Soundsmith Hyperion

[Alrainbow]

To each his own I guess. The Genesis room was a big letdown. Boomy and way too big for the room. If you mean the big Genesis Ribbons they weren't working when we dropped by on Sunday.

I meant his small room only in my comments and yes this whole hobby is to each his own and don’t mean I know better. It’s so odd how far apart we all can be and yet be part of the club lol. I truly enjoyed the show over all.
Did you attend Gary’s large room on Sunday night with the harp ?

 

[Alrainbow]

Hopefully the Sussuro sorts itself out with time or a new alignment. I believe up and down the line, the Soundsmith MI carts are identical internally although the Hyperion is built with better tolerances and uses the cactus need cantilever. 825 should be sufficient load.

The table we use matters soo much too I can’t see why but wow or does.
So far it’s on my td125 Soon I’ll try it on my sota sapphire and eminent tech et2 arm

 

[bazelio]

bazelio I would be happy to comment further on the Hyperion cartridge. First of all Peter was driving the Hyperion with his system which consisted of the Strainguage preamp, turntable made for him in Germany, his arm collaborated with Schroeder, his amps, and his stand mounted Monarch speakers. The speaker cables were Transparent. So in essence, it was a Sound-smith voiced system. Obviously one can get a good sample of how one component, in this case the Hyperion, sounds but ultimately it is only a sample. How it would sound in my room with my system particularly my front end consisting of Basis Vector 4 tonearm and 2200 signature could be very different .

So, in Peter's system the Hyperion was crystal clear, notably so with acoustic guitar. Great tone with such clarity the strings had perfect bite and reverberation on the guitar body portrayed a nice woody character with beautiful decay. Likewise, voices were hanging in space, again with crystal clarity but with an organic feel - no brightness or aggression at all. Imaging is always an audiophile pleasure but my senses focus more on the tone of the system. The presentation seemed to remove a layer of grunge you didn't know was there, like looking through a window or eye glasses that were perfectly cleaned. Highs and midrange seemed to have an organic feel, by that I mean clarity mentioned above with just a very small hint of warmth. Warmth in the sense voices so clear but also providing detail in the chest giving it body. I would absolutely not call the system warm but....voiced just right.

Bass was round and tuneful when called on, especially notable on Donald Fagan, The Nightfly. Again, great decay on the bass providing rhythm to the sound. No sub was used in the system.

I am no reviewer so I hope my description makes sense. I find buying cartridges somewhat of a crapshoot since there is the inability to audition in one's system. So in summary, his system was in the top tier at the CAF in my opinion. If I could recreate that sound in my system with a Hyperion I would be very happy. But again, I still think it is an 8K gamble - but with good odds at least.

Sounds pretty good to me. How was the air and sense of three dimensionality, especially the front to back depth?

 

[bazelio]

The table we use matters soo much too I can’t see why but wow or does.
So far it’s on my td125 Soon I’ll try it on my sota sapphire and eminent tech et2 arm

This is the table Soundsmith uses: STST Motus II. In reviews, in seems decent with a common theme being that it sounds a bit rounded. @bonzo75 has heard it.

 

[Alrainbow]

The sota room had so much energy and pop.

 

[Alrainbow]

Ok so I added counterweight for cart above 1.5 g
Set tracking to max setting of 2.2 and vta at rear down a hair much better. Wow this cart has impact
Big time and yet still has very fine details
Next up is a full setup with DR F. lets see how far it goes. The Mids are very powerful still but it calmed down the peaks. One day I would like to demo the Hyperion too.

 

[Grady98]

Sounds pretty good to me. How was the air and sense of three dimensionality, especially the front to back depth?

Hmmm....air and space around the instruments and voice was very good laterally. I would not characterize the stage as 3 dimensional. Could be speaker placement, it was a small room.

 

[Grady98]

I meant his small room only in my comments and yes this whole hobby is to each his own and don’t mean I know better. It’s so odd how far apart we all can be and yet be part of the club lol. I truly enjoyed the show over all.
Did you attend Gary’s large room on Sunday night with the harp ?

Point taken and you are right on personal tastes LOL. I did not attend his large room on Sunday night.

 

[Alrainbow]

No harm meant too bad we don’t know who we are at these shows. I would love to meet members from forums like here. We are a secrete society it seems hahaha.

 

[Solypsa]

This is the table Soundsmith uses: STST Motus II. In reviews, in seems decent with a common theme being that it sounds a bit rounded. @bonzo75 has heard it.

I've got a demo Motus II making rounds in the PNW fyi....possibly CA in coming months.

 

[bazelio]

I've got a demo Motus II making rounds in the PNW fyi....possibly CA in coming months.

Keep me in the loop!

 

[theophile]

No harm meant too bad we don’t know who we are at these shows. I would love to meet members from forums like here. We are a secrete society it seems hahaha.

Compartmentalised.

 

[Grady98]

Ok so I added counterweight for cart above 1.5 g
Set tracking to max setting of 2.2 and vta at rear down a hair much better. Wow this cart has impact
Big time and yet still has very fine details
Next up is a full setup with DR F. lets see how far it goes. The Mids are very powerful still but it calmed down the peaks. One day I would like to demo the Hyperion too.

Please keep us in the loop, sounds promising.

 

[bazelio]

I've recently seen the Soundsmith Hyperion for sale at 25% off MSRP in the US. For anyone interested.

 

[audioquest4life]

About to order the Hyperion. Does anyone have any recent impression? Was torn between the MSL Platinum, any Koetsu stone body, and the Hyperion. Let’s just say the Hyperion dropped into my lap.

This will be interesting for me as well since I am doing some winter mods; IO phono amp upgrade to partial Eclipse, Audioquest Fire interconnects, PS Audio 12 regenerator, Shunyata Alpha NR2 for phono amp and PS audio P12...and looking at replacing my Copulare amp stands with Silent Running Audio Ohio Class platforms (Wife won’t like the latter as she loves the looks of the Copulare)

 

[bazelio]

Make sure it's the newest Hyperion in the updated body. Presumably you don't use a SUT? Or at least I assume the gazillion or so tubes in the IO add up to enough SUTless gain for LO carts. This is best (no SUT) with Hyperion.

 

[audioquest4life]

Make sure it's the newest Hyperion in the updated body. Presumably you don't use a SUT? Or at least I assume the gazillion or so tubes in the IO add up to enough SUTless gain for LO carts. This is best (no SUT) with Hyperion.

Thank you. It will be the latest Hyperion for sure. I do not use a SUT as the IO and its gazillion tubes has enough gain for almost anything. Therefore, no SUT will be used with the Hyperion.

 

[bazelio]

Thank you. It will be the latest Hyperion for sure. I do not use a SUT as the IO and its gazillion tubes has enough gain for almost anything. Therefore, no SUT will be used with the Hyperion.

I'll be interested in your impressions of this fine cartridge once you've spent some time with it.

 

[audioquest4life]

Just got shipment information for the Hyperion. Should be here no later than Saturday. Sadly, I am still waiting for my IO to return fully refurbished in partial Eclipse form with two power supplies. I am streaming Tidal through a Bluesound Node 2i for now. I have a Project phono box s2 which kills my ears. The streamer sounds better.

 

[audioquest4life]

It’s here. Can’t play it until I get my phono stage back from Aesthetix with the partial Eclipse and two power supply mods.