I don't want to completely derail the thread, but I got a quick question for TLS.
You ever had any experience with strain gauge phono carts and pres? It's just a different animal than anything I am used to, wondered if you have seen them and have any thoughts on the matter?
There is nothing new under the sun is there?
Semiconductor materials can modulate a voltage and generate one when compressed.
When I was a very young kid, about 3 or 4 years of age, I remember there were two large dry cell batteries high up near the ceiling for the telephone. That was because the microphone of the telephone in those days was a carbon mic. The diaphragm had carbon granules packed in the chamber behind it. The carbon modulated the voltage from the batteries as the diaphragm squeezed the carbon granules in response to the changing air pressure.
As I advanced from 78 rpm records, I had crystal and then ceramic pickups.
The one I had longest, was the
Decca Deram.
I did not use the Deram PU arm, but one I built myself. I think I was more creative a kid than I am now. In any event it was a unipivot deign and I managed to eliminate the drag of the lead out wires.
The cartridge was actually quite good. It was very kind to the records, and had very low moving mass. It produced 500 mv, did not require RIAA EQ, and needed a load impedance of 1 to 2 megohms.
Now the problem with ceramics, and this will be a problem for the
Soundsmith, is that although there is no generator to move, ceramics are very hard, and don't move much.
So this means you have to have a very flexible lossy cantilever or interface between stylus and the solid state material. In the puff these sort of guys never reveal the problems, do they?
The Soundsmith has elected to go the voltage modulation route, which should certainly be good for signal to noise. It does require their own preamp however.
I would love to know how they approached the problem of interfacing a moving stylus with a virtually rigid structure. They gloss over that, in fact don't mention it. I bet there lies a tale.
Any how in my late teens I progressed to the Decca ffss, which I still have. That is the opposite extreme and has no cantilever. That really gives those Decca cartridges an immediacy, but not the best trackers for the rough and tumble, but just wonderful for early and Baroque music which I love.