Grado Timbre Platinum3 Phono Cartridge - Low Output

Recommended Component 2025 – Stereophile

Grado's First Step-up Wooden-Body Cartridge Model

The first step-up model from Grado's Opus3 maple-body phono cartridge, the Platinum3 puts Jarrah wood and a twin magnet system to work for your favorite music. The Platinum3 is a great example of what the Timbre Series is made for: to start listening to your music with more clarity and depth than you’ve heard before.

To make the Grado Timbre Series work as a whole, Grado's engineers created a way for Jarrah wood, diamonds, and a twin magnet system to integrate with Grado's Flux-Bridge. Grado modified its four-piece OTL cantilever technology to achieve a 10% tip mass reduction over the Prestige Series and has ultra-high purity long crystal (UHPLC) oxygen free copper wire in the coils. The Platinum3 uses a specially Grado designed elliptical diamond.

"Recommended Component" Honors

Stereophile honored the Platinum3 by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2025.

According to Stereophile,"HR [Herb Reichert] described this wood-bodied, low-compliance, moving iron cartridge, which weighs 9gm and is fitted with an elliptical stylus, as 'a poor man's Koetsu,' because it produces lush, spacious, color-saturated sound.'"

"HR wrote that it reproduced opera and early classical music with 'ease, elegance, and dramatic subtlety.' He concluded that 'if your taste in music runs toward acoustic jazz, ambient, or classical, the Platinum3 could save you from spending $4000 on a fancy-pants MC. It's that good.'"

Built from Jarrah Wood

After the Platinum3 cartridge is crafted, it is placed inside an Australian Jarrah wood housing. Jarrah is relied upon for the majority of Timbre Series due to its ability to produce surgically precise clarity without losing any depth. Through a variation of thermal aging processes, the housing gains the ability to better dampen and control the resonant frequencies.

Extreme Precision

Grado has combined newly developed coil winding techniques with decades-old disciplines. A new two-step shielding process brings not only exact unison between the four coils but also an unobstructed path for a cleaner signal. The music is allowed to travel undistorted through the coils, greatly reducing mechanical noise. There is an extreme clarity over the full frequency range, with absolutely no stridency or shrillness. Precisely hand tipped with a diamond, each cartridge is the end product of a great amount of care.

Hand-Built with Love in Brooklyn

Each Platinum3 is hand-built by the Grado team in Brooklyn. Fine-tuned for everything from entry-level turntables up to the highest-end stereo systems, the solid mass of the wood helps keep the Platinum3 steady and producing the Grado signature sound.

Choose high output, low output, or mono models.