Soundsmith Launches New Products at Munich High End
The highly regarded American analogue specialists, Soundsmith, have not just one treat in store for visitors to this year's High End show in Munich, but eight!
Soundsmith's 'cabin', in Halle 3, Stand N06/P07, will feature a complete system featuring Soundsmith amps, preamps, speakers, Hyperion and Strain Gauge cartridges and two STST tables adorned with Schroeder reference tonearms. The main man and Chief Engineer, Peter Ledermann, will be on hand to answer any questions.
The new releases start with the Mostube One, a solid-state replacement for the most popular power vacuum tubes. Ledermann tells us, "Many years of development have resulted in this device, featuring extreme stability, automatic matching, no adjustment required, "tube" like sonics (2nd order products) with an automatic 30-50% power increase for your amplifier". The Mostube One replaces tubes including 6550, KT66 through KT150, EL34, 6L6 and more. Peter adds, "No more wondering if your power tubes are failing due to age, or damage to your amplifier from internal tube failure".
Also launching will be Soundsmith's MCP-5 Transimpedance Preamp, said to "feature ultra-clean sound from this transformer-less design, featuring our unique continuously variable gain from 60 to 80dB." According to the company, the new MCP-5 also boasts the industry's lowest noise floor possible from a high-gain transformer-less design. The MCO-5 alleviates the "hit and miss" effort in wondering if your step-up transformer is the right one for matching to your cartridge, or the potential degradation from ringing and non-linearity found in some transformer designs.
There are plenty of new cartridges on offer too. To complement Soundsmith's new MCP-5 and other transimpedance phono preamp designs, Soundsmith's new TI-compatible Hyperion MKII-ES-TI and Sussurro MKII-ES-TI models are now available. Ledermann added, "Many dealers who sell TI preamps have become aware that not all cartridges are compatible with these unique phono preamps. Now the wondering is gone with these two new models".
Soundsmith will also debit its new IROX BLUE-ES and IROX ULTIMATE-ES cartridges, which the company says offer enhanced performance and are "unbreakable"!
Ledermann says, "Now, for the first time, no compromise needs to be made when you need an unbreakable cartridge for rugged use. No, the cleaning service can't destroy it with a cleaning rag. No, the kids can't break it, either. The world's first high-performance no "oops" cartridge. From Soundsmith. Who else?"
Soundsmith will also unveil its newly developed and unique version of its highly praised Hyperion cartridge – one featuring not only additionally reduced internal moving mass but now a "Micro-Ridge" stylus. It's "a novel stylus design that unusually maintains its response and play performance throughout its normal wear lifetime", and each one is handmade by Peter Ledermann. Wear it out or destroy it by accident? Soundsmith also offers a very attractive rebuild program, one of the best available in the industry.
Finally, the company says there's been another Soundsmith breakthrough! Its highly regarded Strain Gauge systems "have passed into another realm of quiet". According to Ledermann, "further development of Strain Gauges invented here at Soundsmith along with a new preamp design, our Signature Series models now boast an additional 21dB of reduced noise floor. No, this is NOT a typo. What was by far the quietest phono system in the world is now far beyond that". The company says that its new Strain Gauge breakthrough has led to a "completely noiseless system for those who demand the best analog anywhere and grasp what this breakthrough means".
Stay tuned for more from the Munich High End show in Germany later this month.
For more information visit Soundsmith
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher, born in UK and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia where he worked as an Engineer in both the audio and mechanical fields.
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