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I'm on my second SoundSmith cartridge now, I upgraded earlier from an Otello since I am a big fan of the sound quality and tracking ability.
I've noticed on both cartridges the bottom of the cartridge body rides very close to the vinyl. This is tracking at the exact VTF they recommend.
Anyone else care to share their experience?
Follow Ups:
I hope I will be forgiven for posting at the top of this blog; I very much appreciate all the below posts, even ones (and especially) those that raise concerns. Unlike any other cartridge designer and manufacturer however, I am here and always available when people call - if need any kind of technical assistance. I frankly know of no other cartridge designer you can "call" to speak to.I fully agree that the Soundsmith cartridges appear to look like low riders. My staff has been trained to test each and every cartridge we hand make. I test all the models I personally make, (Strain Gauge, Hyperion, Sussurro, Paua, The Voice, and our five new medium output models.
I have instructed my staff to perform their clearance inspection from the front, NOT from a side view. If you will do this, you will easily see that the views present quite different impressions. While they look to be riding low from the side, a front view with a white background will easily show that there is considerable clearance within the full VTF range for a given model. We test our Medium compliance models (1.6 max) at 1.7 grams as a clearance test. Similar over weighting for other compliance types, ranges and models.
I would appreciate some feedback from those who take a "second look" in this way. I believe that they will easily find that we are not closer to the record surface than many other designs, and in fact, are farther than quite a few.
Peter Ledermann/Chief Engineer/Soundsmith 914 739 2885
Peter@sound-smith.com
Edits: 12/19/14 12/19/14
Hi Peter, thanks for replying.Here is my old Otello, this was tracking at 1.25 g. I backed off on the tracking force to a hair over 1 g when I had it. This was a medium compliance version.
Like I said, I am huge fan of your magnetic cartridges and would love to own a Hyperion some day!
Edits: 12/20/14
Peter is sending me a new cartridge and will be evaluating my old one. Thank you to Peter and everyone at SoundSmith.
Thank you for posting this picture - PLEASE CALL ME on Monday - I will send you a new production unit immediately. This cartridge is not riding correctly - This clearance is not correct, and I would like to see what happened internally.
Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith
Will call, thanks Peter.
nt
I backed off to 1 gram, it does not ride as low in the photo after that. Never had problems with warps except for really bad dish warps, which would pose an issue to most cartridges.
nt
till you have a London Decca
dee
;-D
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
I have the Zephyr I. It was on a VPI Classic and will be going on my new Prime. Yes, I noticed it riding very low too. Question; what's the problem?? It's one thing if you tell me that with slightly warped records it bottoms out, but you haven't said that.
I have an MMC3, and it rides so very close that I'm at the lowest VTF I could get the guys there to give me (like, just a smidge over 1g). It's been on my RX-2 for quite a while (bedroom system, not much heavy/constant use), and it still looks and sounds just fine.
Currently using an SMMC4 on a TX-2 with no issues at all. VTF was set with a digital scale (don't ask me how to do this, I've forgotten even though I only did it in October or November).
I got the old B&O cart rebuilt and was planning on using the Soundsmith cart on a "regular" arm with Peter's half-inch adapter. At least I've been forewarned.
___
The little old ladies wait in wild anticipation for the meetings of the Double-A-C-ASSN...
Several years ago I tried two different examples of the Voice. Loved the sound, but they were such dramatic low-riders that I returned them both. I was using a VPI 12.7 arm and tried plenty of VTF and VTA combinations without success.
This happened to me with a Soundsmith Zephyr, whose recommended VTF was 1.8g as I recall. I was concerned about the low-riding, called Peter Ledermann, and he suggested I reduce the VTF to 1.4g (because my arm, a JMW 10.5i, would accommodate this very well, he said) and raise the rear of the tonearm a minor amount. I did this and all was well.
Same here with a Zephyr MKII. It worked out quite well
"Hope is a good thing. Maybe, the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
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