Haven't heard either of these. My experience is with Benz (Glider and Ruby) and Koetsu Black Goldline. Five or more years with each, except now because of what I have learned about Soundsmith I'm looking forward to getting a Hyperion, hopefully next year. Why so soon? Its not the Koetsu. That thing is marvelous! Best I've had. Its because everything I know from having used and studied this stuff so long tells me Ledermann's low mass fixed coil design is a game-changer.
Lederman gets that jitter is the main source of noise and mis-tracking, and that low mass is the main method of reducing it. All the reviews back that up. Which is enough all by itself. But on top of that, even better, a Soundsmith gets you off the merry-go-round. Thanks to his warranty and re-tip/re-build policies finally you can feel its worth putting big bucks into a cartridge, and not feel its disposable. Which they all are. Because when worn, what do you do? Bite the bullet and buy another one. In a way you wind up being afraid of playing records because every hour of play is one hour closer to having to fork over big time for a new cartridge.
With Soundsmith a couple hundred bucks and your kilobuck cart is back brand new and better than ever. Lederman has transformed the cartridge from a consumable to something more like a tube amp, where you do occasionally replace the tubes but the amp just runs and runs so its worth buying a really good one.
Soundsmith has so many unique features going that with herd resistance being what it is it'll be a while sinking in. Sounds like you're already somewhat clued in. If you do decide to go with Soundsmith you might want to consider a stretch to the very best you can afford. The recommendation used to be get the best table and arm you can afford. But that was based on those lasting so much longer than the cartridge, which was considered a consumable. Now Lederman has made it possible to step that up to where its safe to put a lot more into the cartridge. Like I said, a game-changer.
Lederman gets that jitter is the main source of noise and mis-tracking, and that low mass is the main method of reducing it. All the reviews back that up. Which is enough all by itself. But on top of that, even better, a Soundsmith gets you off the merry-go-round. Thanks to his warranty and re-tip/re-build policies finally you can feel its worth putting big bucks into a cartridge, and not feel its disposable. Which they all are. Because when worn, what do you do? Bite the bullet and buy another one. In a way you wind up being afraid of playing records because every hour of play is one hour closer to having to fork over big time for a new cartridge.
With Soundsmith a couple hundred bucks and your kilobuck cart is back brand new and better than ever. Lederman has transformed the cartridge from a consumable to something more like a tube amp, where you do occasionally replace the tubes but the amp just runs and runs so its worth buying a really good one.
Soundsmith has so many unique features going that with herd resistance being what it is it'll be a while sinking in. Sounds like you're already somewhat clued in. If you do decide to go with Soundsmith you might want to consider a stretch to the very best you can afford. The recommendation used to be get the best table and arm you can afford. But that was based on those lasting so much longer than the cartridge, which was considered a consumable. Now Lederman has made it possible to step that up to where its safe to put a lot more into the cartridge. Like I said, a game-changer.