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Soundsmith Straingauge cartridge taken to the next level

After a long pause, my analog was reinstalled 6 weeks ago.
This pause gave me the chance to go to the next level on my Straingauge.
Atm, Straingauge is a great performer, but IMHO it’s let down by it’s cheap and nasty 24V DC wall warts.
Initially I upgraded these to Red Wine Audio Black Lightning battery psu which gave a great upstick in SQ, but at expense of ongoing unreliability.
So 9 months ago I commissioned Peter Downs of Alternative Audio in SW of U.K., www.alternativeaudio.co.uk
to make a bespoke psu to the cart.
And after many prototypes the finished version, with specialist transformer, oversized choke and best choice of caps etc, was delivered and installed.
Together with a sister psu to replace the stock one on my Trans Fi Salvation rim drive motor.
6 weeks of burn in, and I’m in Seventh Heaven re the SQ impvts these psus are bringing to the party.
Will report more at next post. But I can’t praise Peter enough in what he’s created, it’s truly taking my analog to the next level.
spiritofmusic
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
The Straingauge is an excellent all-round performer, but noise from the stock SMPS wall warts seriously hold back its performance.
Moving to the battery power supply was a big step up.
But nothing as compared to Peter’s bespoke psu. Now there’s a whole layer of grunge and noise removed, revealing total air around instruments, full bass texture and extension, deep and layered mids, imaging to die for, and sweet non-strident treble.
Its now a fantastic balance of Koetsu-like warmth and ease, with Transfiguration-like neutrality, openness and transparency.
In one fell swoop, IMHO the Straingauge absolutely leaps into the top league of carts.
And Peter Downs/Alternative Audio bespoke psu is crucial to achieving this result. If you own this cart, you absolutely must consider this upgrade option.
junk981
25 posts
 
So the psu is only for the SG-200?
spiritofmusic OP
828 posts
 
I think it’s good across all of them.
Best to email the designer to be sure:
peter@alternativeaudio.co.uk
Mention my name, Marc.
If you go ahead, you absolutely won’t regret it.
retipper
61 posts
 
Please bear in mind that the Power supplies we ship are all ANALOG, not SWITCHING supplies, because switching supplies are very noisy. Often, when we ship overseas folks replace our analog DC supplies with switching supplies.

The analog supplies we ship are 24 volts DC at 1 Amp. usage is less than 500 mA.  There is considerable filtering and voltage regulation inside the SG-200 and SG-210, so it is hard to believe that the tiny amounts of ripple coming from the analog supplies is not filtered out. For the SG-230, we supply an inline filter, called the WWE. This unit provides huge amounts of filtering, as well as RF filtering. When used with switching supplies,  we measure absolutely NO NOISE coming out of the WWE. It can be ordered from Soundsmith and used with the SG-200 and SG-210 for those who must use switching supplies. 

Peter Ledermann/President/Soundsmith  
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