How Does the Soundsmith

Couple of things.

The Schroeder Reference that was used by OMA at RMAF last year (2008) was a medium weight armwand, not a lightweight one. And in fact I have used the Voice with the Schick arm as well, which is better known for compatibility with heavy, low compliance cartridges.

The Voice at RMAF was set up by Frank Schroeder himself, so I don't think that the tweaking thing, spending months getting an arm and cart properly set up, actually applies to the sound in the OMA room last year. The deck was pretty optimal in its set up, and the loading was correct as well. This was not something left to chance, a tt setup done for a show only. Everything was set up long before, back at Oswaldsmill, and I think one could hear that at the show.

Soundsmith is about to release a completely new iteration on the Voice- it will be called the Sussuro. I think its already up on their site. It is a lower compliance, low output version of the technology in the Voice, and really has to be optimized vis loading, but it will be a revelation for many regarding the debate about LOMC vs Moving Iron. I don't think there has ever been a LOMM (low output moving iron) cartridge before this.

Maybe, but I don't know of one.

Dear Weisselk: Nice to hear that the cartridge voicing was " extremely " precise and at least at the same level of any one of us at our home audio systems.

So, then the down-sides that the persons heard it at your show room are realy precise on The Voice performance.

Btw, the design of a LOMM/MI cartridge is not a new one but an older one, I own one of that cartridge design sample the: Stanton 981LZ that show high quality performance even that the cartridge signal must pass for additonal gain stages.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hi everybody!
It is not many days ago I did a direct comparison between the Voice and ZYX R-1000 Airy3 (gold) in my own system. I completely disagree with the opinion that Voice is an easy listening cartridge. Instead of this has the most revealing three dimentional and plausible sound I've ever heard from my system. If I would try to describe with one word the voice I'd say ENERGY. Do you know that violin bow is made of horse hair? Have you ever heard that? Have you ever notice the horn loading sound of trombone? Well, I never had. Airy 3 is easy listening cartridge for sure and not my cup of tea anymore. Don't you believe that is the right time to remove any cryogenicaly treated device/part from our system?
Thanks a lot,
Pentatonia.

Dear Pentatonia: I can't agree more with you on those sentences and about MM/MI cartridges:

+++++ " has the most revealing three dimentional and plausible sound I've ever heard from my system. " +++++

+++++ " try to describe with one word the voice I'd say ENERGY. " +++++

" plausible " is a " new " characteristic that IMHO the LOMC cartridges have not and that the MM/MI is one of its sound signature.

ENERGY, that's a " signature " of live music that again the LOMC can't even " imagine ".

+++++ " Have you ever notice the horn loading sound of trombone? " +++++

only through MM/MI cartridges.

+++++ " Don't you believe that is the right time to remove any cryogenicaly treated device/part from our system? " +++++

I can add: " from our brains ".

Live and real music must comes an be again our reference!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Pentatonia,

Good report. You are one of only a handful of people I've "met" who's actually heard any model ZYX with the gold coils, and I entirely agree with you. I actually think you were a bit too polite (just like that cartridge!).

The gold coil UNIverse and Airy 3 (I've had both in my system) were so laid back they did a passable imitation of being asleep. I couldn't stand either one of them for more than 5 minutes.

The silver coil versions are better, though they're still much too "relaxed" or "smooth" for me.

So is any ZYX of the high output (.48mv) variety: slow, sluggish and unlively (though still tonally accurate, like any ZYX).

Only the copper coil, low output models provide good dynamics and detail. Read Arthur Salvatore's head-to-head review of the silver coil UNIverse (which he found quite ho-hum) vs. the the copper one (which blew him away). The gold coil version is much MORE ho-hum than the silver. They don't even sound like they came from the same workbench. If I were comparing a Voice to a gold Airy 3 I'd expect to hear exactly what you did.