SKU: 45676913153

Soundsmith Carmen MKII Turntable Cartridge

Sale price$828.00 Regular price$920.00
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Description

Soundsmith Carmen MKII Turntable CartridgeCARMEN MKII Our Carmen design resolves high performance at an affordable price. A dramatic deep and wide soundstage, and ultra trackability. The Carmen MKII was created out of the desire to make a very high performance design at an affordable price Just slightly lush with a well developed midrange, the Carmen MKIIis surprisingly pleasing and will seduce you into late listening sessions. The stylus used is a part of what makes it special; an ultralow

CARMEN MKII

Our Carmen design resolves high performance at an affordable price. A dramatic deep and wide soundstage, and ultra trackability.

The Carmen MKII was created out of the desire to make a very high performance design at an affordable price... Just slightly lush with a well developed midrange, the Carmen MKIIis surprisingly pleasing and will seduce you into late listening sessions. The stylus used is a part of what makes it special; an ultralow mass cut and polished into a true Hyper-Elliptical shape. The combination of low tip mass and the Moving Iron gives the Carmen MKII a tremendous resolution advantage over MC designs selling for more than twice the price. Housed in our new ES DEMS body design, the Carmen MKII delivers.

New EM Series DEMS Design

What is DEMS??

“Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.” – Peter Ledermann.

2018’s RMAF show was the official launch of Soundsmith’s new ES series of cartridges, where the attendees experienced the latest exploration into overlooked areas of cartridge design and solutions from Soundsmith.

The ES line features not only a dramatic new look, but is a significant evolution of the DEMS system design (Dynamic Energy Management System). The new Soundsmith ES cartridge designs are a significant advancement in cartridge performance due to their ability to direct internal vibrational forces without reflection and disperse them properly to the tone arm. The absence of reflections enables the stylus to stay in far greater statistical contact with the groove walls — a critically important technical refinement. Increased liquidity and reduced “grain,” without loss of detail are some of the immediately discernible advantages of Soundsmith’s new ES models.

The new line also features Azimuth adjustment built-in to each cartridge, as well as the option for electrical isolation for hum-prone systems. (see picture below)

Every cartridge in Soundsmith’s lineup will now feature our sleek new ES body design. The upgrade is far more than cosmetic; the new shape is a departure from the reflective and “boxy” design of many cartridges whose internal construction contribute to uncontrolled vibrational issues adversely affecting performance. Peter says, “Think of how singing in an open field compares with singing in a shower.” Soundsmith has always challenged conventions, looking deeper into nuances of cartridge design that dramatically affect immediate and long term performance. These have included extreme reductions of moving mass and the use of novel materials and designs. The new ES lineup is a continuation of that research and development.

ES Series Mounting

The new ES has some special mounting features that you need to be aware of.

Sometimes when mounting on a grounded metal arm, a cartridge will create hum due to a ground loop. If you experience some low level hum due to ground loop, you can now solve this issue by using the two half-round white rods which are to be placed and used in the OUTER slots, seen on the top of the cartridge. Place them flat side UP.

The rods are made of Alumina, and are insulating, thus allowing ground isolation for your cartridge without compromising the crucial mechanical energy transfer into the tone arm. This energy transfer is maintained due to the use of Alumina, which has the same properties as aluminum, but is non-conductive. Due to the novel body design of the ES cartridge, electrical isolation can still be maintained even though you may use metal screws.

On tone arms that do not allow azimuth adjustment, it is now possible to achieve this adjustment by way of the ES series by using the one full round alumina rod in the center slot only, alternately tightening and loosening the mounting screws by small amounts.

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SKU: 45676913153

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4.3 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
D
D. Christofferson
Massapequa, US
★★★★★ 2
It's good for storytelling but has content in stories that's inappropriate in this century
Format: Audiobook
Well modulated interesting and excellent storytelling ability, and skills to teach us of the same. However. I get to the 2nd lesson, it's a book of fiction for the story premise. She describes a woman in her family who can't get pregnant (in the old days), knowing her husband really wants children,and gets happy, as she turns to her "maid" and exclaims that this is alright, he can have a child with their maid! Then the storytelling author, laughs, jokes, about pleasing him and when she says the audience is laughing too, that maybe he can get a 2nd maid pregnant too. Laughing and joking I. The man's eyes as she tells it, about men and their sex drives. I'm not reading g a Victorian romance novel or of the plantation owners in the south, I'm reading a book of lessons on good story telling. This turned me off 500%, and I am done with this author and this book. Is this told by an FDLS polygamist, or ...what? What would make this story in 2013, OK to teach in a college course, or in this book? I don't care if she even made it up for a family old story.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2025
W
Verified Purchase
William L. Pogue
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 5
Five Stars
Format: Paperback
good job
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018
M
Michael Griswold
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 4
A Book For Audio
Format: Audiobook
The Art of Storytelling from Parents to Professionals is the first book that I can be confident in saying is better as an audio version than it would be in a paper or Kindle form because you can here the verbal inflections and the storytellers can change character, voice much easier than the printed word might. It also captures the listeners attention as the author herself can connect in a lot more personal and intimate way. My concern is while I can understand what the author is getting at, I am not aspiring to be an oral performance style storyteller and there was not enough of a reach out from the world of oral storytelling to the written story. I mean how many of us are going to get up on stage and tell stories? I guess you can take the skills from one realm and use them elsewhere, but the connection may not be made so easily. This was an audiobook that I had a lot of fun with, even if I didn’t quite get what I was hoping for from it.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2020
L
Louis LaSalle
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Great Overview of the Art of Storytelling
Format: Audiobook
I chanced on this as an Audible "freebie" to keep on the list for when I was out of credits. Well, it's excellent, and well worth the listen. And excellent survey of the topic spanning topics of performance (preparing, voice, body language, projection), various aspects of framing (culture, age, ethnicity, audience size), story structure and so on This point is for Hannah B. Harvey, if perchance she reads tese reviews. One point of modern storytelling and writing that is not brought out in your lectures, is that some of the best villain/antagonists are actually the heroes/protagonists of their own stories. This is tangentially alluded to in talking about story viewpoints, but not to the extent that it can be an entirely new story, as Wicked and Maleificent turned The Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty on their heads. And even in the 1960's, many a Bond 007 villain was trying to create what they imagined to be a better world. It's useful to consider in storytelling, as far too many people have forgotten/fail to see the fundamental moral ambiguities of life, and I suspect that goes a long way to explaining the extreme partisanship we see in the world today.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2023
D
Doodlebugs
Boise, US
★★★★★ 3
Sadly, I found the tips and the examples in this lecture to be very simplistic and uninspiring.
Format: Audiobook
I expected a professional storyteller to be able to keep my interest but I found the presentation to be quite boring. I got nothing out of it that I didn’t already know from just being an avid reader. It felt like a high school lecture. Sigh!!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019

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