Soundsmith having Issues because of COVID

@nandric,

I can 'only' speak of  my 1st hand 'actual' experience, and assuming you are as knowledgeable as you present - in the world of QA - consider this Objective Quality Evidence (OQE).  The rebuild of my Soundsmith Paua was delayed because of a work backup that Pete had, and that Peter rebuilds every top-tier Soundsmith cartridge.  Retips are unlikely to be performed by Peter (unless there is a particularly difficult cartridge) and the lower cost Soundsmith cartridges such as the Carmen which rebuilds at only $199, are done by his staff.  I bought a Carmen as  a 2nd cartridge for that very reason, knowing that when it comes time to rebuild the turn-around will be faster.  But, for my Paua I am willing to wait for the "Master-Builder".

spiritofmusic, check out my system. It would not be the first Teres to sport a Strain Gauge. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367  Active Shielding power supply upgrades were huge. So I totally get what the power supply mod can do for SG. And I noticed the same thing with my system, where it had to hit a certain level and then out of nowhere classical, jazz, whole bunch of stuff suddenly becomes enjoyable. What can you tell me about the different stylus profiles?

nandric,

You may really need to let this one go. You are getting deeper and deeper and further and further. Dmage control is in order. Yes, you are right, probably none of the designers have retipped some cartridge, but they are the face of the business and they get identified as that business. millercarbon nicely explained everything in one of the posts above.

Not to mention that there is a number of people on these threads who do not consider English their first language. Invoking that in an argument is really trying to hold on to a straw, man.

I wrote to ''Durob Audio'' an exclusive hifi shop in Holland owned
by Van den Dungen. Van den Dungen was the inventor of the
''Kiseki story''. I asked  advice for my Kiseki Agaat which had
some coils issue. To my surprise I got an answer from the master
him self. He told me that he is searching for someone whom he
can trust because he also had ''some Kisekis'' for repair. He is
in China the most of the time because he owns ''Prima Luna''
factory there .That , a.o. was the reason for my surprise. 
So I posted my Agaat to Durob. But after 3 or 4 months I asked
very polite about my Agaat and his answer was that he lacked
the time for this ''adventure''. So I asked my Agaat back because
I found someone else for the job. This job was done in Hungary.
Now is it not curious that he deed not ask Van den Hul for his
Kiseki's or some other known re-tipper? He made it clear that
he needed to know whom exactly he should trust his carts.

Hmmmm, nice story worth reading, but how is it related to Soundsmith story?

As an irrelevant side note, during one of the of the recent audio shows, I met Mr. Soundsmith. Exchanged a few words, casual conversation, and he did not bite or kick. He seemed just like a regular guy who obviously knew much more than I did. I did not like the music he put on the turntable, though. but I will let that one pass and not take it against him.