Soundsmith Cartridges and my History
Dear Lee;
Thanks for asking - I am aware that there is substantial interest in the cartridges I design and rebuild. To answer fairly, I would have to say that in part, the results in my cartridges both rebuilt and designed/manufactured are based on a lifetime of dedication to audio. I say this because although I have spent most of my life and time developing amplifiers, preamplifiers, loudspeaker drivers and systems, as well as cartridges, the performance of a cartridge and the work that goes into it cannot be divorced from all the other work and efforts. If one stays as open as possible, then one learns from everything, and everything contributes to each thing.
For those who asked in the past how I got involved in audio, I wrote an essay, and finally posted it on my website with a short overview of my history in audio called "animating life". It started at 3 years old with my windup. My windup and I were inseparable. The essay is somewhat hidden on my website, but can be found here:
http://www.sound-smith.com/animating.html
I also have been blessed with a steady hand. I worked at IBM Research in the fields of surface science - a field studying atomic arrangements on the surfaces of metals, as well as VLSI "low end" advanced technology packaging. I invented numerous processes (and wrote patents) some of which were based on microscopic sized molten metal structures that relied on surface tension to form. They were employed to allow both extremely dense chip and IC packaging for low cost, high performance purposes. I also was the only one in our research group that fortunately could manipulate items fractions of thousandths of an inch under the microscope – a valuable skill for that area of research. Being numb from the neck up and waist down, as many have accused me, has its advantages at times. But it does point out a long time love affair with the microscopic world, and the fortunate ability to work at that level as I often have to replace diamonds that are a half the thickness of a human hair and align them in three axis to better than 1 degree. On a bad day.
Although some things can be modeled to a degree, cartridges, like loudspeaker drivers, require experience, patience and intuition. Especially intuition - based on years of material research, physical experience, trial and error. I often eat, sleep and dream of new ways of doing things. I know that I will never live long enough to realize the over 135 inventions I have worked on in the audio field since leaving IBM. One must sometimes be satisfied with replacing and aligning a diamond well, or solving a tough problem with an old MC cart that has failed in an unusual way.
I got involved with the B&O cartridges long ago because I recognized the genius in the design. Although it appeared to some that B&O’s main thrust was aesthetics, only a few understood the fantastic engineering effort in B&O’s MI cartridges, some with sapphire tubed cantilevers that had a miniscule 50 micron wall thickness, laser drilled to accept a 100 micron square line contact diamond. Stunning. And with a lower moving mass than MC carts, the fully damped Iron surface locked in position that would not allow rotation of the cantilever from long term skating or anti-skating forces they made cartridges that were so advanced that few realized the apparent truth of their performance; but the aesthetics of B&O's designs overshadowed this engineering effort in terms of public awareness. I was thrilled when my offer to work under license from them allowed me to reverse engineer, tool up and start production of their cartridges, not to mention continued evolution of the design these past 10 years, which has allowed the development of over 80 variants of Soundsmith MI cartridges, most of which are for non-B&O tables. We still make 9 models for the B&O line, and there is still a resonable, although waning, demand for them.
Even with my background, it seemed during the nearly three years of development, 7 days/week, till past midnight every night, a daunting task. More than once I had trouble driving home due to welling up with tears thinking that I was an utter fool for risking my home, business, my employee's jobs, and my well-being in trying to take this on. But it is years later, and I am still here. So are the cartridges, and we have received great reviews, and a slowly increasing awareness of them in the US market. My best moment each day is to receive an Email from someone who bought a "The Voice" or Strain Gauge or Sussurro or Paua, telling me they had never heard their vinyl before. That makes the pain fade away - at least for a few moments. Working at a microscope for hours on end is not a completely joyful experience. One tends to get up from time to time, if one can, curled over in pretty much the same configuration.
I was introduced to the Panasonic Strain Gauge in the early 70's by Richard Majestic, with whom I worked at RAM audio in Danbury CT. I was blown away by its performance, and we built a strain gauge preamp and cartridge system. The Panasonic SG was basically designed by Sao Win, who had purchased a company in Puerto Rico years earlier to make SG devices for the military. Ones that fell out of mil spec were used for his cartridges. He sold the rights to Matsushita as they were looking for a device that would allow excellent phase coherence up to 70Khz for CD4, and found that in the SG cartridge. My favorite thing about the packaging for the Matsushita was a tiny little owners manual made seemingly out of rice paper (I guess you were supposed to eat it after you read it) - whose final words on the last page read ~ "Also good for stereo".
No kidding.
I have been building Strain Gauge cartridges for friends since the 70’s, and finally introduced the Soundsmith Strain Gauge at CES in 2005. Each cartridge takes me a full day - minimum - to build. We also build the SG electronics here by hand as well.
Designing, manufacturing, and rebuilding cartridges is an art in micro-replication and Lilliputian intuition. Not everything you do works out, and sometimes you get surprised – both ways. It is the seasoned ability to discern why what one does works, or not; and that adds to the warehouse of experience. And as I said at the beginning, everything I have done in audio contributes to everything I do. It is a marriage of art, science, time and dreams that I practice, and hardly a day goes by when I don’t dream of something new to invent, or a new way of doing something. I consider myself the wealthiest man I know, and very blessed. Thanks for asking.
Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith