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My new Soundsmith Straingauge cartridge

Well, after a bit of dillying and dallying, I finally got 'round to trying a home trial of this cart. After a couple of hours dialling in vtf, and esp. azimuth, it basically sold itself, and I bought it an hour later!
It's without doubt the fastest cart I've ever experienced, surpassing the Decca London Reference, but with none of that cart's tipped up 'whiteness'. But this blazing speed is combined with the natural sweetness of the Lyra Parnassus. It has the neutrality of the Transfiguration Orpheus with the dynamics and involvement of the ESCCo-modded Zu Denon 103. So, fast AND sweet, and neutral AND involving, combinations often too challenging for other so-called SOTA carts. All the carts I've mentioned I've had in my system over the years. But I admit, I haven't heard current contenders to the crown (Lyra Titan/Atlas, Ortofon Anna, Clearaudio Goldfinger etc) to make comparisons.
It's tracking really is superlative, 3d soundstaging/dimensionality is beyond the room constraints, and I really believe it has the least artifact-laden sound of any cart I've heard, with NO aural evidence of a diamond carving thru wax. It's really complimenting what's already a neutral, fast and dynamic analog rig in my system (Trans Fi Salvation direct rim drive tt/Trans Fi Terminator air bearing linear tracking arm)
spiritofmusic
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Cfluxa, better to explain it this way. The Soundsmith Straingauge comes in two parts; the cart and the "energizer" unit. This unit physically powers the cart, and some of the top models act as an all in one preamp --- I have the base model SG200 which just powers the cart, no preamp function.
It is the energizer unit that also has to be powered in the usual way, in this case via twin 24v dc wall warts. It is these wall warts that I've replaced with the batt psu, NOT the energizer unit.
As I said, Dave Slagle of Emia has a valve based energizer which would swap out the SG200 and assocd wall warts - just not sure if it's as compatible with Peter's SG as pre existing NOS Panasonic SG's.
cfluxa's avatar
cfluxa
127 posts
 
Thanks Spirit - extremely helpful. Was wondering if you had also investigated other PSU options for the Energizer, such as Mojo Audio or Hynes?
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
Nope, no experience with these. I only went down the batt psu route when JFrech mentioned good results with RWA on his nagra phono stage.
Ironic, Hynes is in Scotland (me, London). The website looks interesting, and good vfm. Mojo Audio, no comment.
lewm
13,195 posts
 
Spirit, If you are in a DIY frame of mind, you might try bypassing the battery supply with a bank of high quality low voltage electrolytic capacitors. Use lots of microfarads. I and others have found that bypassing batteries that supply CD player functions has very beneficial effects. For example, since the voltage is apparently 24V, I imagine you are using two 12V car batteries in series. Good electrolytics that can handle 24V are rather cheap. Try Nichicon or Panasonic or whatever floats your boat and use several thousand uF by paralleling many caps. I will bet you will hear a difference in the positive direction.
lewm
13,195 posts
 
By the way, the rationale for that idea is based on the fact that batteries are not entirely free of noise. If you use enough uF, you can remove the hash from the supply before it hits the SG.
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