EMT and SoundSmith

Hi Dodgealum - what cartridge have you moved to - I was thinking of buying the Zephyr MIMC Star.  I spent a lot of time with his Hyperion at the Cap Audio Fest in addition to the Strain Gauge and both were outstanding on his system.

Those cartridges are out of my price range right now so thinking about the Zephyr since I am getting low on cartridges - down to one and it is getting long in the tooth.  Hope I did not hijack the thread gmercer.

Jerry 

@pops Haven’t yet—still working out possible arm and cartridge combos for my next table. Very interested in hearing EMT and Charisma but have not had the opportunity yet. May also move up the Soundsmith line to a new ES body model above the MIMC Star but will have to decide in concert with arm selection.

Good luck with your choice. 

gmercer, I think I would go with the Sound Smith. I think the company would be easier to deal with if something should go wrong.
millercarbon, I am all for low mass moving systems but how low is good enough? Low enough to keep the resonance frequency above 20 kHz will do. Any lower might adversely affect damping. Stylus "jitter" is one of Peter Ledermann's made up terms to scare people into buying his cartridges. I have a hard time buying anything from a guy whose office looks like it got hit by a tornado. Bad move putting that into one of his videos. Fortunately the rest of the outfit looks better organized. But, it is the "jitter" bug that really turns me off. It sounds so terrible, like it would eat holes in your vinyl. Who here has actually heard a stylus "jitter"? Anyone? I certainly have not. I imagine the stylus rattling around in the groove would sound terrible. Because Peter says it it must be true even if you can't hear it? Right.

Also, to what degree is "jitter" the result of the moving mass of the cartridge versus the design and quality of the tonearm and associated bearings? As @millercarbon knows, Mark Baker of Origin Live makes a strong case for his composite arm tubes and sophisticated bearings in properly controlling the cartridge as it traverses the grooves. I'm sure moving mass is important--makes sense--but wonder how so many moving coils extract performance at least on par with what Soundsmith achieves at similar price points. As mijo says, how low is good enough? I'm thinking reducing moving mass is a worthy goal but not as definitive as Peter might argue. Maybe focus on the quality of the arm is more important?