The Strain Gauge - our NEW Entry Level Model - the SG-200

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SEE BELOW for our new SG-200 review in the Netherlands -

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NEW! The SG-200 ~ Our new lower cost version ~

CLICK THIS to read our NEW review in "The Absolute Sound"

By Tony Cordesman  - March 2010 -

From HiFi.NL

by Rene van Es

Innovations in audio have been quite limited the last few years. In general, the trend in audio has been to continue doing the same thing but create only cosmetic changes to new products, instead of making real changes to, for example, an audio connector. The same goes for stereo cartridges. You can make a coil move in a magnetic field, or a magnet move between the coils, but further than that, even the most renowned manufacturers will not venture.

A cartridge maker may try, for example, to use moving iron like the Decca principle. Until the advent of the Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge, though, no contemporary producer was doing anything different from existing cartridge designs or principles. I’m aware that the Strain Gauge design has a history that predates the Soundsmith SG system, but no one has done anything with in the last several decades until Soundsmith. I had the honor of being the first reviewer in the Netherlands of affixing the Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge to an arm (SME). One piece of advice, “don’t try this at home”, unless you have the budget readily available.

Strain Gauge

The strain gauge can be translated into “tension meter.” I was already familiar with the principal from devices used to measure the hardness of soil at construction sites. That was my first encounter with devices that change electrical resistance when stretched or compressed. The Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge works in the same way. Two strips  of silicon with the thickness of a hair are suspended, like a bridge, and attached to the stylus and cantilever of the cartridge. As these little strips (physically) distort they change resistance. The difference in tension in the silicon strips can thus be amplified into an audible signal through a loudspeaker. This is a simplistic visualization which I got from the material supplied with the Soundsmith Strain Gauge. Even by looking at the elements of the cartridge up close, after taking out the removable stylus assembly, I could not figure out how it is made.

A few things are important to mention. It’s necessary to supply the cartridge with current. This is the reason why Soundsmith builds its own phono preamplifiers for the Strain Gauge with a current supply for the cartridge. For those who already own a phono preamplifier, Soundsmith has come out with the SG-200 which has just the basic functionality to work with their strain gauge cartridge. With a regular phono preamplifier, the cartridge will not work at all. When current is supplied to the SG elements, two blue LED’s light up on the cartridge itself. The SG 200 unit will power the cartridge, and unless the diamond is in the groove, will mute the signal. Tthe mute can be disabled - this is useful as every once in a while, on quiet records, between tracks where there is no signal, the cartridge may also go into mute, as it is not sensing a signal. Secondly, it’s important to realize that normal cartridges react to the cutting speed at which the record is cut. The higher or faster the cutting speed, the higher the current the cartridge produces. The strain gauge type cartridge does not react to cutting speed, but to the depth and width of the groove. To movement, in other words. Another peculiarity of the strain gauge cartridge type as made by Soundsmith is that it has a natural roll off of 6db/octave.  This is pretty much consistent with the RIAA curve standard.

Between the ideal RIAA curve and the frequency response of the Strain Gauge cartridge are small differences. Soundsmith, however, has the point of view that such disparities are so minor, and would require so much additional electronics to correct, that they prefer to accept the output of the cartridge without elaborate correction filters. There are filters in the middle frequencies, however  to correct for an inevitable dip in the mid band. This way Soundsmith avoids phase errors and maintains accurate time domain response that is so important to the transparent nature of the cartridge.

Lastly, have you ever seen a high end cartridge which had an easily user replaceable stylus? No? Then the Strain Gauge cartridge from Soundsmith is again a revelation.

For prices, expect 200-600 Euros for the replaceable stylus assembly. Even for 78 rpm discs, a stylus assembly is available. Important also is the price of the whole system - for the cartridge and the SG200 unit, you will pay 5500 Euros. A lot of money. But certainly not unrealistic given the class we are in now.

I listen a lot to vinyl, via a Transrotor/SME/Transfiguration on an HAT phono preamplifier and via a Vyger/SME/Phase Tech and a Xindak phonostage. For this review, I’m using everything except the Transrotor/SME arm. The Soundsmith unit is connected to an HAT line amplifier and a set of Primaluna Dialogue Six power amplifiers. Loudspeakers are Focal Diablo Utopia 3, supported by a Velodyne subwoofer. All cables are Crystal Cable, netfilters from Kemp Electroniks.

The moment of truth. The system is warmed up. The cartridge is mounted and adjusted. The first LP is on the Transrotor, and the diamond of the Strain Gauge enters the groove of an LP by Juliet Greco. I listened to the first track, and then my wife asks, “And...?” 

I can only mumble, “Beautiful.” While tears well up in my eyes. “Different, different than usual. “ 

It’s a few days later, and I am back to earth, after a great amount of vinyl, with the occasional CD thrown in for comparison. Comparison? It’s really not possible to compare digital music with the Strain Gauge. I know you are expecting that I am going to write something sensible about this cartridge. At the same time, I remember a phrase of a music lover who I like to quote - (in English) “Trying to select the important parameters of audio systems is like trying to select the most important words in the works of some important writer or poet you enjoy. It is simply a fool’s errand. It may be fun, and thus pass the time, but, it’s just another solitaire game.” Nicely said, eh? Regardless, I shall begin...

Time Out

“Time Out” with “Take Five” by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is cued up. I played it for the first time when I was 14. But it was never so pure and clear as now. So arresting and timeless. In a technical sense, a remarkable aspect of the Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge is the lack of record surface noise. Because of that the background in the music is so incredibly silent and still, every detail comes forward. Percussion is extraordinarily impressive with exquisite rendition of cymbals. Bass is clean, piano is properly rendered. Paul Desmond’s sax seems to be there in the room, all with such ease that one asks oneself what is left to be desired?

Eva Cassidy with Autumn Leaves has an unearthly beauty. The lady with the voice of an angel moves everyone’s heart. But it is vinyl, after all, and any light damage in the record itself will bring you back to earth. But my God, what a way this cartridge has with her voice. I am almost back to the first afternoon with Greco. No part of a stereo system is completely colorless, but this cartridge really makes you aware of how an MC or MM cartridge normally colors the sound. The Soundsmith is almost without coloration, and you must get used to that, because you take for granted such colorations, even though you don’t want them in the first place. But MM and MC cartridges’ colorations of recordings have infiltrated your consciousness and memory, they are like a swarm of piranhas.

Everything with the Strain Gauge cartridge is solid like a rock. Voices are beautifully presented. Instruments float freely around them. From high to low, all is balanced. All is not always beautiful, though, because when the recording fails, the Strain Gauge reveals it. Honesty comes first, pure and without coloration.

Very often we confuse loud with distorted. The small radio at the beach with its half a watt may sound loud when in fact it’s just distorting the sound.  This is the principle I think of when I find that the Dire Straits could sound a bit more dynamic. We are dealing with a cartridge here that distorts so little, that “loud” becomes a different concept. On top of that, my present power amplifiers are so clean sounding, that loud only sounds loud when you really want it to be loud. The SG cartridge is furthermore dynamic at all listening levels, and because it is so clean at very loud levels, I find that I often don’t notice how loud my listening level actually is.

Naturalness is a very important part of the SG sound. Speed is omnipresent, a sense of completeness as well.  Desires? I can’t come up with any. Yet something is gnawing at me. The rendering does not seem to be analog at all. It reminds me of playing an absolute top CD player because of the silence in the background. At the same time, it’s far removed from CD’s - we are doing analog here.

Somebody has written of this cartridge: “If a CD had sounded like this from the very beginning, no one would have continued playing vinyl.”  In this hides the core of the truth - it is the SG that makes painfully clear in which way vinyl and CD’s  fail. Even when I imagine using a beautiful Koetsu costing more than 4000 Euros, or my own cartridges, or a Manley Steelhead phono stage, or the nicest CD players that have graced my audio rack - most of the time something was missing. That something is present here in the sense of pure music. The builder of the SG apparently knows where to put his finger on this missing place. I’d like to finish this paragraph with Dave Grusin, whose LP I used to determine the stereo image, and level of detail at the extremes.  The drum hits get your attention The bass is dry, it is pure, and the stereo image is as broad as with the best components, micro details are there in spades. At the same time, it is so frightfully realistic that it had chills running up and down my spine. Is this the end of MM and MC? I don’t know, and everyone has their own taste, but I like the SG just fine.

The Psalms of David is a choir work from a time when vinyl and tape were the only forms of recorded music. I cherished this record for years because of the voices and organ. Many times over the years I tried to figure out how many voices there really were in the choir. My counting had gotten fairly precise, but with the SG it went even further. Surrounded by so much ease and lack of stress, so clean and with a correctness I’ve rarely if ever heard.  I can’t possibly bring the church in which the Psalms was recorded into my own home, but mentally I found myself IN that church, which is a big compliment to the SG.  For the first time, by the way, the very pronounced and harsh S sounds were less present than usual on this recording. The lyrics became more intelligible, and the clarity of the voices increased. For the organ lover, the SG goes very low, and brings the organ to life. The SG gives new meaning to the word verisimilitude.

Am I praising too much? Whoever hears this cartridge can decide for themselves and condemn me if necessary.  On this earth only a couple of devices can reproduce music or voice in such a way as to be described as bliss.  This is one of those tiny, rare group, that is so lonely up at the top. How far can you go after this? What can a better record player or arm, like a Montegiro turntable with a DaVinci arm do to improve upon this? I cannot predict that, nor do I even want to know. I value my sound sleep. I wonder though, why has it taken so long before someone finally had the guts to go beyond the usual path and to think in an innovative way about cartridges.

Back to my very first experience with the SG - Juliet Greco is again on the platter of my turntable. What I heard days before is coming back to me - in full glory. The purity, the voice, the abundance of detail, the representation of the atmosphere of Paris. Tears are coming back, and I decide I will save until I can become an owner of this cartridge. It will take awhile, and with pain in my heart I will say goodbye to my present phono stage and cartridge. I know, however, that I am listening to a unique way of reproducing a record, one I have never discovered before. Don’t try this at home! The road back is heavy, long and lonely.

In brief, when the SG plays, your jaw drops. Record noise? Distortion? Hum? It’s not there. There is a naturalness that I have never experienced before, a total lack of coloration, a background that is so quiet that every micro detail can be heard. All of a sudden, some tracks blend into one another, where before there had been an interval, because the decay is now properly present. Does the SG sound technical? No, far from that. Analog? Not really. Digital? No. Although you wish that digital could ever sound like this. It simply has a naturalness that cannot be compared with other cartridges. It’s suppleness and liquidity make for hours of pleasure in listening. It’s not overwhelming, not overly dynamic, just natural.

It’s only January of 2010, but I already want to name the SG Product of the Year.

Rene van Es 

HiFi NL Magazine, Netherlands

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