Soundsmith "The Voice"?

William,
We are using it on my turntable with a Schroeder tonearm that has a heavier wand than Frank's special one, but the particular cartridge was built to match. So far, it is very promising...so much so that we intend to leave it there for the RMAF show in Denver. It is a very, very nice.

err...It is a very, very nice cartridge.

Mosin,

Thanks. What do you mean "the particular cartridge was built to match". Do you mean that you have the medium compliance version of The Voice?

William,

I really don't know the answer to the question, except to say that Peter Lederman has personally seen the tonearm on my turntable, and he responded accordingly. I wish I knew more, but right now, I don't. The reason I don't is because the turntable I built is a prototype, but not my property, so it is not in my possession. Confusing, no? Anyway, I'll ask about the match because it is an interesting question. I am of the opinion that the arm was made with a higher effective mass, however.

Caveat: If I am mistaken, it won't be the first time!

I'm using The Voice ebony on my Pro-ject RM10 TT with 10" carbon fiber arm. Peter thought that the high-compliance version would be the best match for my arm and I think he's right, based on about 12-hours of listening. The Voice replaces a HOMC Sumiko Blackbird. It's loaded at 47,000 ohm, into the MM gain of my Rowland.

I've never heard a cartridge sound so good right out of the box. The bass is digital-like in its solidity and lack of bloat. The cartridge is "fast" without the highs being etched or bright. The mids are detailed, rich and enveloping. Imaging is solid.

Tracking at 1 gram I heard occasional mistracking on hot sibilants (think Eva Cassidy), but with Ledermann's approval I moved up to 1.1 gram and disconnected the anti-skate totally. Now, I'm having no problems with music.

A friend has the same cartridge in a Linn Itok arm. They both poop out at about 25-seconds on the Telarc Omnidisc test record. That's "ok", but nothing special at all, but Peter says that to improve tracking would hurt the sound.

I'll report and maybe add a full review after I get about 50-hours on the cartridge. Peter says that it'll improve some, but not a ton, but it's already spectacular.

Sorry, but I've never had any of the highly touted LOMCs in my rig. I've listened to them in other rigs. This is one of the very best sounding cartridges that I've heard.

Dave