Questionable service at Soundsmith

Witness

Witness 1

Unreliable for the defense
Unreliable for the prosecution
Unworthy receiver of events
unaware of the miracle
of an arrangement of atoms infinite
observing itself
Unwitting witness
God’s small window on the world
in each of us

Witness 2

Small room. Nice.
tubing dripping
slowly
red poison
and clear
premedication for my wife
to not vomit up the world
I count the pills
keep track of time
tell her only 7 more times
just count backwards from 8
but nothing I have as a witness
helps the defense
the sentence has been predetermined
If I had not
witnessed this
before
then it would not be so vivid red this time around

Witness 3

You think you are a voice
the eyes and ears of God
But it is not your agenda you are tracing
it is just the agenda of someone who is empty
and filled themselves with power
If you would know God’s will
then find yourself some hill
and spend an entire day
interrogating a daffodil
not mowing the innocent down
(only March has the right
to torture
the snowdrops


Witness 4

I pray for peace both without
and within
The feeling of loneliness is measured
as the distance from God
Where is the voice
the real witness of time
beauty and cleverness
to distill it down to something that can be whispered
in my ear
if I can put down my agenda
long enough to be your witness
even for just for one moment each day
Gift enough against all that above and those
who do not witness your grace
.
.
.
.
Peter Ledermann 12-15-15

Unfortunately I had a bad service experience too.  It took over 6 months to get my Soundsmith cartridge retipped.  I called frequently and emailed often and eventually got it done.  It sounds great, but I think they should let you know they are really backed up when you send your cartridge in to set your expectations.  It seems Peter is the only one who can do a lot of these, and is schedule is too busy for him to devote the adequate time to repair the cartridges.  I would definitely recommend a backup cartridge if you send one in for repair.

Thank you for that post - I would very much like to have your RA# to see what happened. It is NOT typical or usual. Soundsmith (unlike ALL other cartridge companies) values its customers and rebuilds all our own designs for 20% or LESS. Our designs can be rebuilt many, many times. They get priority - 2-6 weeks.

It may have been that your cartridge was placed in regular rotation for non-Soundsmith designs by one of my staff in receiving -  by accident - which has happened on occasion. Even so - that seems along time, even for a non Soundsmith design, unless it had special issues. Please feel free to Email me the details - Peter@sound-smith.com -

I will be more than glad to investigate.

Peter Ledermann / Soundsmith  

 

This is direct from the Soundsmith website. 

"Q: How long does it take to get the work done?

A: That depends on the number of customers who sent in work ahead of yours. Our services are in high demand world-wide. Repair queue is typically in the 6-12 week range. Each and every customer gets the full measure of my 40 plus years of experience and skills."

Common sense tells me that one should call Peter first to get a real-time estimate for how long the repair will take. It states the queue is typically between 6-12 weeks but this all depends on the number of customers already in the queue. Clearly, this could stretch beyond 12 weeks especially when the guy is taking care of his ailing family. 

I think Soundsmith is great. I've had my Grado Statement 1 retipped by Peter twice and just recently he repaired a Benz cartridge that had a bent cantilever. Considering the retip from Grado is a $1,000.00 I think $450.00 is very reasonable. Also, his retip uses a better stylus than Grado and the Benz I had done. They even sound better. I can wait 14 weeks and a little longer. They've always turned around my cartridges in that time period. So sorry for your losses Peter I have gone through cancer with my partner and my sister. Luckily they have both survived and are cancer free so far. They and I have been very blessed. Keep up the good work! Sometimes things just happen and I'm sorry the person who started this session had a difficult experience.