Glad you posted this as I just shot them an email checking the status of an order placed 2 weeks ago for an in stock replacement stylus for a Grace, I knew when I placed the order that it would likely be a wait and am glad I did knowing that they could use the business in these times. Hoping we can all get back to normal sometime soon and will wait patiently. Wishing Peter, his employees and his business the best.
Soundsmith having Issues because of COVID
Don't know if there's any way to help but he posted this on AudioAsylum:
I WISH I have the luxury of time, but with this virus and its effect on my many employees and my business surviving this, I unfortunately do not. I look forward as I have done for 50 years to help all my customers, no matter what level of cartridge they have bought - many times not even my designs. But time right now is the final frontier for me and my company. Sales are at ZERO and overhead/payroll continues as everyone is sheltered at home. We are in the epicenter. I sent everyone home 8 weeks ago.
88 responses
isochronism, I clicked on a random cartridge (Irox Ultimate) just to check. Once the page opens, scroll down below yellow highlighted area. You will see "location/shipping method" which, I guess, you should choose. Immediately under it is an orange button "add to cart". It should take you to PayPal, if I got it right. I agree, it is a business worth supporting and I am glad I bought their cartridge. No regrets whatsoever. https://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/special-order/irox-ultimate |
The way I see it is that Peter is living Covid in a way few of us can understand. NYC is now the Covid epicentre, beyong Wuhan, Italy, Spain, UK. It must be shattering to live and work there atm. So, to have zero fee income, lose your staff, be stuck w fixed outgoings (rents, stock, salary contributions, next year's tax etc) AND to be aware of people dying around you, and to see a stellar reputation and solid gold 50 yrs audio business teeter on the brink...must be absolutely distressing. In the UK, I run two businesses, and w zero income I've had to mothball them and let my associates go. It's not a good feeling in any way. Let's all hope this thing passes or becomes a manageable concept. We have casualties amongst people. It will be doubly sad if many great businesses like Soundsmith also die. |
Peter never said he was going out of business. He was stating so everyone knows that his business is having a very difficult time financially. I myself also sound like that at times. Closed with no revenue, employees let go, and rent to pay. Doesn’t mean he’s giving up. But supporting businesses right now with sales is very important and would be very helpful. |
Sure, understood. I was due to get a Straingauge stylii replacements/energiser upgrade in 12 months (based on current useage). Maybe I'll bring that fwds. Does anyone know if Peter is mentoring a l/t replacement for him when he retires? Or does Soundsmith cease when Peter stops? My Straingauge has been a total gamechanger in my system. |
Soundsmith isn’t in NYC, but not far- about an hour north. Not that far from New Rochelle which was an early NY community hit by the virus. NY has been hit hard, but we seem to be over the worst. That doesn’t mean it’s still not terrible, but what it means is that hospitalizations and daily fatality rates are declining, NY is also stepping up with aggressive antibody testing, but like the virus testing, you have to ‘qualify’. Soundsmith, like other small businesses, should apply ASAP for PPP loans. |
Eerily prescient........... Art Dudley at Sound Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd948px1230&t=506s |
Fascinating video. You gotta love guys like Peter...in the game more as an enthusiast made good than anything else. When I see the price gouging and stratospheric pricing at the top, w laughable claims to justify sheer greed (a soon to be released $25-30k cart made w gold wires stored in a brass bell for 35 yrs...yeah, right!), it makes me hugely pleased I decided to invest w Peter And willing him to survive |
Right now the major dealers Acoustic Sounds, Elusive Disc and Music Direct have 25% off sale of the upper-range Soundsmith Cartridges. I am going to guess, that dealers do not purchase these cartridges out-right from Soundsmith, and that there is some amount of consignment. So, right now is an opportunity to obtain great cartridge's at a nice discount, that can be rebuilt at a fraction of the cost (making them a good investment), and support the brand. I own both Carmen and Paua, and recently had the Paua rebuilt - it came back with an 'upgraded suspension", and with aural memory being what is it, did sound better especially with 1000-ohm load versus 470-ohm. |
I very much appreciate the posts. It has taken us about 5 weeks to try to operate this business by remote control. There are some delays, understandably. One of my employees is acting as courier between all the homes, and all parts/repairs are being aged for 3 days between each location so there is NO transference of Covid-19. We adopted strict internal disinfecting protocol here in early January when I saw this coming, and dismissed everyone home about 8 -9 weeks ago. It is costly for me personally in EVERY possible respect - I have paid everyone full salary and continue to do so. I now personally work even longer hours 7 days a week. But Soundsmith has always been about two things: Making great music possible in your homes and creating a safe, pleasant and secure place for talented, dedicated people to work. The above post is correct; in the hope of making it through, we allowed ALL of our US dealers to advertise 25% off. A LEVEL playing field, - we have enough war everywhere - we don’t need more. Let’s pull together. They also will not ship outside the US to protect our export market and we will not honor warranties for those that try to trick them into doing so - every product has a serial number and we know who buys what. We need to protect our markets everywhere or there will be little for us outside the US when this is over. Fair is fair. Our export markets also have major financial troubles. We are building to order, so there will be delays, but the above comment is correct ~ it is a great moment to buy a Soundsmith design. Our 6 top designs are discounted 25%; LOW OUTPUT - Hyperion, Sussurro, Paua, Zephyr MIMC Star, HIGH OUTPUT The Voice, and Aida. Please bear in mind our low output designs require 470 Ohms minimum load, and will NOT work with most "transconductance" or "current" preamp designs due to their low inductance requirement. If someone owns one of those preamps, we CAN build special order cartridges that are .1 Ohms, .1mV output. Thank you for your posts and considering helping Soundsmith survive and get through this awful point in history. And from me personally - be careful when they let us out of "voluntary house arrest"; the risk may well be much higher then, and I believe it might be that way for a long time. It is said that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance" - so great thoughts, vision and go with love - we have all tried the alternative. - Best - Peter Ledermann |
Excellent Peter. We fans of Soundsmith are fans for life. I'm absolutely smitten by your Straingauge that I've owned since 2013. It beats two models of Lyra and two of Transfiguration that I've previously owned, that is high praise indeed. And if feedback here and on WBF is anything to go by, your Hyperion is also seeing off competition from higher profile alternatives, some 70-100% pricier. Keep doing what you're doing. |
Peter I hope that you, your staff and your business come out the other side of this mess strong and healthy. Im curious about the 470r load requirement for your low output carts..... What is the recommendation when using a SUT driving into the normal 47k preamp input? This would present less than 470r to the cartridge. regards |
https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/transformer-use-soundsmith-mifixed-coil-designs Here is how to use transformers, and with my designs. Peter Ledermann |
What a shame if whom ever re-tipper we believe in is closed because of this damn virus. Who want to wait for unknown time till his ''precious'' will get a new stylus or cantilever/stylus combo? But Peter himself declared to have ''many employees'' . I wish Van den Hul deed the same. So the conviction that ''master himself '' deed the ''repair'' would be ,uh, more convincing. I noticed many second hand Van den Huls listed on many sites so I can't believe that he himself made those carts nor that he does all ''retips'' himself. Besides I mentioned elsewhere why I don't believe that he does those jobs. Does those ''Sounthsmith believers'' really believe that Peter does all the retips or repairs? |
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Well my other assumption is that correct argumentation should consist in refusal of the assumption, say, Nandric your assumptions are not true because … (the arguments). I don't understand what the fact that my English is not ''native English'' has to do with my assumption. The same apply for my ''accusation''. Such ''arguments'' are called ''straw man'' arguments. One is not reacting with arguments but by ascribing to the opponent some ''bad intentions''. |
sprititomusic, ''Meanings are creature of darkness'' . I quote American philosopher, logician and mathematician Quine. What you don't understand may be caused by unclear statement from your opponent or by your inability to understand what is stated. According to me you limited your argument to what you self can understand. What kind of criterion is this? |
nandric, Did you really think that any of the items available in multiples and relatively easily accessible are made by one person? There is, or at least was, a long video on youtube about Soundsmith. It might have been promotional, but it was informative, too. It took you through the Soundsmith office and all that. You could see the person assembling a cartridge, bins with parts, basically eveything. Employees were not hidden at all although the person talking the most and doing the least in that video was Mr. Soundsmith (Peter). For all I know, a person currently building a certain cartridge may be even better at that task than Mr. Soundsmith himself. Nothing wrong with that. He is the man behind the business and the face and name in front of it, but I do not expect him to have built every cartridge on the market. I do suspect he was involved in discussion and design of each of them. |
Ok Nandric, my intention was honourable in drawing attention to my dislike of your inferences. But since you're happy to hide behind what I call "badge of honour" or "truth as a weapon" subterfuge, I'll come straight out w it. You're inferring PLederman is being disingenuous in "claiming" he's laying off his employees, boo hoo, what a sad, sad story, etc, you say. Indeed you're inferring he does all the work himself, or maybe minimal help at most. His story is confabulation or downright deceipt And that his sob story related here is subterfuge to generate sales. You just can't say it as you really mean it, and hide behind ad hominem attacks on me for my choice of language. Sad. So, I challenge you again. You provide proof that your take is the correct take. Otherwise I'll reasonably assume you're just another civilian throwing stones at greenhouses. And for the record, I don't give two figs if Peter is laying on the story a bit thick. He has commercial rents, state taxes, local taxes, sales taxes, insurances and utilities, and maybe some wages packages to cover. I do too w both my businesses at zero fee income. So please, provide evidence Peter is lying or misleading us. Or find another pastime. And please, no circular philisophical Gordian Knots from you. I've already untied the last one neatly. |
@nandric This thread is about one of our well regarded audio companies in this hobby and its fight to survive and continue to offer its services to people who WANT them, and VALUE them as a company. Why do you come in and crap in a thread with a tangent line of discussion that has no RELEVANCE to the topic at hand? Very poor behavior. |
Relax, guys, nandric is merely misinformed. Specifically, he does not understand where the real value is. He thinks the real value is in who did the work. What nandric is complaining about is the exact equivalent of grousing that Ray Kroc didn't really make his Big Mac. "Billions and billions defrauded" nandric would say. The value of a Soundsmith is not that Peter Ledermann actually does all the work. The value of Peter Ledermann is that he is the one smart and clever and inquisitive and persistent and productive enough to figure out what work needed to be done. What materials to use. In what way. Exactly. Down to the smallest detail. Peter Ledermann in other words invents, and improves. He takes good ideas and then puts in the hard work of figuring out how to make them even better. Then he figures out how to make them cost-effectively enough for other people to actually be able to afford them. AND THEN he goes on to carefully select and train others to do the work he himself has figured out how to do. So now you know nandric. I won't dance around it. Not me. Not at all. I will say it straight to your face: you insulted and impugned his character. You in your weaselly language all but called him a fraud. I'm just taking the high road in assuming why: you don't understand basic economics. Well, now you do, you can see why you were so totally in the wrong. Either way, you do owe the man an apology. |
noromance, I stated my assumption that neither Peter nor Van den Hul do those repairs or retips by them self. Both have some or many employees. I can't understand that some persons have difficulty to understand this assumption. Despite the fact that English is not my native language or that this assumption is incomprehensible. The simple negation of my assumptions with arguments would be sufficient. But I have seen no arguments at all. Instead there are the so called ''straw man arguments''. My statement was not clear (aka ''understandable'') . I ''failed in my initial comment'', my English is not ''native'' while I also accused without cause the incriminated persons. My assumption now is that despite your ''native language'' you are not able to understand an simple English sentence. |