Cardani, I had that discussion with Peter and that was his answer. It is interesting that he rails against the stupid pricing of high end audio but does the same thing himself to a lesser degree. The Voice and the Sussurro are essentially the same cartridge just with different compliance and output but the Sussurro costs $2000 more. Market driven. He has to keep his company alive and profitable. In relation to the rest of the market his pricing is fair but if you put a ruby cantilever/OCL diamond in a Sussurro it will cost you $650. Put the same diamond and cantilever in a Voice and it will cost you $450. In reality because the Voice does not require additional step up devices or a high gain phono stage it will certainly have a better signal to noise ratio and be more dynamic actually sounding better than the Sussurro. Peter will not say this outright but alludes that this is true. The only reason he makes low output, low compliance designs is so that audiophiles can use their expensive high mass arms and phono stages. Market driven.
After decades of using moving coil cartridges I have rediscovered fixed coil designs and enjoying very much what I am hearing. I am very attached to my phono stage an ARC PH3 SE. You solder in capacitors and resisters for matching. There are no switches in the signal path. The gain stage is as simple as it gets using three 6922's, a tube that I really like but it only has 54 dB of gain. It will run moving coils down to 0.4 mV but it really dances with fixed coil high output designs up to 4.0 mV. I have not heard a phono stage in my system that sounds better. The only other formats that tempt me are a current mode phono stage with a very low impedance moving coil and Peter's strain gauge cartridge. I have to say that The Voice is an extremely well made cartridge. It is sitting in it's box waiting for it's turntable. Sounsmiths least expensive cartridge the Otello is above the OP's budget. Below $300 I really think AT corner's that market. The VM95ML is an amazing cartridge for $170.
After decades of using moving coil cartridges I have rediscovered fixed coil designs and enjoying very much what I am hearing. I am very attached to my phono stage an ARC PH3 SE. You solder in capacitors and resisters for matching. There are no switches in the signal path. The gain stage is as simple as it gets using three 6922's, a tube that I really like but it only has 54 dB of gain. It will run moving coils down to 0.4 mV but it really dances with fixed coil high output designs up to 4.0 mV. I have not heard a phono stage in my system that sounds better. The only other formats that tempt me are a current mode phono stage with a very low impedance moving coil and Peter's strain gauge cartridge. I have to say that The Voice is an extremely well made cartridge. It is sitting in it's box waiting for it's turntable. Sounsmiths least expensive cartridge the Otello is above the OP's budget. Below $300 I really think AT corner's that market. The VM95ML is an amazing cartridge for $170.