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Geez! AND Crap!.....

24.140.36.172
Posted on August 1, 2022 at 21:11:02
Merlot_cat
Audiophile

Posts: 1437
Location: Northern Ohio
Joined: August 7, 2002
Contributor
  Since: May 27, 2004
 Finally finish putting my entire record collection into alphabetical order(today) with dividers and what do I do tonight? Launch my tonearm across the platter and snap the cantilever off on my Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge! My only consolation is that MAYBE it was time for a re-tip and that Soundsmith will do it for only $350.00. Stupid.. Stupid...Stupid....!
The whole problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russell

 

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RE: Geez! AND Crap!....., posted on August 3, 2022 at 16:53:35
beach cruiser
Audiophile

Posts: 7061
Location: so cal
Joined: September 24, 2003
 Sorry to hear you experienced the almost inevitable human error. on the other hand, if people never made mistakes, there would be no baseball.

Crap like that, along with a much less demanding amplification requirement in a hyper critical area, is one reason I stuck with a MM cart when seemingly everyone with good sense went to moving coil designs.

It also helped that I had a fine moving magnet cart with the additional record preserving benefit of a low tracking force that moving coils can't match.

I still prefer the moving cross design's sound, used in a high style cart I used to run, and that sound smith adopted for its carts, but it required a holder to adapt to regular arms. Besides, I could get a top of the line latest greatest shure for cheap in the electronic sales area of New York, back when I occasionally traveled there.

When I snapped off the tip of a shure cart, I was able to investigate the properties of beryllium, a still popular stylus cantilever material, although shure used it in a foil tube, instead of the heavier solid rods used today. working with the beryllium foil caused worker death, so today it's rods only.

The material had a fibrous quality when broken, exhibiting little, almost white, fibers when separated , like asbestos or some thin crystalline rock structures, and didn't have any observable bend before breaking.

I was always intregued by the use of a cactus needle that sound smith employs in one design, but couldn't justify the cost with my needs. I would hope it less brittle than the other more commonly used materials, and might provide the additional benefit of increased durability when mistakes happen, in addition to the benefits stated by sound smith.

I used to wonder if sound smith would go the way of many small firms that eventually go away after the inevitable loss of the main guy, but it seems they have grown past that concern. I still lust after the strain gauge stuff, but sound smith is not bashful about the price they ask for such a unique product.

 

RE: Geez! AND Crap!....., posted on August 3, 2022 at 17:24:41
Lew
Audiophile

Posts: 10911
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Joined: December 11, 2000
 Your trailer quotation; didn't Yeats say much the same thing using better words, in his epic poem about WW1, "The Second Coming"? Maybe Yeats was paraphrasing Bertrand Russell, or vice-versa.

I looked it up:
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

 

interesting, thanks....NT, posted on August 3, 2022 at 21:00:22
Merlot_cat
Audiophile

Posts: 1437
Location: Northern Ohio
Joined: August 7, 2002
Contributor
  Since: May 27, 2004
 nt
The whole problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russell

 

RE: Geez! AND Crap!....., posted on August 4, 2022 at 09:46:40
big muck
Audiophile

Posts: 162
Joined: December 31, 2000
 Thirty years ago I had separated from my wife and wasn't in the best of moods. Decided to play some music. I had a VPI MK IV table, ET II arm with an Adcom moving coil cart. When I was using a stylus brush before playing the record, my hand slipped and I snapped the cantilever. Put the dust cover down, turned of the system and went for a drive without saying a word.

 

speaking of that...., posted on August 5, 2022 at 14:25:06
NuWave
Audiophile

Posts: 2619
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: March 22, 2002
 how is that cartridge? I've been browsing around to upgrade to something and did see the Zephyr mentioned somewhere, although it might be a few hundred (or more now) above was i was planning on spending. Was thinking about trying a Benz.

 

Very happy with the Soundsmith Zephyr. I would recommend it, posted on August 6, 2022 at 09:55:08
Merlot_cat
Audiophile

Posts: 1437
Location: Northern Ohio
Joined: August 7, 2002
Contributor
  Since: May 27, 2004
 to anyone looking for a cartridge in that price range. I used to own a Sumiko Celebration before the Zephyr and while I enjoyed the Celebration I much prefer the Zephyr. It seems to be a much more natural and smoothing sounding(insert your own idea of natural and smooth here). Tracks anything, never heard it misbehave.
The whole problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russell

 

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