Would Like To Hear From Strain Gauge Owners


I would like to hear from owners of Strain Gauge cartridges (particularly Soundsmith owners)as to how you like the strain gauge system compared to previous cartridges you have owned. Is there any drawbacks to the Soundsmith Strain Gauge system?

I am located in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Is there any Soundsmith Strain Gauge owners in the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana area?

I read the review of the Strain Gauge system on Audiogon by Vac man. It was a very good review and answered many questions for me. I would like to hear from others who also own strain gauge cartridges.

Thanks in advance for any info that you can give me.
slowhand
Sorry, here it is the link:

http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/article.pdf

Regards adn enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dear Slowhand: +++++ " with crystal clear highs thanks to Gallo's exclusive electrostatic like tweeter ...." *****

for what I heard on the SG its response in that frequency range could add t much energy down there. I know very well those Gallo and if IMHO them has a critical area that is on that tweeters but like anything else: you can try it and see what happen, take in count that with the SG your Supratek will be out of the " equation ".

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dear friends: According with what we can see in fig.4 the SG frequency response it is not only not following the RIAA curve ( with small deviations like other MC/MM phono stages.) but IMHO it takes a totally different " path ": it is an equalization over the RIAA eq that from my point of view is unacceptable with the today RIAA standards in the recordings that is the way how almost all the LPS that you, me and anyone else have were recorded.

IMHO the SG response needs a different recording standards!!!!!!!! and nothing is wrong with that if the RIAA accept to make the changes that the SG needs: of course that this is out of question/order.

Now I really understand why sounds to me so un-natural.

IMHO it is useless to make comparisons between the SG and MC/MM cartridges: both are totally different from the point of view of what information give us each one: the MC/MM according with the RIAA eq which with the recording was recorded and the SG an equalized information out of the RIAA standards, no I have to pass on the SG in his today status.

Now if the designer decide to go with the RIAA standard and not with his own ones then things could change for the better but again in its today status the SG IMHO is a device for other circumstances not for play our LPs.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Dgad's comments is exactly what I heard. I heard the SG vs The Voice. I much preferred the Voice. I can see why some like the SG. It's quick, explosive, transparent and much like what Raul said, it was just WOW! at first. The fireworks did not last too long. Don't get me wrong, it (SG) is a mighty fine sounding cartridge but not my cup of tea. The differece was the SG made me listen to the sonics while the Voice made me listen to the music.