SoundSmith Paua or Sussurro?

[rich121]

Curious what the differences between the SoundSmith Paua and Sussurro cartridges are?
Are they the same basic cartridge, with the Paua having an aluminum cantilever with nude contact line stylus and the Sussurro having the ruby cantilever with 'optimized contour' nude contact line stylus?

I would assume the Paua to be smoother with the aluminum cantilever and the Sussurro being more detailed with the ruby cantilever/OCL stylus?

Has anyone compared the 2?

This will be used with a Fidelity Research FR64s (Yamamoto HS-4s headshell, larger FR counterweight)mounted on Technics SL1000 MKII turntable (SP10 MKII with factory plinth).

Pre-amp is tubed Zesto Leto 1.5 and phono-stage is tubed Zesto Andros 1.2.

A little extra detail and dynamics may be beneficial?


Thanks!


Rick

 

[rich121]

bump

 

[rich121]

Again.... Nevermind

 

[Fred]

Haven't compared the two, but I did recently purchase the Paua Mk II. I figured I should get it while it was 1/2 price. The Sussurro is being discounted right now to an even greater degree as Soundsmith releases the updated models.

I think Peter Ledermanm has a pretty good grasp on price points vs. performance, so I'd tend to believe the Sussurro offers a bit better resolution maybe in the area of micro details. At least that's what I would expect.

The Paua Mk II is the finest sounding cartridge that I've ever owned, and that by a wide margin. I haven't broken it in yet, but if what I'm getting out of it on the second day of use is any indication, this thing is going to be around for quite a while.