@lewm - Yep - I realized that - it was the main reason for completing that tweak.
I performed the tweak on the standard 103 first and discovered the benefits of matching the compliance of arm and cartridge.
I forget just how much mass was required, but I made the plate to match that criteria.
The Soundsmith mod’s were the icing on the cake.
The cardtridge without the plate sounded very good - but the plate gave the cartridge the exrta "life" it was missing i.e. compared to the standard 103 with the plate
Is it the best cartridge (for the money) on the planet ?
- the standard 103 with the plate was better than any other cartridge I had tried (from Goldring, Nagoka, Rega)
- The Soundsmith 103 with the plate is in a totally different league.- amazing!
A friend had a retipped Van den Hul Frog on an Audiomods arm and I it sounded very similar to the Soundsmith 103 + plate, so I’m pretty happy with it’s performance - at a fraction of the price.
Regards - Steve