Soundsmith Progression: MIMC Star > Sussurro Mk II

Hey Soundsmith team,

Hope all is well and health and life. Its been nearly two years since I and a few other Soundsmith owners have purchased either Sussaro MKII or Hyperion. For me, It’s been a great ride and I play the Sussaro cartridge a lot. What else am I to do during these strange quarantine times. My Benz’s do get some love from time to time, but the musical listening qualities with the Sussaro are addicting. 

How many hours do you have on either your Sussaro or Hyperion? 
I think I am roughy at 1200 hours and starting to hear slight degradation in performance. Compared to either my Benz LPS, Benz Ruby Z or Transrotor Merlo Reference it’s definitely sounding somewhat distorted. Did all of the normal audio geek troubleshooting things, clean stylus, verify VTA, overhang, etc., and all of that is good. In fact, the Fozgometer shows no channel deviation in the Analog test disc tracks 1 and 2 for channel testing. I also experimented with load, all the way up to 47k down to 100...nope, it’s that signature sound of cartridge degradation happening. Been there done that many times. How many of you have reached the end of useable service life with your Soundsmith? 
It’s time to send it off to Soundsmith for a retip. 
Please provide updates living with your Soundsmith and what tracking forces and loading you settled into. Happy listening😀
Audioquest4life 

Hey,

I have around 2500 hours on my Sussurro MkII, still sounds great. I have settled on VTA being ever so slightly higher at the back of the cartridge ( may be because all of the hours). I recently bought a demo Zephyr MIMC * ES lo, for when I send the Sussurro back.

Steve

Ended up selling my VPI and going in a different direction. I'm now enjoying a Sempersonus TE-2 idler-type (inner rim drive) table with a 12" TW Raven arm and a Charisma Signature One cartridge. I like the MIMC Star but felt it never achieved the same level of performance as the ART 9 it replaced. It did a few things better but the ART 9 is an exceptionally well-balanced cartridge and a great value for money. The Charisma, while paired with an entirely different arm and table, is clearly in another league all together. I doubt the Sussuro can touch it though they are priced similarly.

@dodgealum,

Just wondering.... assuming you install your own cartridges, did you ever notice the StP distance being off on the VPI?

My point was going to be, with my Classic 3 Sig SE, it was. I can only assume, their are many VPI owners out there that don't realize this and take for granted their VPI tt's are performing at their best.

So if your StP distance was off, your evaluation was off as well.