GRADO Opus 4 Cartridge

The Timbre Series from Grado Labs has been designed to reveal the tonal character, texture, and musical nuances of every recording. Each cartridge combines a handcrafted wooden body with high-quality internal components, delivering an ideal balance between precision and musicality for a detailed yet expressive listening experience.

Grado Timbre Opus 4: Technology

The Grado Opus 4 is built around Joseph Grado’s patented Moving Iron (MI) principle. The Timbre Series demonstrates that an alternative cartridge design can deliver exceptional resolution and musicality while maintaining a healthy output level.

The Opus 4 features a bonded elliptical diamond stylus mounted on a hollow aluminum cantilever. The elliptical profile ensures efficient groove contact and accurate tracking, while the aluminum cantilever contributes to stable and controlled reproduction of musical information. This combination provides excellent clarity and tonal balance across a wide variety of recordings.

Thanks to its Moving Iron design, the Opus 4 benefits from a fixed-coil structure while maintaining an extremely low moving mass. This results in a stable and consistent signal with excellent responsiveness. The carefully matched stylus and cantilever assembly is complemented by ultra-pure 5N OCC copper coils, selected for their outstanding conductivity and consistency.

Each cartridge undergoes a cryogenic treatment process and receives internal damping to minimize unwanted resonances and preserve signal integrity.

Grado Timbre Opus 4: Body

The Grado Opus 4 belongs to the renowned Timbre Series and features a body machined from a solid block of American maple wood.

This carefully selected material has been optimized to provide a unique sonic signature while maintaining the control and consistency that characterize the Timbre range. American maple is particularly valued for its ability to control resonances and contribute to the cartridge’s tonal balance. Its structure ensures stable playback and consistent performance with a wide variety of tonearms.

Grado Timbre Opus 4: Sound Performance

As the entry-level model in the Grado Timbre Series, the Opus 4 already delivers the distinctive sonic character and craftsmanship that have made Grado’s wooden-body cartridges so popular among music lovers.

Its presentation is both balanced and musical, preserving the qualities that define the Grado sound. The Opus 4 reproduces music with a compelling combination of clarity and warmth. Precision is accompanied by smooth, natural highs that remain free from harshness.

The midrange offers remarkable texture and realism, bringing voices and instruments to life with impressive presence and authenticity. Bass frequencies are well-defined, articulate, and controlled, providing a solid foundation without overpowering the rest of the spectrum.

The Grado Opus 4 delivers a fluid and engaging listening experience, supported by a spacious and immersive soundstage. Like all Grado cartridges, it prioritizes musicality, tonal richness, and emotional engagement over strict analytical neutrality. It is ideally suited to listeners who appreciate a warm, natural, and inviting presentation.

Note: Grado Moving Iron cartridges may produce a slight hum ("Grado Hum") with certain turntables or motor designs. This phenomenon is not systematic, but compatibility with your turntable should be verified before purchase.