Anyone Heard the New Soundsmith Sussurro Cartridge

At RMAF Sussurro was used on a Hanss TT with Lamm & The Lotus Group's Granada open-baffle Feastrex uber-speaker. Many variables at play, but this was among the best vinyl at the show.

i heard the Sussurro on three different tt's at RMAF.

i was in the Soundsmith room three different times. i heard the Sussurro both on the TNT HRX/JPW arm and the Teres Centrus/Illios arm. it was just another cartridge on the HRX; it was something very special on the Teres. i agree that the system in the Soundsmith room is not really up to the potential level of the analog sources in that room.....but i like what i heard on the Teres. nice top to bottom balance, good clarity and boogie factor.....good refinement. a bit opaque on the HRX in comparison.

i also heard it on the Hanss tt in the Lotus Design room (twice) thru the Joe Cohens new speakers. here the Sussurro was not as well behaved as the Teres in the Soundsmith room, but it was still very nice. i would say that this vinyl setup needed some tweaking.

overall i like the Sussurro and i think most people would be very happy with it's performance. OTOH i just got a new cartridge, the Ortofon MC A90, which retails for about the same price. my opinion is that the A90 is in another league or 2 above the Sussurro.

Dear Wurp: The SG does not conforms with the RIAA eq. with what almost every recording was made, so what reproduce is not what is in the recording but something different.

Slowlearner, first than all I'm a music lover and an audiophile. It is true that I have/own my self Phonolinepreamp design ( José and I. ) and that a few other people own it but I'm not on audio commercial business with.

My opinion on the subject is a simple/plain fact that IMHO I don't think that people who cares about music/audio need to hide it but to understand it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul, the SG does conform to the RIAA EQ. But perhaps not as accurately as you think is necessary.

The beauty of the SG setup is that the mechanics of the transducer naturally produces EQ that is nearly the same as the RIAA curve. So the preamp only needs to do minimal EQ. This keeps the phase response intact. I suspect that not requiring heavy RIAA EQ is one of the reasons that the SG sounds good. A little amplitude error is far more favorable than the big phase errors you get from the RIAA EQ.

For the record I do not know if or how much the SG may deviate from the RIAA curve. I do know that it sounds excellent.

To the topic of the thread, I spent a lot of time listening to the Sussorro at RMAF. It is a superb cartridge, that is at home with the best. I have not heard it in a direct apples to apples comparison so I can't comment further.

Dear teres: Yes you are right: " not as accurately as you think is necessary ".

That is a nice and gentle way to say and " hide things " ( not on purpose ).

++++´" For the record I do not know if or how much the SG may deviate from the RIAA curve. " +++++

not much, according with Peter ( SG designer/builder. ): " only " a swing of 2 db from 50hz to 12khz, he does not say how much from 20hz to 50hz and for 12khz to 20khz that is the RIAA eq. standard frequency range ( 20hz to 20khz. ).

Btw, you can see here ( page 13. ) the SG RIAA eq. deviation graphic:
http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/article.pdf

Teres, this is only an opinion that has its foundation in facts not on subjective arguments.

As always could happen some opinions can be controversial. In this thread we have two or three opinions on the same cartridge ( Sussorro ) and in the same systems were the opinions are different, of course that those cartrridge opinions were a subjective ones where is more dificult to even opinions.

IMHO the good things on this forums comes normaly from controversy that normaly too almost always leave a learning line for almost all of us.

Teres, before I forgot and only for the record: here or in any other thread on the SG subject I never say/post that the cartridge sounds bad and you know why?: because IMHO that is not the main subject.
Anyway please digress and return to the Sussorro.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.