How Does the Soundsmith

You may very well have heard the Voice at RMAF last year in the OMA room. At the time, I was using the cartridge because I thought it was fantastic with the Schroeder Reference on the Saskia slate idler drive turntable, producing the kind of sound I wanted from the OMA system. Now OMA also sells the Voice, so that's my disclaimer.

I've heard the Voice in direct comparison with the Lyra Olympos, Koetsu Coralstone Platinum, and Soundsmith Strain Gauge, all on Schroeder arms, and can assure you that its up there with all of them, despite costing a factor of 3 to 5 times less, which is simply remarkable. And one does not have to deal with issues of MC carts such as properly matching step up transformers. Despite what some other posters in this thread have suggested, the Voice is not only extremely fast due to its very low moving mass, its also tonally correct, and a pleasure to listen to. I would not use words like "easy" or "romantic" to describe it, but natural and accurate. I was never a big fan of moving magnet cartridges before I heard the Voice, but it certainly changed my mind very, very quickly.

I won't even begin to discuss the Zyx...

Jonathan (Oswaldsmill Audio)

Aptquark,
I mentioned in an earlier post that I own the Universe. It's a good product.

However, there are better phono cartridges available. I know this is contrary to some of the cheerleading you'll read here. Some of these folks are surrogates and/or friends of the previous Zyx distributor and have used the threads to champion this line for the past few years.

Over time they will gain the experience and realize how small their audio world was before hearing some of the real knock out cartridges.

After I bought the MMC-1 (the cheaper sibling of the Voice), I sold my Lyra Argo. Yes it is very articulate and fast.

But the SS Moving Irons have to matched to the tonearm for lower mass than the current favourites suited for moving coils, and this statement includes the so-called medium compliance version, which I have one. All my tonearms have 15 or 20 or even more effective mass (high mass Schroeder, Pluto, FR). Better use a 10 to 12g effective mass tonarm.

best regards, Hartmut

The Voice was demoed on a low mass Schroeder armwand. Also, the new Phantom w. the Titanium armwand is very low mass. Great cartridge for the money. The Oswald Mills System catered to its strengths in RMAF last year. I myself was ready to buy it after RMAF last year but held off due to no MM phono stage.

But... sound differences apply. The Colibri is probably the most detailed cartridge I know. It is truly a matter of personal taste. The Colibri for me is a finely tuned race car. Lets say a Porsche. You feel every bump on the road, the power and any mistake in user input you will lose control.

The Voice is more like a big muscle car. Tons of power but a bit smoother. It just goes. You feel the power, but the growl is sweet and the lines of the car are classic.

You should honestly have both types of sound if you can put it in your system. Especially if the LP is such that a ZYX or Colibri will show the failings of the LP.

Dear Dgad: +++++ " The Colibri is probably the most detailed cartridge I know. It is truly a matter of personal taste. " +++++

I concur with you on that Colibri characteristics that almost no LOMC can achieve.

In the other side IMHO I think that more than " a personal taste " the subject on LOMC and MM/MI performance is more of which one cartridge type are nearest/truer to the MUSIC/recording and this judge needs that any one of us that are making this kind of evaluation/opinion have in deep/continuous experience with live music. Many times the " taste " of many of us in our home system perfromance has nothing to do with MUSIC and what this word means.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.