How Does the Soundsmith

audiofeil, what are the cartridges of which you speak, just for the sake of my own reference?

Universe is one of the best out there. Hidden agendas abound herein....

Excellent comparison by Dgad. As best one can tell from our pathetic attempts to describe music and sound in words, we heard similar things.

The Voice is more like a big muscle car. Tons of power but a bit smoother. It just goes.

Exactly right.

Whether one "should" have this type of sound, or any other type of sound, is entirely a matter of taste or, to put in terms Raul might agree with, entirely a matter of which sounds most like real music to your ears.

Dear Doug: Yes I agree with.

I would like to add to this cartridges evaluation ( I'm not defending The Voice that I don't hear it yet. ) that could be a little unfair for The Voice ( or any other MM/MI sample. ):

First because almost all of you are comapring that RMAF set up against your fully dedicated and precise/fine tunning LOMC set up at your home audio system and second because probably The Voice was running at 47K where maybe the people in that show room don't try to change the load impedance a " little " higher.

Anyway, is good to read that there are more people that today are interested in the MM/MI alternative and this fact only can help to improve and make that the high-end audio industry grow-up in good terms.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Couple of things.

The Schroeder Reference that was used by OMA at RMAF last year (2008) was a medium weight armwand, not a lightweight one. And in fact I have used the Voice with the Schick arm as well, which is better known for compatibility with heavy, low compliance cartridges.

The Voice at RMAF was set up by Frank Schroeder himself, so I don't think that the tweaking thing, spending months getting an arm and cart properly set up, actually applies to the sound in the OMA room last year. The deck was pretty optimal in its set up, and the loading was correct as well. This was not something left to chance, a tt setup done for a show only. Everything was set up long before, back at Oswaldsmill, and I think one could hear that at the show.

Soundsmith is about to release a completely new iteration on the Voice- it will be called the Sussuro. I think its already up on their site. It is a lower compliance, low output version of the technology in the Voice, and really has to be optimized vis loading, but it will be a revelation for many regarding the debate about LOMC vs Moving Iron. I don't think there has ever been a LOMM (low output moving iron) cartridge before this.

Maybe, but I don't know of one.