Analog Gear News

Nope, we’re not done yet — hence, here’s another installment of our extended takes on some of the coolest gear seen and heard at High End Munich 2023. Today, we delve into all the great new Soundsmith cartridge and phono preamp offerings that were on display in the company’s always impressive booth (plus another notable item or two) from the mind and hands of Soundsmith chief engineering domo Peter Ledermann and company.

Needless to say, anyone who ventured into Soundsmith’s striking, eye- and ear-catching setup in Halle 3, Stand N06/P07 got treated to experiencing a fully equipped Soundsmith demo system comprised of a gaggle of the company’s own top-shelf amps, preamps, speakers, Hyperion and Strain Gauge cartridges, and a pair of STST turntables fitted with Schroeder reference tonearms alike.

Herewith are the key Soundsmith new-product highlights from the big show. First, we have the company’s Hyperion MKII-ES-TI and Sussurro MKII-ES-TI cartridges that you see nestled next to each other at the very top of this story. These cartridges are intended to complement Soundsmith’s new MCP-5 preamp (which will be discussed shortly), as well as other companies’ transimpedance phono-preamp designs.

Next, we have Soundsmith’s new IROX Blue-ES and IROX Ultimate-ES “Unbreakable” cartridges. It’s worth directly quoting Soundsmith’s own justifiably rhetorical commentary about the Unbreakable design impetus here: “No, the cleaning service can’t destroy it with a cleaning rag. No, the kids can’t break it either.” (Duly noted!) Furthermore, Soundsmith dubs the Unbreakables as being “the world’s first high-performance ‘no-oops’ cartridges.”

Meanwhile, the Soundsmith Hyperion MKII-MR cartridge sports “additionally reduced” internal moving mass along with a Micro Ridge stylus. Notably, each Hyperion MR cart is handmade by Soundsmith’s above-noted chief engineer, Peter Ledermann.

The company’s world-class Strain Gauge systems have been granted a new preamp design, with the Soundsmith Signature series models now boasting a reduced noise floor of an additional 21dB.

The aforementioned Soundsmith MCP-5 transimpedance phono preamp purports to feature “ultra-clean” sound, along with continuously variable gain from 60 to 80dB. The MCP-5 is further said to provide “the industry’s lowest noise floor possible from a high-gain transformerless design.”

Finally, we would be quite remiss if we didn’t make mention of Soundsmith’s MosTube One, a solid-state replacement for many of the most popular power vacuum tubes out there. The MosTube One features “extreme” stability, automatic matching, and “tubelike” sonics (2nd-order products), requires no adjustments, and is said to enable an “automatic” 30 to 50% power increase for your amplifier. The MosTube One is intended to replace tubes including the 6550, KT66 through KT150, EL34, and 6L6, among others.

We’re still awaiting direct word on pricing for and availability for all this très-cool new Soundsmith gear, and whenever that information is confirmed firsthand, we will add any/all of those updates in this space accordingly.

For more about Soundsmith, go here.
To find authorized Soundsmith dealers near you, go here.