F9 Ruby

About the F9 Ruby

The Grace F9 Ruby is a vintage high-output moving magnet (MM) phono cartridge from Grace's F9 series, fitted with a factory stylus assembly that uses a ruby cantilever and an extended-range nude elliptical stylus, not an OCL line-contact stylus. It offers a very wide frequency response of roughly 10 Hz-50 kHz, an output of about 2.6 mV at 5 cm/s, 1 kHz, and an internal impedance around 1.7 kOhm, and was designed for standard MM loading (typically 47 kOhm and a few hundred pF of capacitance). Its light, rigid ruby cantilever and low tip mass give it excellent tracing ability, transient response, channel balance and low crosstalk, which is why the F9 Ruby remains highly regarded among audiophiles for its lively yet refined, detailed sound and broad soundstage. Many modern references to Ruby OCL or OCL line-contact and associated setup/cleaning notes actually refer to third-party Soundsmith replacement styli for the Grace F9 body, not to the original Grace F9 Ruby cartridge itself, so those specifics should not be attributed to the original Grace product.