conventional designs.

The Anatomy of a Grado Phono (Standard Mount) Cartridge

Hand-Built in the USA With 100% Quality Control
Each individual cartridge manufactured by Grado is hand assembled and tested for frequency response, channel output, channel balance, phase linearity, inductance and resistance. This meticulous care in design and construction lavished on each Grado cartridge contributes to an unchallenged consistency of performance and guarantee of reliability.

Grado's Prestige Series of Phono Cartridges
The Prestige series of cartridges are designed for high output and excellent stability under severe use. A considerable tip mass reduction results in a frequency response to 50 kHz and beyond and tracking forces from 1-2 grams. Acclaimed by experts as virtually the finest pickups in the world at their price. Prestige models available in both 1/2" mount and P-mount. All styli in the Prestige series are user replaceable.

The Latest Version, the Grado Black3
The newly redesigned Black3 and Green3 have had their coil design reconfigured, and the effective moving mass of their generating system has been reduced by 17%. The Black3 and Green3 models use a three piece OTL cantilever technology, standard oxygen free wire in the coils and Grado's specially designed elliptical diamond mounted in a brass bushing. The Green3 model is selected from the Black3 production run and meets higher test specifications. Approximately 15% of the production run will meet these standards and become Green3 models.