Would Like To Hear From Strain Gauge Owners

Slowhand, I bought The Voice Ebony after hearing it at this year's RMAF. It's really a wonderful sounding cartridge. A local friend also bought one at this year's RMAF and he's a huge vinyl-phile re-discovering his large collection. Anyway, it stands up to long-term, repeat listening.

It works great with 40dB of gain, 47kOhms and 400pF capacitive loading. I tweaked the azimuth tonight and got rid of a little stray sibilance.

Peter's great to work with. He even called me from his hospital bed to make sure that I got my setup right, particularly stressing loading and azimuth. Peter loves his music and makes great products.

Who knows, maybe I'll buy a SG one day, but The Voice is making me very happy right now.

Dave

According to Raul there is only one right way to do anything in this hobby. We are all either too stupid, not intelligent, have tin ears, not enough common sense, etc, to get how correct Raul. Ok, I think I have that part memorized now.

But forget this "bench racing" type argument here in the forums. How does this stuff sound?

Some of us have heard what Raul's implementation sounds like in side-by-side comparison to some of his competitor's products. This is where Raul's on paper arguments have trouble in the real world. They just don't live up to the hype Raul is constantly spreading. Yes, his work sounds pretty good. There are some good and some not so good sounds coming from Raul's implementation of his ideas. Some sounds coming from Raul's Essential could be cleaned up and made better with some cable swaps.

Umm, that pretty much sums up every phonostage/preamp combination around. So it doesn't appear that Raul's work has started any audio revolution. The Essential is just another product out there for us to choose from.

The concept Raul cannot get, and probably never will, through his pointy little head is that all of the theory and math doesn't mean crap when you hook things up and turn it on. It is just talk points. How does it sound?!? That is all that matters in the end.

As Peter, Teres, and others have pointed out, each additional component that is added to implement that perfect curve is adding coloration to the sound, or it is squashing something else. Either dynamics or detail. Anyone who has played around with crossovers to any extent knows this very well. Sometimes you can get a very pretty curve from the simulations and even in actual implementation but it still doesn't sound right.

Raul can never allow this kind of thinking to go unchallenged because it flies in the face of almost every argument he makes in his marketing campaign.

Dear Intactaudio: I was talking about the MC/MM cartridges not the SG because at that time I do nt know that does not conforms with the RIAA standard.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Dave: Things are that I'm only try to understand why I heard what I heard on the SG ( different quality performance against a MC/MM cartridge ) and what other people report about. Dave, for me is not enough: it sounds good or I don't like it, if I can I want to know why. Sure I know that some people are more " easy " about, nothing wrong with that.

The subject is not exactly accuracy ( that when I'm talking on accuracy I talk on tiny values: 0.1db or the like ), after my research I report what I find and the whole thing is not exactly/extrictly accuracy ( the deviaion is at least 2 db. ) but a totally different equalization curve, that's all. Why so many people in this tread does not like to know about does not likes that I report about: it is something that I can't understand yet.

Anyway all those people can't change the facts on the SG subject.
Dear friends: things are like they are.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, I think they are trying to say is "so what, it sounds just as good or maybe better with the deviation".

I do feel qualified to speak on this point. I am both an engineer and audiophool. Being in 100% agreement with a mathematical model does not necessarily translate into better sound. I know you don't believe that, but everyone is entitled to form their own opinions on what sounds good to them. And no matter which way go with speakers, cables, tubes, whatever. There is ALWAYS a trade-off and we will ALWAYS find people who do not ALWAYS agree with what any of us think sounds correct.

So, yes, I agree. Your marketing bullet is still intact. Your credibility has perhaps taken a hit, but I'll bet that happens to you every now and then.