My new Soundsmith Straingauge cartridge

Dear Slowlearner: First than all I agree with you that I'm expert on no-nothing and as everyone always willing to learn.

Second I'm not a seller and don't sale nothing, so don't worry.

Third, I have no agenda and nothing against you or your products. I respect you and your products and these is not the subject.

The main subject is very simple: conforms strictly to the RIAA eq. as any other cartridge/phono stage or not.

These were your words to TAS review and what you stated in this forum:

++++ " However, since the Strain Gauge is a DISPLACEMENT sensitive device, it automatically produces a basically flat response from a RIAA encoded groove, " ++++

and then added:

+++++ "
We are typically +/-1dB from 50Hz–12kHz—not bad
for this type of system. Above and below that, the arm-effects
that plague all types of cartridges enter into play " ++++

BASICALLY FLAT RESPONSE FROM A RIAA ENCODED GROOVES, how is that?: if a swing of 2 db from 50 hz to 12 khz is for you: basically flat well 3-4 or 1 db could be basically flat when any decent phono stage IMHO in reality is BASICALLY FLAT with a swing of 0'.2 db over a wider frequency: 20hz to 20khz.
Tha IMHO is BASICALLY FLAT and not those 2db from 50hz to 12khz that you states always. Don't you think?

One very polite reviewer stated:

++++ " Note that this is not a phono stage, the cartridge having a natural 6dB/octave roll-off. Pedants for accuracy will complain that the resultant output only approximates the RIAA curve " +++++

I can't understand why you are so angry when some one disclose these information/facts. If those information is wrong why not say it and disclose the correct/true information for all we audiophile/customers?

Which the problem that your customers be informed, at the end all are satisfied with?

I think that the newcomer have the right to know the true about the facts.

It is easy fro you to call me: " you are a liar, you are wrong. MY SG product conforms according the RIAA encoded grooves: 20hz to 20khz +,- 0.1db as any other decent phono stage ".

I have the right to questioning you or any other person when through your own site and through the net there is no single fact that confirm:

" BASICALLY FLAT RESPONSE FROM A RIAA ENCODED GROOVES "

and all of us have the right to now because you make advertazing on a product for people can buy it with out knowing that critical issue.

How do you name that non-informed product marketing?

This is what I posted to the owners in this thread:

++++ "
I'm not saying that your SG cartridge is a bad one because it is not: it is only different " ++++

+++ " I'm not questioning that you or other persons like it no " +++++

+++ " Again, I'm not questioning you or that different alternative what I'm questioning is that we compare against the other alternatives LOMC/MM/MI " ++++

I'm not against you or your very good products but if all what is in the post is a lie then just say it and say it why is a lie. Tha's all.

Don't be angry and don't blame me because those facts. I did not invented, were your own words!

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Peter, only the Zu 103 on my Salvation/Terminator. But I have a good recollection of esp. my previous Lyra Parnassus, and Transfiguration Temper and Orpheus, all of these on my Michell Orbe/SME V/Tom Evans Groove Plus SRX phono.
The Parnassus was unbelievably tone dense and rhythmic, really hypnotic, but definitely on the lush, romantic divide. The two Transfigurations were cooler and more neutral, and a lttle more ho-hum as a result.
I know it's a fruitless task to ascribe neutrality easily to an audio component, but I do believe the SG is close to combining the rhythmic drive of the Parnassus and the even handedness of the Transfigs, and with no aspect highlighted I'll call the SG very neutral, but involving.
It's really transparent, and it really allows notes to appear out of apparent nothingness, bloom naturally, and decay to nothing again. Other carts really sound like diamond in wax. You're not aware of this until you 'hear' it's absence.
And it's synergising nicely, speed artifacts minimised nicely with my rim drive tt, tangency artifacts minimised nicely with my linear tracking arm, and now tracking artifacts minimised nicely with the SG.
Am I overusing the word 'nicely'? LOL.

Peter, additionally the box is not a phono stage, but an 'energiser', so is an all-in-one system, although there are other units out there that can be substituted, valve based (Dave Slagle's comes to mind).
A BIG BIG plus point is future cost: replacement stylii are only a few hundred $s - Lyra Atlas replacment is $4000 I believe!?

Thanks Spiritofmusic. I was not sure if your new cartridge needed that "energiser" or not. The replacement stylus cost is wonderful. I wish they were all so inexpensive. Congratulations again.

I have heard these a couple of times at shows, but always in unfamiliar systems so could not separate the sound of the cartridge. Enjoy your completed analog front end.

You may want to read the recent review on the SG-220 Strain Gauge by Jack Roberts of Dagogo, and almost more importantly, the comments from both an owner, and an early developer. Fascinating.

With that in mind, please understand that there is a long history of SG cartridges, ALL of which have varying response curves. There is a great review on the web showing the numerous models of Panasonic units, all of which varied between each other, not to mention between themselves. SG designs are far more sensitive than MC to variations, therefore, are far more difficult to build.

Somce have asked why no total RIAA is needed - and I came up with a very different way of explaining this, and did so first to Micheal Fremer, the explanation of which he used in his review. Simply, when you CUT with RIAA, (boosting the highs and cutting the lows with a roughly 6dB curve) you are essentially cutting a CONSTANT DISPLACMENT groove, BECAUSE you are cutting it with a magnetic cutting head, whose diplacement is normally a function of frequency. You see, when you input a flat volume/amplitude signal to a magnetic head, it cuts wide displacement groove for low frequencies, and less wide as the frequency goes up. With RIAA, you affecting that, and cutting, as said above, a nearly constant DISPLACEMENT groove. If you play that back with a diplacement sensitive device, you get an essentially flat playback response. If desired, VERY little EQ is needed to flatten it completely so you are in complete agreement with RIAA.

When we first introduced ours many years ago, we did not use any EQ to achieve a maximally flat response. This was the same as was done with the RAM design I worked on almost 40 years ago, as well as Matsushita. There were different philosophies regarding any use of slight EQ; some did, some did not. John Iverson, Jeff Rowland, and others did. RAM did not. I did not in the very early Soundsmith designs, but changed my mind early on. I think our website may not reflect that.

I have also made very significant improvements and changes to the cart design over the many years, as well as having included very slight EQ to totally flatten the response - this was done WITHOUT adding any additional active circuitry, which I am totally against.

I have experimented with two TUBE based systems, each designed by my close friends, Jim Fosgate and Richard Majestic (of RAM), both of whom as some of the finest audio engineers in the world. The FOsgate design was +/- 1/8dB (1/4 db total variation) RIAA from 20-20KHZ. Although interesting, they did not compare well with the solid state highly linear design I make. There were NO transformers used in their designs, for which I am glad, as it is a totally unnecessary component, proposed by someone else as a method for the requirede reversing the phase of one channel of a displacement sensitive design. In magnetic designs, they reverse one channel fo the cartridge wiring internally. Why? The groove walls of a stereo record are cut out of phase.

Again, I am totally against adding such a component (transformer) where it is simply not needed at all. There are far more linear and elegant ways to achieve the channel reversal needed for displacement type cartridges, WITHOUT adding unnecessary, non-linear and frequency limiting circuit components.

Considering the real world considerable variation of the Panasonic cartridges, and the efforts I have made over these many years to achieve uniformity of manufacture and specification of my cartridges, I am glad that they have been well received by so many owners. They are a very different system of vinyl replay, and while certainly not for everyone, they have made their place in the homes of many "believers".

This gives me no small amount of satisfaction.

Peter Ledermann/President/Soundsmith