Soundsmiith retips

Hi Mark,

I use a Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge and Soundsmith Strain Gauge 410 Phono Preamp. Peter Ledermann and Soundsmith have been very quick in solving issues that have arisen with my cartridge and Phono Preamp largely or at least in part due to my error.

Soundsmith has been in the business of Cartridge building, rebuilding, retipping, etc. for over 40 years. I have always heard the contrary to your suggestion or concern. I have heard wonderful comments regarding repairs of damaged cartridges and results from their retipping. This agrees with what I have read for testimonials on their website including an entry from Jonathan Weiss of OMA. Jonathan has nothing but positive things to say regarding Peter's workmanship, products, integrity, and honesty. From my experience, this holds true to form. When I had problems Peter always followed up and made sure that everything was fine after the return. The last problem arose when we had a Power Failure and the fuse of my Soundsmith Strain Gauge Power Box for the Strain Gauge 410 blew. The unit kept blowing fuses and we couldn't figure out why. The box was returned and Soundsmith went over the unit with a fine tipped comb. They found nothing wrong, re-installed the fuse, reassembled the unit and returned it to me. Peter called to make sure that everything was fine. Since the return the box has operated without incident. At this point, we could only think that there must have been some kind of a Ground Loop problem which caused the problem that has since been corrected. But, it does indicate to me Peter's interest in making sure that work is done properly and the buyer is pleased with the results.

Rich

I have three re-tips by Soundsmith, and I couldn't be happier. One of them was a brand new Bluelectric Magic Diamond that I broke the cantilever on, and when it came back, it sounded better than new. I was so happy, I bought a Soundsmith Gold. Right now, I'm running a Bluelectric Virus with Peter's ruby cantilever and optimized contour stylus and a re-done suspension. I loaned my Magic Diamond to a Genesis owner who broke the cantilever on his Magic Diamond, and he also thought that it is better than his old cartridge. So he has also sent his cartridge for a re-tip, but he was told that he had to wait 6 months.

I think that the problem is that Peter does all the re-tips personally, and frankly, he is swamped between making his own products and his re-tipping. I know how obsessively critical he is. The downside is that it can take months and months for him to get to your cartridge if he has a big backlog of work. So, many of these guys may have waited and waited and then bought a new cartridge when they couldn't wait any longer. Months later, when their re-tipped cartridge comes back, they have already bought another, and they sell the newly re-tipped cartridge.

Yeah, it is quite unfortunate, because Peter does good work.

I lost the stylus of a Koetsu Urushi. Instead of sending it back to Koetsu, I sent it to Soundsmith. One needs a lot of patience with Soundsmith. I had to wait two or three months to get the go signal to send in the cartridge. I had it retipped and also had the cantilever changed to a ruby cantilever. The wait after sending in the cartridge was about six months. I received the Urushi last month. I may install the Urushi after the Easter holidays.

Got the koetsu urushi installed today. It sounded good out of the box. Visually, I prefer the soundsmith work as I find the original koetsu stylus too small for my eyes to see properly. The ruby cantilever is also longer than the original koetsu cantilever. Sonically, my initial impressions are that there is more gain. There is a wider volume gap between different instruments playing at the same time. The roundedness of the images are chiseled such that I am given a sense that the old performers went to the gym and have return with leaner bodies. Bass sounded tighter but with less weight than what I remember. Lastly, there seems to be more space between performers (I wonder if this is because the performers all seemed to have lost some weight). I am happy with the work that soundsmith has done to my cartridge.

Thanks for the support

Dear Gary and others - thanks for the support. TO MEP; I think you may have missed some obvious reasons for the "sale" of retips.

Firstly, 6 months lead time is NOT the norm; it is 6 -12 weeks, and is seasonal. I have hired a software engineer to create software that is on our website that allows anyone to get an RA number instantly on-line, print a shipping label with all addresses and the RA number in it, as well as provides them a running status - "your cartridge has arrived, being worked on, done, etc....every time it it touched, our system automatically sends them an Email. And they can use their RA number to check on status 24/7 from anywhere in the world. We are the only company that provides that level of instant communication for cartridge rebuilding.

Do *some* carts have major problems that take longer?? You bet. I stay very late often and do those specific ones that need extra work, and do them often at no extra charge. Except the charge I get in restoring a cartridge that seemed unrepairable, and now works well because I was better today at what I do than yesterday.

Sell "lots" of retipped carts immediately?? I would say that your comments are based on a very biased and myopically asumed statistic. For example, you have no idea how many cartridges I rebuild, or have rebuilt over the years versus how many are offered for sale, therefore no clue as to how many happy customers from the thousands I have rebuilt, who keep theirs. Do customers put carts up that I did a long time ago and say that "just returned from Soundsmith" to avoid the impression of use?? You bet. I get calls on those sometimes.

I would, however, be impressed if you are also keeping track of how many are offerred for sale at any given period of time, over a long period of time. Bear in mind that times are very rough financially, and people are selling their hifi items more than usually done. How many DID you see out of the thousands I have done??

Yes, if it takes awhile, some do sell theirs I guess if they have bought something else....but not often. Some even bemoan having sold one I rebuilt and realize that after the fact, bemoan thier fate, and post such woes as well.

But you also miss the totally obvious. If someone buys or gets a valuable cart for little because it IS broken, and I rebuild it for half of what others charge, it can be sold at a profit - sometimes a nice profit. Do I have repeat customers who do this?? You bet.

So I caution against potentially talking out of school, and maybe making assumptions for any craftsman without thinking about all the possible ramifications of your comments both to you and them, through seemingly benign questions, especially when you may not have not heard their work.

Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith

Dear Mark;

Thanks for the reply to my comments. I would ask that you re-read yours at the top, and then your later comments.

The entire tone of the start of your thread is negative, and implies a negative result for my work. My concern was raised when someone Emailed me saying that they had typed in "Soundsmith or Peter Ledermann forums", and found your very negative comments came up on the first page.

While in the words of G.W Bush, whom I usually dont quote often, I have a few "detractors", I work hard and have worked very hard for many years to have what measure of respect and reputation that I have been able to achieve. No one would appreciate comments such as these from one who may not have heard their work first hand, or made very myopic assumptions about product they worked on appearing for sale.

Although I am glad that some came to my defense, please note that by doing so, it supports that fact that I am not the only one who reacted that way to the thread you started. So while you indicate that you meant me no harm, others percieved it as such.

I don't know what you do for a living, but do imagine yourself in my place while you are reading your comments at the start of this thread - again.

I was also very surprised to see that you are actually a founder of this forum. That fact certainly, and unfortuantely, calibrated this forum for me. I don't go on forums much, but certainly will stay tuned as folks alert me to those that wander off in directions that are harmful to those in this tiny industry who care about it, and what they say, deeply.

Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith

Retipper said:

Dear Mark;

Thanks for the reply to my comments. I would ask that you re-read yours at the top, and then your later comments.

The entire tone of the start of your thread is negative, and implies a negative result for my work. My concern was raised when someone Emailed me saying that they had typed in "Soundsmith or Peter Ledermann forums", and found your very negative comments came up on the first page.

While in the words of G.W Bush, I have few "detractors", I work hard and have worked very hard for many years to have what measure of respect and reputation that I have been able to achieve, and no one would appreciate comments such as these from one who may not have heard my work first hand, or make very myopic assumptions about product I worked on appearing for sale.

Although I am glad that some came to my defense, please note that by doing so, it supports that fact that I am not the only one who reacted that way to the thread you started. So while you indicate that you meant me no harm, others percieved it as such.

I don't know what you do for a living, but do imagine yourself in my place while you are reading your comments at the start of this thread - again.

I also very surprised to see that you are actually a founder of this forum. That fact certainly, and unfortuantely, calibrated this forum for me. I don't go on forums much, but certainly will stay tuned as folks alert me to those that wander off in directions that are harmful to those in this tiny industry who care about it, and what they say, deeply.

Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith

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Well said Peter

Welcome to WBF. Hopefully it will be smooth riding from here

Peter,

I don't think that you are being very fair to Mark. I don't know him personally, but what I've seen of his posts here in the forum, he is not malicious, and I thought that he asked a fair question. He also got good answers and after Rich and I responded, he said:

mep said:

Gary-Maybe that explains it. If it takes six months, people surely buy something else in the meantime and then sell the retip when it comes back. There just seems to be a lot of them that come up for sale and it shows a trend. I mean no disrespect to Peter, just curious that's all.

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You do great work, and you should be confident in that. Great work takes time, and that is what people reading this thread should understand after the various responses. I responded because I thought that Mark posed a fair question, not a negative one. If I had thought that it was negative, I would have been far stronger in your defense.

Like Steve says, now that you are here and registered, I hope that you'll stay and it'll be smoother sailing from now on. This is the ONLY forum I participate in because it is civil, educational, informative and even entertaining. Please stay and participate, because I think that you will bring a lot to the table.... but I do know that you are extremely busy.

Dear Gary;

Many thanks for your comments, and insight. I appreciate that you don't know Mark, nor do I, but I found my introduction to him somewhat less than entertaining. My point is that as a founding member of any forum, I believe that he has a huge responsibility to the industry to pose fair, informed, balanced questions, and to consider the potential harm to any artisan in this small and fading industry by posting negative implications in starting any forum blog. Bear in mind that the title of this blog is "Soundsmith retips" - easy for someone to search and all they might read is his entry as many folks don't read beyond part of the first entry as synopsized by a Google search. There are are far more neutral and productive ways to pose questions, or to even ask the source for some feedback before posting, so that a fair and balanced question can be placed before the public. Imagine if he posted "why are there so many newly delivered Genesis speakers being re-sold on Audiogon?". How would you feel??

I am not so much concerned for my business or reputation; I am too old for that, and may in fact retire soon for many reasons, while for the time being, my work is still in reasonably high demand and not particularly threatened by such remarks. My concern with self is therefore minimal in comparison with my primary motivation - which is to attempt to reflect carefully the potential ramifications to someone who may post a not so well thought out or researched question, resulting in harm to others who may be trying to gain a foothold in what is left of this industry. It is a standpoint of responsibility to an industry I love, and a hopeful message of conscience to one who has the resposibility to a forum and industry as a founding member - please do no harm. And to ask that they consider not getting mad at the messenger who points out that they have made such an error, consciously done or not.

All the best to you Gary - and thanks again for demoing one of my new cartridge designs at CES, and as always, great to see you and your sister again there, and to hear your designs -

Peter Ledermann/Soundsmith

Peter,

I, personally (and many of the members here), would greatly enjoy it if you would discuss some of the challenges of your work and how you accomplish your results. For many, phono cartridges are somewhat "mysterious". It would be immensely valuable in this time of vinyl's resurgence, if we all could learn more about your specialty.

Regards,

Lee

Soundsmith Cartridges and my History

I will try to send something here soon - as time allows- many thanks for asking.

Retipper said:

I will try to send something here soon - as time allows- many thanks for asking.

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Peter,

It is very good seeing that you making an appearance here. Again, thank you so much for all of your assistance.

Rich

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

Nicely stated Peter and a good read.

Very cool, Peter! One of the hallmarks of the truly great audio designers/engineers is the unbridled passion they carry for their pursuit. We are fortunate here at WBF to have several of these individuals as members and expert panelists. Without the love of music and a dedication to advance the art, a sickening tedium pervades. It's wonderful to read about your path, and I hope you continue to contribute more material for us. Even simple tutorials, such as moving magnet vs. moving coil, etc. would be extremely useful in filling out our database of solid information.

Thanks,

Lee