Anyone have experience with Soundsmith’s strain gauge?

Hey my friend, no ire directed at you. I'm a pretty fussy listener, and I went into the demo aware of these comments. I honestly walked out w no hint of perceiving issues here. All my other carts had varying levels of colourations and characters, not so the SG.
I hate the words neutral and transparent because, for one, neutral to what? And two, transparent means cool to one listener, and lacking depth to another.
My parameters are...do instruments appear vital and differentiated, and do the same instruments sound very different lp to lp? Are voices vibrant and evocative and immersive?
So, if Jaco Pastorius truly sounds different from Jack Bruce, as opposed to more amorphousness as w some overly sharp or overly fuzzy carts...and if Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel brings you to tears, and makes you joyous track to track, lp to lp, then you have the perfect cart.
For me the added bonus going SG has been revitalising my jazz and classical collection. My prog rock and fusion nailed by my SG. But my Miles and Coltrane and Bach and Rimsky Korsakov that had been languishing a bit...fully immersive now.

"(Incidentally, I was absolutely amazed by the sound of his monitors especially the bass response considering that they don't have a large woofer like a floor stranding .)"

This post reinforces my experience. I didn't include in my post that the amazing sound was coming from wimpy looking bookshelves!

I had Peter play the record I had. Even he was surprised.So much, he wanted to keep it! It was  a stellar copy of the David Gilmore debut album and the cut was "There's no way out of here."

And don't forget the reduced costs of l/t ownership.
So, buy a Top Wing Red Sparrow cart for $15k.
Retips every 2-3 yrs c. $10-12k
SG? $9k minus trade in for phono (that can be spent on LPS).
Retips c $1k each.
The numbers don't lie Lol.

Does Ledermann still have them 25% off?

Not SG, I believe. Never did. Unless I'm  v much mistaken.