vinylshadow, SG200. They are all the same cartridge, all the same preamp electronics, only the stylus and preamp features change. SG200 is the basic one with fixed output. Mine comes with two SGS6 styluses.
You are right, Soundsmith carts are very interesting. Ortofon had the patent on MI and Peter Ledermann worked on them many years, repairing and improving. Kind of like Mark Baker with Rega RB300. MI has a lot of advantages over MC and MM, chiefly lower moving mass. As with all designs however the design is only part of the equation, there is also the implementation of the design. That is why there are so many different MM and MC carts, they are each a different implementation of the same basic design.
Ledermann by virtue of hard work and experimentation developed and improved MI design, kind of like the way everyone else has done with MC and MM.
Then he did the same with SG. His strain Gauge design reduces moving mass even more, to a fraction of even the lowest mass MC. Unlike all other cart designs the SG is not a generator. It does not generate a signal. Instead, the SG preamp delivers a current to the cart. The cantilever is mounted to a sensor that registers angle of deflection. Not velocity like MM/MC, angle of deflection. The sensor then acts like a valve varying the incoming power according to deflection, and this is the output voltage.
A very ingenious design and not his but again, doesn't matter what matters is implementation. That we judge by listening to the results, which sure seems to be excellent. And so yeah I'm getting one.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/soundsmith-strain-gauge-thank-you
You are right, Soundsmith carts are very interesting. Ortofon had the patent on MI and Peter Ledermann worked on them many years, repairing and improving. Kind of like Mark Baker with Rega RB300. MI has a lot of advantages over MC and MM, chiefly lower moving mass. As with all designs however the design is only part of the equation, there is also the implementation of the design. That is why there are so many different MM and MC carts, they are each a different implementation of the same basic design.
Ledermann by virtue of hard work and experimentation developed and improved MI design, kind of like the way everyone else has done with MC and MM.
Then he did the same with SG. His strain Gauge design reduces moving mass even more, to a fraction of even the lowest mass MC. Unlike all other cart designs the SG is not a generator. It does not generate a signal. Instead, the SG preamp delivers a current to the cart. The cantilever is mounted to a sensor that registers angle of deflection. Not velocity like MM/MC, angle of deflection. The sensor then acts like a valve varying the incoming power according to deflection, and this is the output voltage.
A very ingenious design and not his but again, doesn't matter what matters is implementation. That we judge by listening to the results, which sure seems to be excellent. And so yeah I'm getting one.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/soundsmith-strain-gauge-thank-you