Grado
Cartridges
Moving iron phono cartridges, handmade in Brooklyn
Joseph Grado started building phono cartridges in Brooklyn in 1953 — before the company ever made a headphone. His patented Flux-Bridger moving iron generator remains unique in the industry: a tiny iron element moves through a fixed magnetic and coil assembly, producing the lowest effective moving mass of any cartridge type with high output voltage. From the Epoch3 with its sapphire cantilever and 24-karat gold wire to the hand-selected Gold3, every Grado cartridge is assembled and tested by hand — with the Lineage models seeing final assembly by John Grado himself at his Brooklyn workbench.
Flux-Bridger Generator
Grado's patented moving iron design moves a tiny iron element through a fixed magnetic circuit — the lowest effective moving mass of any cartridge, with Swiss-watch tolerances on all internal parts.
OTL Cantilever Technology
Optimized Transmission Line cantilevers use telescoped sections of different alloys — hollow, solid, damped, and coated — rejecting resonances while preserving harmonic integrity from groove to coil.
Tonewood Housings
Cocobolo, jarrah, and cured woods are selected for their acoustic properties and precision-machined to optimise mass distribution — dampening resonances and stabilising tracking.
Hand-Assembled by John Grado
Every Lineage cartridge sees final assembly by John Grado himself at his workbench in Brooklyn — a tradition of craft stretching back to 1953.
Since 1953
The cartridge that started it all.
Before there were headphones, there were cartridges. Joseph Grado began building phono cartridges by hand in Brooklyn in 1953, and his patented Flux-Bridger moving iron generator remains unique in the industry — no other manufacturer has matched it. The Lineage series represents the ultimate expression of that 70-year tradition: sapphire cantilevers, 24-karat gold wire, cocobolo wood housings, and Swiss-precision machined magnetic circuits, all assembled by John Grado himself. From the $12,000 Epoch3 to the $260 Gold3, every Grado cartridge shares the same DNA — and the same Brooklyn workshop.
The Cartridges range
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For complete specifications and technical details, visit the official Grado website.