Here's a preliminary report of my Soundsmith refurbished cartridge for those that are curious about their service and results. The cartridge isn't broken-in yet, but there are some obvious things to share.
I sent my worn out Adcom SXC-VDH cartridge to the Soundsmith to perform the level 3 service where they installed a ruby cantilever which holds a nude "optimized contour" contact line diamond. For those not familiar, this was Adcom's best cart back in the day: high-output (a little over 2 mv), moving coil, and sapphire cantilever.
The cartridge doesn't have scores of hours on it, but it is already making me happy. It does the stable 3-D imaging tricks extremely well. The highs are extended and smooth. Detail retrieval is very impressive and tracking complex passages is effortless. Drum and horn tracks reveal cleanliness, authority and speed contributing to realism. I'm discovering many nuances in some old, familiar lp's that I've been missing. This refurbished cartridge is generally more refined and agile than when it was stock, but still maintains its basic original character.
The tone seems subtly thin at times, although the low bass notes are being reproduced. I don't expect that it will ever carry the weight of my Grado Platinum (the anvil), but time will tell if it becomes a little more filled out.
I feel that the cartridge will be a keeper and is already performing above it's cost. The guys at Soundsmith were nice and did a masterful job renewing my cartridge.
