Soundsmith Hyperion
- Thread starter gian60
- Start date
Just installed my Hyperion MKII ESS. Right out of the gate this is an awesome cartridge. It’s sound is not like any other Soundsmith MI cartridge at all. It seems to me that it has somewhat of the mid attributes of a Koetsu Onyx based on my recollection. The Koetsu Onyx is a cartridge that I lusted after for years. It would be interesting to test these against each other at some point In the future.
I have an Air Tight Opus 1 coming sometime in the next few months. Will definitely do a shoot out between the Hyperion and Opus.
The Hyperion is an even handed cartridge with just the right amount of bloom, depth, and noticeable decay in any of the music I play.
Bass is so deep and the soundstage is also unbelievably wide. Voices are so palpable and realistic when called for. On the subject of voices, the reverberant background is nicely brought into focus, and backup singers are easily located in the soundstage.
This Hyperion seems to dig deeper in the grooves, for some of the records I played, some 1 euro or 1 dollar flea market finds, some the audiophile price class, and cleaned on the Clearaudio Matrix, sound nearly pristine and quiet. The flea market records sound fantastic.
I do have an upgraded Aesthetix Io phono stage in partial Eclipse form and two power supplies that’s part of the mix.
Lots to enjoy with this cartridge for sure. If anyone ever considered this cartridge and did not because of angst about a particular type of sound, I can attest that the Hyperion does not sound like a Soundsmith, but more so like an organic and well balanced and exceptionally high performing cartridge that competes way above its class.
I whole heartedly endorse this cartridge. It’s fun, it’s toe tapping, and it’s got an emotional attraction with music...you all know what I speak of who have had such connections. This cartridge performs that feat effortlessly.
I have an Air Tight Opus 1 coming sometime in the next few months. Will definitely do a shoot out between the Hyperion and Opus.
The Hyperion is an even handed cartridge with just the right amount of bloom, depth, and noticeable decay in any of the music I play.
Bass is so deep and the soundstage is also unbelievably wide. Voices are so palpable and realistic when called for. On the subject of voices, the reverberant background is nicely brought into focus, and backup singers are easily located in the soundstage.
This Hyperion seems to dig deeper in the grooves, for some of the records I played, some 1 euro or 1 dollar flea market finds, some the audiophile price class, and cleaned on the Clearaudio Matrix, sound nearly pristine and quiet. The flea market records sound fantastic.
I do have an upgraded Aesthetix Io phono stage in partial Eclipse form and two power supplies that’s part of the mix.
Lots to enjoy with this cartridge for sure. If anyone ever considered this cartridge and did not because of angst about a particular type of sound, I can attest that the Hyperion does not sound like a Soundsmith, but more so like an organic and well balanced and exceptionally high performing cartridge that competes way above its class.
I whole heartedly endorse this cartridge. It’s fun, it’s toe tapping, and it’s got an emotional attraction with music...you all know what I speak of who have had such connections. This cartridge performs that feat effortlessly.
Attachments
It’s been a minute but would still be highly interested in your listening observations with Hyperion Mk.II ESS vs Opus 1.
Hello,
I just got the system partially assembled after nearly 1 year in storage. Movers did not do a good job putting things in the right places. I am missing my Clearaudio MontBlanc turntable stand spikes...these are for the stand that I mount the big Transrotor Apollon turntable with 2 arms (SME V/Transrotor TRA 9 Gold) and these two cartridges, Hyperion and Opus 1.
My recollection is that I was still dialing in the Opus 1 with the Transrotor TRA 9 tonearm which was facing off against the SME V with Soundsmith Hyperion II. The two are different for sure. I never had a chance to play around with the loading as much as I wanted to with the Opus 1 prior to us packing. moving out, and putting things in storage. My initial listening feedback back then was that the Opus 1 seemed more finicky to setup than the Hyperion. Take that with a grain of salt. I need to mount the Opus 1 on my other SME V to benchmark directly against the Hyperion. Right now, to many different variables, cartridge loading, new cartridge break-in, and not enough time. Stil in transition to the new home.
At the new house, and in the new room, I was able to get the Transrotor Dark Star and a Soundsmith Sussaro MKII running to test out the system. I have a Solidsteel HF-4 Ebony Indonesian Macascar (Gloss) turntable rack for the Transrotor dark Star.
I slowly fired each component separately on its own direct connection to the wall. Everything came back to life except one of the McIntosh amps. I replaced an outer bank of KT 88's and all was good. I need to locate my tube testers (those movers again).
Once I have all in place, to include myself physically relocating, I will provide more detailed write-ups.
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It sounds as though you folks and the kit in general, just need some sorting out and settle in time, and all will be right again. Best of luck with that. Then on with the exploration! Always found the Transrotors caught my eye (and ears) at the shows. Great turntables. If it wasn’t for a trusted friend and an offer I could not refuse locally, I may have persuaded a dealer and the details to go that path. Wound up with a really nice condition Brinkmann Balance and a few extra arm boards. Which has turned out to be very rewarding.
I feel for you as moves are always a bit complicated and off putting for a time. Even when the situation or location is part of creating a better life.
I don’t know about you, but we are in Michigan so as summer winds down, audiophile season, especially with my MA1 OTLs, really starts to become the primary focus again. The warm months here are so sweet and brief, we find ourselves sidetracked somewhat from everyday listening.
The SoundSmiths are certainly intriguing, but there’s so little formal review out there and they themselves offer little subjective differentiation between their models. I do hear a lot of very positive stories from those who actually own them, like yourself, and have a good friend who has been through a couple of the them. I enjoy his Paua. But it leaves me with not really knowing where I might want to get in on the product line.and there are a lot of interesting carts out there.
Sound smith does wonderful repairs
his cart line up.
Changes too often and I think this leads to both confusion and frustration
I own an older flagship of his it’s like tape playing on vinyl. very well bodied warm of neutral to me sasurro mkii excuse spelling if wrong
it’s a tough cart to make play well. It’s both Heavy and stiff . But when done well it’s a great cart.
his cart line up.
Changes too often and I think this leads to both confusion and frustration
I own an older flagship of his it’s like tape playing on vinyl. very well bodied warm of neutral to me sasurro mkii excuse spelling if wrong
it’s a tough cart to make play well. It’s both Heavy and stiff . But when done well it’s a great cart.
Yes, that might truly be of concern I have with going SS. My current (open) arm slot is the Reed P3 12” in pernambuco wood. Another tonearm I adore. So I am picking a cartridge to match a tonearm instead of the other way around. I believe it has an effective mass of 18g. So I find another one of my favored options might be better suited, an Etsuro Cobalt or Bordeaux.
Hyperion MKII update:
Well, it’s been a long journey since the last update to reach the end goal of rebuilding the system after the move. A lot of things have happened during this time phase.
Our dog Sunny, was diagnosed with a spleen tumor which was cancerous. We discovered this during a checkup when he was feeling ill. Unbeknownst to us, the tumor had ruptured about 24-36 hours beforehand and he was bleeding internally. We opted for emergency spleen removal surgery and put him on clinical trials for a new immunotherapy treatment program. So, cherishing all the time we have with him.
I have personally taken time off from lots of things to focus on personal health needs I reluctantly put off for too long for many military related service injuries. Hope to stave off any further surgeries. 7 and counting….enough is enough, lol.
Don’t want to dwell on negative things so positive vibes, wife is receiving her PHD in a few weeks and we have mostly settled into the house. There is still some minor listening studio tweaks to do but for now, the room is optimized and the equipment is fully operational.
Now, for the Hyperion…I went back and double checked all my settings and verified my initial setup on the SME V tonearm. As I optimized speaker placement and measured in room response to add my spot treatments (mix of diffusion and absorption) I was getting closer to reaching my audio listening goals. The Hyperion MKII is an amazing cartridge right out of the box and listening now compared to when it was new a few years go, I must say, there has been no change in performance. The Hyperion MKII just provides beautiful balanced music.
This new listening room is bigger and allows the speakers to breathe more. We can hear better layering and excellent separation of soundstage with regards to singers and instruments. Nothing stands out and yells look at me except the extraordinary way the Hyperion MKII plays music. It’s just great and could easily be an end game cartridge for most anyone. Instruments are portrayed in space and layered when picked up from the album. The Hyperion will let you know if the record is a good pressing or not regardless of an audiophile record or old record store records. Perhaps, this is more about the pressing and not the Hyperion itself. I would also iterate that the Hyperion tracks easily and is quiet in the grooves allowing for louder music when called for without hearing any noticeable groove noise.
Surprisingly, I settled on 47k ohms , 62db gain, and 1.9 grams tracking force. Any lower ohm settings just seem to make the Hyperion on my system less dynamic and more muted in the mids and highs (Aesthetix Io partial Eclipse). Other than that, I would consider the Hyperion MKII a daily player for most records due to the great price point for a rebuild. There is really nothing negative to say about this cartridge from my perspective. The Hyperion MKII deserves to be heard to understand what I mean about all the superlatives I am mentioning. Sometimes, I shake my head even thinking about why do I need anything else. This checks all the boxes. This hobby seems to make people insatiable.
On that note, I have a new Hyperion MK II MR on the way. This newer version of the Hyperion uses the micro-ridge stylus vs the contact line of the Hyperion MK II and also claims to have reduced internal moving mass. I will mount that on the other SME V arm and do a comparison. I can’t wait to hear what the difference is. If anyone has a Benz LPS cartridge, it also has an MR stylus and is simply amazing. The one thing I noted about the Benz LPs compared to the Hyperion is that the Benz LPS seemed to play vocals quieter. More like the vocals were more subtle causing me to increase volume and experiment with gain. Not sure if an output of .34 (Benz) vs .40 for the Hyperion makes that much of a difference.
I currently have the Air Tight Opus 1 installed on the other SME V arm. Opus 1 Listening impressions will be posted in the Opus 1 thread later on. So, for now, back to listening again.
Well, it’s been a long journey since the last update to reach the end goal of rebuilding the system after the move. A lot of things have happened during this time phase.
Our dog Sunny, was diagnosed with a spleen tumor which was cancerous. We discovered this during a checkup when he was feeling ill. Unbeknownst to us, the tumor had ruptured about 24-36 hours beforehand and he was bleeding internally. We opted for emergency spleen removal surgery and put him on clinical trials for a new immunotherapy treatment program. So, cherishing all the time we have with him.
I have personally taken time off from lots of things to focus on personal health needs I reluctantly put off for too long for many military related service injuries. Hope to stave off any further surgeries. 7 and counting….enough is enough, lol.
Don’t want to dwell on negative things so positive vibes, wife is receiving her PHD in a few weeks and we have mostly settled into the house. There is still some minor listening studio tweaks to do but for now, the room is optimized and the equipment is fully operational.
Now, for the Hyperion…I went back and double checked all my settings and verified my initial setup on the SME V tonearm. As I optimized speaker placement and measured in room response to add my spot treatments (mix of diffusion and absorption) I was getting closer to reaching my audio listening goals. The Hyperion MKII is an amazing cartridge right out of the box and listening now compared to when it was new a few years go, I must say, there has been no change in performance. The Hyperion MKII just provides beautiful balanced music.
This new listening room is bigger and allows the speakers to breathe more. We can hear better layering and excellent separation of soundstage with regards to singers and instruments. Nothing stands out and yells look at me except the extraordinary way the Hyperion MKII plays music. It’s just great and could easily be an end game cartridge for most anyone. Instruments are portrayed in space and layered when picked up from the album. The Hyperion will let you know if the record is a good pressing or not regardless of an audiophile record or old record store records. Perhaps, this is more about the pressing and not the Hyperion itself. I would also iterate that the Hyperion tracks easily and is quiet in the grooves allowing for louder music when called for without hearing any noticeable groove noise.
Surprisingly, I settled on 47k ohms , 62db gain, and 1.9 grams tracking force. Any lower ohm settings just seem to make the Hyperion on my system less dynamic and more muted in the mids and highs (Aesthetix Io partial Eclipse). Other than that, I would consider the Hyperion MKII a daily player for most records due to the great price point for a rebuild. There is really nothing negative to say about this cartridge from my perspective. The Hyperion MKII deserves to be heard to understand what I mean about all the superlatives I am mentioning. Sometimes, I shake my head even thinking about why do I need anything else. This checks all the boxes. This hobby seems to make people insatiable.
On that note, I have a new Hyperion MK II MR on the way. This newer version of the Hyperion uses the micro-ridge stylus vs the contact line of the Hyperion MK II and also claims to have reduced internal moving mass. I will mount that on the other SME V arm and do a comparison. I can’t wait to hear what the difference is. If anyone has a Benz LPS cartridge, it also has an MR stylus and is simply amazing. The one thing I noted about the Benz LPs compared to the Hyperion is that the Benz LPS seemed to play vocals quieter. More like the vocals were more subtle causing me to increase volume and experiment with gain. Not sure if an output of .34 (Benz) vs .40 for the Hyperion makes that much of a difference.
I currently have the Air Tight Opus 1 installed on the other SME V arm. Opus 1 Listening impressions will be posted in the Opus 1 thread later on. So, for now, back to listening again.
So first off, thank you for your service sir.
And my yes, doesn’t a good life get busy. Nice tt set up! We have friends in our audio club that have loved their SoundSmith experience for years with a whole range of their product line. I haven’t met a single one that I didn’t really enjoy. I know that sounds like faint praise but it is not at all. Each SS were so musical and basically lacked nothing. But of course as you go up the product line they become more and more resolving, and it’s all a question of dollars and your preferred flavor. Just to share for comparison; through an Aesthetix Rhea Eclipse, my Etsuro Urushi Bordeaux (0.25mV), found its sweet spot at 62db, 2.0VTF, 47Ω and my Lyra Etna Lambda (0.56 mV), 56db, 1.72VTF, 47Ω. This is where they both sing. Cheers!
Look forward to hearing your observations/comparisons as you and your kit settle in together and you get some good spin time.
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