Soundsmith Progression: MIMC Star > Sussurro Mk II

I’m right at the 50 hour mark now. I’m so involved in the music There’s no hint of brightness or etch and all the while every part of the frequency spectrum is presented so real and full. If things get better, I’m all for it Otherwise, I’m very, very happy.

For me, it has boosted my confidence regarding the years I've spent building my system and now, finally hearing what it is capable of. So rewarding!

I appreciate all the comments so far. I agree that the Soundsmith cartridges will play up as you improve your system around them--I did not fully appreciate what the MIMC Star could do until I upgraded my speakers and cabling. The MIMC Star stepped right in stride and is really letting me see what the new components are capable of in my system.

I finally installed the cartridge tonight. I first checked its frequency response with the Feickert Adjust+ disk. At 1,000 Ohms loaded on my Pass XP-15, there is a rise in the upper octaves. I lowered it to 250 Ohms and the upper octaves have leveled out nicely. But there is a small trough from about 300Hz to a few KHz. I'm going to assume this is by design. If my cart is representative, going to 1K and beyond will really accentuate the high end at the expense of a more even FR, but YMMV. 

This has probably been the most informative cartridge post I’ve read in a while. Thank you everyone. I currently have a Zephyr mk3 h/o with maybe only 100 hrs (which I enjoy quite a bit) and was on sale and within budget after my recent TT adventure. Short of 20 years of Technics 1200’s and dj carts, I’ve only had a dedicated TT (Isokinetik 1.5) in my man cave for a couple of months and much of this is new territory for me. My McStack has been fed digital previously. I have been half heartedly looking around at an upgrade after a recent purchase of a Pass XP17. Considering something low output because of the versatility of the Pass. I was originally poking around online for more info on a Zephyr MIMC.. then saw Aida’s were on sale. Wasn’t sure if that would be enough of a jump then searched around a bit more and found Sussurru’s on sale (That Sussurro price is almost too good to pass up).. then this thread.. stage 4 analysis paralysis. My wallet is telling me to slow down and wait for the next round of sales. Are there actually large increases in performance between these models or more on the incremental level? Current arm is an OL Onyx, but I have an Audiomods v6 currently ordered.