Prestige Black3 Grado Turntable Cartridge

March 2023, GRADO USA has discontinued this cartridge in favor of the "green3" cartridge as the new entry level Grado prestige pickup.

.:Part of the Prestige 3 Phono Cartridge Series:.

"The newly produced Alnico magnets are more powerful and also slightly smaller, but heavier. This change lowers overall distortion, reduces output a tiny bit, widens separation, increases dynamics, widens signal to noise ratio, and reduces phase/stray ambiance distortion. Clarity is increased rather dramatically from front-to-rear sound stage"......Robert H. Levi

From GradoLabs:
Both the Black3 and Green3 use a three piece OTL cantilever that has a Grado specific diamond mounted on a brass bushing. The Green3 are hand selected from Black3 production runs which meet higher test specifications. Approximately 15% of the run usually exhibits these specs and become a 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 OTL stylus/cantilever design makes records sound quieter, improves the height, width, and depth of the soundstage, and present more detail than previously obtainable.

The Black3 & Green3 are all hand assembled by our team in Brooklyn, with some builders having over 25 years of experience. With the recent development of the highly received Lineage Series of cartridges, we were able to have a trickle down of technology and bring a new technique to the Black3 & Green3. This updated series of cartridges offers Excellent tonal balance, dynamics, and realism, for a most rewarding reproduction of vocals and instruments. Our 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 & Green3 are 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 & Green3 to have one of the lowest effective moving mass generating systems while creating an Excellent balance throughout the full frequency range.

The development of the Epoch in the Lineage Series gave us an in-depth experience with using an outer housing as a damping device. This led to the creation of a process which de-stresses the chassis and dissipates unwanted energy & resonant frequencies, allowing the desired signal to travel freely.

Note: Reviews prior to 2020 refer to Grado Prestige discontinued Black1 or black2 Cartridges.