You should be familiar with the name Grado from the company's excellent headphones range, but this US firm has considerably more strings to its bow, including cartridges.
Second in the Prestige range is the Silver, which is a sprightly £115. It also has a relatively light tracking weight, at 1.5g.
Tested with The House of Love's pulsing Plastic, the Grado responds with a smooth, balanced sound that is tonally well integrated.
It's fast-paced, too, with a wonderfully cohesive edge that cements music together and lends a real sense of enjoyment to playback.
Needs time to run in
Working through Dory Previn's pensive 20 Mile Zone there's dextrous handling of resolution, with the prevalent 12-string acoustic sounding sweet and harmonic, and Previns' voice coming across as suitably emotional.
We'd recommend allowing this cartridge plenty of time to run in, and also giving yourself ample time for fitting, as some may find the lack of captive nuts and pin colour-coding tricky to deal with.
Despite this, the Prestige Silver is a feisty contender and should be given a listen.
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