I joined the Soundsmith club a few years ago. At first I heard a Soundsmith PUA MKII at a friends house and was highly impressed. I also heard the Hyperion a couple of times at the Capital Audio Fest in somewhat of a small room with bookshelf speakers. Despite the smallish room and bookshelf speakers, I thought the Hyperion sound was captivating. During these comparisons, I was actively looking for something different than my Benz LPS and Benz Ruby Z in terms of sound. The Benz can achieve beautiful audio playback and are dynamic, but, I interpreted a slight recessed vocal area. It was not prominent, I just felt as if the voices could have had a little more presence, despite the glory of these cartridges. I also listened to the Van Hul Colibri but it was not my cup of tea.
When an opportunity arose to purchase a Soundsmith Sussaro MKII, I jumped on it. The sound of it was similar to the Benz LPS, but had more mid range magic, and, a better stereo playing field, as in a noticeably wider stage. The Sussaro MKII on my system equaled or slightly bettered the LPS and Ruby Z in some sound qualities. The LPS and Ruby Z are mounted on a pair of SME V arms. The Benz LPS and Ruby Z do bass really well on my system. The Sussaro MKII seems as if has has slightly less bass, but does not lose bass quality at all. It is a balanced cartridge from top to bottom, which makes me feel that it equals or slightly betters the LPS due to its balanced sound and a perceived wider frequency spectrum. You really have to hear them side by side, in which I did, since I have to exact arms to appreciate what I am stating.
When I had another opportunity to upgrade, this time I went for the Hyperion. It was installed easily on the SME V and holy cow, the entire musical spectrum took on another spatial dimension. I heard more of the music venue where the recordings were made. I could feel the presence of the hall, room, or studio. The Hyperion MKII makes music sound like a live recording session. The voices are so damn real sounding and the backup vocals are so much more pronounced, that I rate the Hyperion equal or better, again in different ways, than a Koetsu Onyx. The Onyx and Jade have been my reference target point for audio bliss for many years due to their ability to do mid range and vocals in a stellar fashion.
With advances in cartridge techniques, it seems like not just Soundsmith, but others such as Airtight and Hana are advancing the sound quality spectrum to be very competitive with other higher priced cartridges such as the stone Koetsu’s which have been around for a while. I believe that Soundsmith is doing the same. The spatial cues provided by the Hyperion will simply have you shaking your head in disbelief. The same could be said of the Koetsus...albeit, in a different manner. Once you hear the magic of vocal spatial cues and a wonderous soundstage, you understand why these other more expensive cartridges cost more. The Hyperion undercuts the price of the Koetsu stone bodies, but does not undercut the performance. It is just different and glorious in its own way. One day, I would like to do a direct comparison to the Koetsu Onyx or Jade to prove or disprove my hypothesis of the Hyperion being equal in sound qualities to the Onyx or Jade, but in a different fashion.
I also rationalized retip and trade in prices for Soundsmith cartridges...they are one of the best priced in the industry for repairs and some vendors offer trade in allowances to upgrade. Good luck.
