Cartridge incompatibility, Soundsmith and Luxman

If the OP wants to sell his Zephyr cartridge, I am interested. Just saying. I don’t advise it, but I’m interested.

Let me repeat the option of buying a $289 Hagerman Piccolo2 as a "stopgap" for use with the Luxman MM stage - it will properly load the SoundSmith, and it will allow OP to discern if he likes the cartridge enough (I mean REALLY likes it) to keep pursuing its options. It can be sold to recoup funds at the end of experiment. Or it might sound good enough to keep in place for a while.

I used one on my Benz LPS and it handily beat SUTs which couldn’t optimally load that cartridge into my VAC Renaissance SE phono stage. No, on even ground its circuitry isn't gonna match the refinement of OP's Luxman or my VAC, but it will beat the crap out of any loading mismatch!

Mine arrived in a week from Hawaii. Like British Mullard tubes, it might not be what you settle on, but it’s a handy addition to your audiophile toolkit.

@audiojan , the finest 1% metal film 47K resistor costs maybe 75 cents. If you lived anywhere near me I would be happy to do it for you. I live in NH. Cost you a bottle of scotch. Lagavulin please.

Lewm would do it for you also but, he would charge you 2 bottles. One for before and one for after the job🤪

i am a buyer for the used Hagerman! lines are forming left and right…..

PL was astute in asking for a schematic BEFORE the Scotch…it may matter what comes just after that oh so easy to change input R..

And Mijo, where are you buying laser trimmed Vishay R for $.75 ?