Has anyone heard the Soundsmith cartridges?

I heard the Soundsmith "strain gauge" cartridge at RMAF last year and I was blown away by the sound. It was one of the best cartridges I have ever heard in 30 years of being in this hobby (but it was also very expensive). Their moving iron cartridge "the voice" also sounded very good for much less money ($1650 I believe). I did not hear the one you mentioned, but they seem to make very good cartridges.

I heard the Strain Gauge and the Voice at Soundsmith's shop. The Strain Gauge is the best cartridge I have heard -- it does everything, but it's the dynamics that are most striking. The Voice is a hell of a good cartridge, too. I note that I was not familiar with the system I heard these cartridges through.

PS - Peter Ledermann and his partner, Craig Dick, are very professional and gracious.

Peter Ledermann is well know to me. His work on cartridges is second to no one as is his re-tipping and complete cart re-do's . Check out his web site WWW.Soundsmith.com and yes for the money nothing beats his strain gauge(6K&up) that I have enjoyed listening to with friends.

I just got a cartridge man re-tipped back from them. It was surprisingly easy to set up, easier then the original one for some reason on my TT/arm to match to both null points and it sounds "fantastic". I bent the original stylus by accident and found getting the ruby retip a cost effective alternative and again it sounds better then ever.

Dear Zeal: I did in my system, the SMMC2 that it is a very good one and for that experience IMHO I think that the SMMC1 and The Voice can/could be better.

Now, how I put those MM /MI cartridges against MC ones?, IMHO I can say that compete seriously with it.

Right now I have one MC and two MM cartridges with Soundsmith on repair and I already have othre three cartridges ready to go.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.