Observation: Passion vs Obsession

vinylshadow, SG200. They are all the same cartridge, all the same preamp electronics, only the stylus and preamp features change. SG200 is the basic one with fixed output. Mine comes with two SGS6 styluses. 

You are right, Soundsmith carts are very interesting. Ortofon had the patent on MI and Peter Ledermann worked on them many years, repairing and improving. Kind of like Mark Baker with Rega RB300. MI has a lot of advantages over MC and MM, chiefly lower moving mass. As with all designs however the design is only part of the equation, there is also the implementation of the design. That is why there are so many different MM and MC carts, they are each a different implementation of the same basic design.

Ledermann by virtue of hard work and experimentation developed and improved MI design, kind of like the way everyone else has done with MC and MM.

Then he did the same with SG. His strain Gauge design reduces moving mass even more, to a fraction of even the lowest mass MC. Unlike all other cart designs the SG is not a generator. It does not generate a signal. Instead, the SG preamp delivers a current to the cart. The cantilever is mounted to a sensor that registers angle of deflection. Not velocity like MM/MC, angle of deflection. The sensor then acts like a valve varying the incoming power according to deflection, and this is the output voltage. 

A very ingenious design and not his but again, doesn't matter what matters is implementation. That we judge by listening to the results, which sure seems to be excellent. And so yeah I'm getting one. 
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/soundsmith-strain-gauge-thank-you

Soundsmith carts are very interesting. Ortofon had the patent on MI and Peter Ledermann worked on them many years, repairing and improving 

 If my memory serves me right it was Bang & Olfsen that had patents that Mr. Ledermann worked with.

A dictionary definition -- a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.  So whether you're a wise and savvy or rapacious fool, you are still just a consumer.  Putting together a well sorted out audiophile system is a step above assembling IKEA furniture, but it's a step below a professional chef creating a meal.  It takes time and effort, but very little creativity.  It's just not that difficult to determine what sounds good to you.

@larry5729,
"I have noticed how many in this group are obsessive and I think it can destroy what we set out to do and that is destroying our passion. I think we all need to be millionaires or be satisfied with what we have. I am thinking about upgrading my speakers, but do I need to when you are lucky to see two speakers in a room in your neighborhood.
Where do you stop?"


When it comes to obsessiveness, I’ll certainly hold my hand up here.
Hi-Fi is bad enough, but for me it’s even worse when it comes to computer hardware.

With so many potential upgrades it can be bewildering to know just where to go to next.
An i7 chip, i9 or beyond?
Or something from AMD?

Then what about RAM? DDR4? How much?
What about the hard drive - SSD or NVMe?
How big a power supply?
Is a Bronze one enough.

What about graphic and sound cards?
Are they really necessary in 2021?

And probably for me, the worst of all, fan noise and how to eliminate it.

Thankfully I found a great article on eliminating bottlenecks that restored some sense of perspective. The author made it clear that when it comes to hardware, for most folks it’s the hard drive that’s the main bottleneck.

A simple upgrade to a SSD quietened the nagging doubts, at least for a while. An upgrade to a Noctua fan quietened things a fair bit but the upgrade doubts never entirely go away.

I’m sure its the same for many car enthusiasts.

It’s just something in us, something that always wants just that little bit more.
Sometimes I find myself almost hating this tendency in myself, yet virtually powerless to resist it.

It’s definitely something that needs working on.

Life is finite and this is not the road to salvation.

Took me nearly thirty years of obsessive attention to detail in building various systems invariably ending in dissatisfaction to get to passion mode.

For me it was a process of learning what I didn't like as much as what I did like. Only after having gained that knowledge could I finally build a system with proper intent.

Having a great stereo system was a major ambition of mine from very early on. Something similar to career and/or educational ambitions, or any ambition for that matter. With great ambition for highest levels of attainment, obsession is perhaps unavoidable. Once a certain level of attainment reached obsession should dissolve.
Hopefully, with age comes wisdom, passion path wise, continuing on obsessive path unwise. The last third of life should be our passionate years, we should enjoy the things we spent our life building.