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.  

dhcod
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 

Peter,

I just got a re-tipped Denon 103r, this winter, it's fantastic!  I'll support you and buy an MC cart in Portland, Oregon.  Hang in there,

BG
Hang in there. I met you in New York demoing a Strain Gauge on a VPI Prime and Harbeths.