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Analog Playback
Topic: Soundsmith cartridges

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-22-2009
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I have no specific personal interest in any new analog adventures as I am pretty comfortable with sound I am getting but for sake of expending the general horizons about what is available out there I would like to point out one might be interesting thing. I spoke today with a guy who turned my attention to Sound-Smith company:

http://www.sound-smith.com/

and to their “different” analog approach:

http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/sg.html

I personally have no familiarity with it but if you are "aroused" then it is all your.


"The Strain Gauge cartridge is not at all like any other cartridge. All other cartridges, whether moving magnet, moving coil, or moving iron, are "generators" - that is, you put motion in, and you get energy out.....a tiny voltage that you amplify and send to your speakers. The key here in describing all other cartridges is in the word MOVING.  All other cartridges need to move a mass around - a magnet, and iron core with wires (moving "coil") or moving iron. They are all magnetic generating systems, which require a mass to be constantly moved to generate a voltage.

 When you move any mass, it has stored energy, just like your car when you get it going. When you need to turn, or slow down, the mass tries to keep you from doing so. Imagine a stylus in the groove of a record that must make lots of changes in direction to follow the groove walls. Imagine how the mass of the generating parts must restrain the stylus as it tries to move.

 Now, imagine driving a car where you and the car have NO MASS. If you can, then you can understand only one reason why the Strain Gauge is so exciting; it has almost no "stored energy" in the moving system - there IS no large amount of "mass" to move around - it does NOT have to move around a magnet, or wire coils, or iron. This means that the stylus stays in much better statistical contact with the groove walls of your records because there is no large mass trying to keep it from doing so. Imagine how different that sounds.

 Inertia (the law by which mass tends to stay at rest or continue in the direction in which it was moving) makes all styli "jitter" or jump about in the groove of the record, and not stay in intimate contact with the groove wall. If a stylus can't follow the groove wall, you cant hear what's on the record. Its that simple.

 So how does it work if it doesn't generate a voltage???

 The SG cartridge has two Strain Gauge elements, pieces of silicon crystal that when compressed or expanded by tiny amounts, change resistance. The cantilever suspension, a necessary part of any cartridge, is coupled to these elements. The energy that is usually always "lost" into the suspension of all cartridges is used to create the signal in our Strain Gauge cartridge. It is also a purely "resistive" system, with no coils of wire to alter the high frequency performance, or pick up hum, noise or radio stations! Our preamp supplies it a flow of electricity, which it varies, and that gets amplified.

 Because it has ultra-low moving mass, and because it uses no wire coils, it has a high frequency performance to beyond 50 Khz. Because it goes all the way down to DC, we can use that DC information to display tracking forces, forces on each groove wall, record eccentricity and "AC" component of the tracking force (record warp). Because it does NOT have to move around a large mass, and has little stored energy, it can track at one gram without "jittering" or chattering down the groove walls, and therefore stays in intimate contact with the record groove. And because we engineered it carefully, our Strain Gauge has user replaceable styli, a first for high end cartridges.

 That's a lot of "because's". And there's more.

 I will be glad to consult with those who are seriously interested in owning this system. All cartridges are individually hand-made by me, and I take great care in doing so.

 Below is some anecdotal and additional technical information on our Strain Gauge Cartridge and preamp systems......

Thanks for your interest - Peter Ledermann/President & Chief Engineer"

Rgs, Romy the Cat


Posted by drdna on 02-22-2009
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This sounds like an interesting idea, especially since it eliminates the RIAA components. Eliminating components is usually a good thing. However, at the "entry level" price of $8,000, I don't think I will be buying one any time soon.

Adrian

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-22-2009
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 drdna wrote:
This sounds like an interesting idea, especially since it eliminates the RIAA components. Eliminating components is usually a good thing. However, at the "entry level" price of $8,000, I don't think I will be buying one any time soon.
It does not “eliminate the RIAA components” it minimizes it. It eliminates the distortions moving mass cartridges that described by RIAA curve but RIAA also implies the pre-equalization during recording (preemphasis). All records cuted with the low frequencies attenuated and the high frequencies boosted and the Strain Gauge Cartridges somehow shall take care about it with own minor deemphasis. BTW, the elimination of RIAA is not necessary a good thing as the RIAA while attenuates magnetic no-linearity of moving mass cartridges also attenuates hiss, noise and clicks coming from the surface of the records.

The Cat

Posted by ArmAlex on 07-19-2014
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Dear Romy,I've bought their Sussarro cartridge. It's something very different from other moving coils. If there is a chance try it.
Armen

Posted by Paul S on 07-19-2014
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Armen, I hope you can and will offer better than that. Please tell about the sound and how it differs.

Best regards,
Paul

Posted by ArmAlex on 07-19-2014
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Dear Paul,Generally I can say a lot lower sound floor, You hear more detail with less compression. Very open. I compared it with Mayajima Shilabe and Ortofon Royal N, with Ortofon 12", SME 3012 and TW Raven tone arms. As you see I'm using "heavy" arm and cartridges as I like their sound more despite their shortcomings. I think-or I hear-Sussarro kind of has advantages of both "heavy" and "light" cartridges. I hope the explanation was helpful.
Best regards,Armen

Posted by drdna on 07-20-2014
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It sounds like an intriguing concept. The description is a bit more fleshed out, but unfortunately, it sounds more like a incremental improvement, somewhat characteristic of the changes described by audiophiles any time a new component is introduced into the system, more than a revolutionary development. Maybe this is a great cartridge, but it is hard to justify the high cost. If only we all had the ability to listen to the cartridge in our own systems and make commentary. 

Adrian

Posted by ArmAlex on 07-21-2014
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Dear drdna,
I agree with you, my explanation was a little audio reviewerish! If you noticed in my first post I just mentioned Sussarro being different to other Moving coils of my experience. To me it has advantage of high compliance cartridges in converting high frequency and micro level to music and simultaneously not loosing composure in base and macro dynamics, which to my ears are main advantage of low compliance-heavy cartridges. Is it worth the price? For me yes but any buyer must decide for himself, and I agree it's a difficult decision without having the chance to hear it- or any product first.it sounds more like a incremental improvement, somewhat characteristic of the changes described by audiophiles any time a new component is introduced into the system, more than a revolutionary developmentI myself wouldn't have reached to this conclusion so quickly. I can't say it's revolutionary but certainly not just an incremental improvement .
Best regards,Armen

Posted by steverino on 07-22-2014
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Perhaps one reason why the Sussurro does not sound like other MC cartridges of Armen's experience is that it is NOT a MC. In fact it is a Moving Iron cartridge with fixed coils and fixed magnet albeit with low output.

NB Capacitance is an issue I believe with Moving Iron cartridges unlike Moving Coils. I am not sure what capacitance setting is indicated with the Sussurro.

Posted by drdna on 07-23-2014
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This is an excellent point, in theory. Armen's description of the differences he heard are reminiscent of the general differences between Moving Coil and Moving Magnet designs, so this would not be too much of a surprise if the major differences in sonics were due to this design difference. It is also quite correct that the impedance and capacitance will have a big impact on the sound as well.

While none of this is mentioned, I would hope that Armen has taken all this carefully in to account, and that his assessment is a careful side by side comparison of the different cartridges with all the numerous variables taken into consideration. In any regard, it is largely a theoretical discussion; ultimately we would all want to try the cartridge in the context of our own systems.

Adrian

Posted by steverino on 07-23-2014
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The Sussurro has an unusually wide loading range listed by Soundsmith, ranging from 470 ohms to 5k ohms. It is possible that more recent models have a somewhat tighter range between 470 and 2k ohms but I am not positive. The capacitance of Soundsmith MI cartridges are typically either between 400-600pf or 100-200pf. I could not find any capacitance spec for the Sussurro so Soundsmith would have to be contacted. A perennial problem is the inflexibility of most phono stages in terms of loading and capacitance. The Pass Labs XOno and the Manley Steelhead are exceptions to the usual 2 or 3 settings offered but I was not wild about their sonics.  Cartridges along with speakers are the biggest influence on sound so it is frustrating that phono stage designers are so cavalier about permitting varied settings. This is what makes cartridge reviews harder to evaluate than they otherwise would be IMO.

Posted by Wojtek on 07-29-2014
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is the visual projection of Soundsmith house sound .Incidentally they love to use as many bright blue LEDs in their equipment as they can
fit. You should stop by at their demo room to listen to their vision of what the right sound is.  I will subscribe when I'm 70 and will need 20db
lift at 12kHz . The reason they got such following among grandpas wanting to hear a little more of cow bell , I mean sparkle. Such a smart marketing
move. Who else is buying audio these days but half deaf old pricks?
Greetings, W

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