Grado Platinum4 Pickup

Grado Platinum4 – Moving-iron cartridge with a wooden design and natural musicality
The Grado Platinum4 is part of the Timbre series and serves as an introduction to Grado’s wooden-cased cartridges. It builds on decades of development and combines clarity, stability, and musical precision with the warm, organic sound that characterizes Grado’s designs.

Thanks to Grado’s moving iron design, the Platinum4 delivers a stable and consistent signal with low moving mass and long-term reliability. The model is available in both stereo and mono configurations, as well as high- and low-output versions, making it flexible and compatible with a wide range of RIAA preamps and systems.

Performance
The Platinum4 is designed to work with various types of phono preamps and offers a balanced and controlled soundstage. The treble is smooth and natural with good resolution, the midrange has clear presence and body, and the bass is reproduced with precision and stability.

The reproduction is characterized by good separation and stereo imaging, which means that even complex recordings are presented with clarity and musical cohesion. The result is an engaging listening experience where the character of the recording is preserved.

Moving iron design
Grado’s cartridges are based on a moving iron design derived from Joseph Grado’s patented flux-bridger principle. By minimizing moving mass and keeping the coils fixed, fast and accurate signal reproduction with high harmonic integrity is achieved.

This design combines dynamics and control with long-term reliability, without the sensitivity often associated with traditional moving-coil solutions.

Diamond and Cantilever
The Platinum4 is equipped with a bonded elliptical diamond mounted on an aluminum cantilever. The elliptical cut ensures effective contact with the record groove and stable tracking, while the aluminum cantilever contributes to balanced and controlled sound reproduction across the entire frequency range.

Coils and internal construction
The internal signal path is constructed with ultra-pure 6N OCC copper, selected for its high conductivity and consistent quality. Each cartridge undergoes cryogenic treatment and internal damping to reduce resonances and preserve signal purity.

Wooden cabinet
The Platinum4 is housed in a cabinet made of Mediterranean olive wood, chosen for its resonance-damping properties and its contribution to the cartridge’s tonal balance. The redesigned cabinet improves visibility of the cantilever during adjustment, facilitating precise installation and optimal performance.

Specifications

Cabinet: Mediterranean olive wood
Stylus and cantilever: Elliptical diamond, aluminum cantilever
Output: High Output: 4.0 mV @ 5 cm/s (45°)
Inductance: 55 mH
Resistance: 660 ohms
Recommended load: 10 kΩ – 47 kΩ
Cartridge weight: 9.4 g
Recommended tracking force: 1.6 – 1.9 g
Compliance: 20 µm/mN
Channel separation: 30 dB on average (10 – 30,000 Hz)
Frequency response: 10 Hz – 60,000 Hz