Soundsmith - HELIOS cactus-spine cantilever and OC-CL stylus

The Helios

The laws of physics dictate how moving systems operate, therefore cartridges must strictly adhere to first principles to get sublime results. In accord with these laws, the Helios Cactus needle Cantilever has the best of all worlds - thanks to Mother Nature. Other Cantilevers are synthesized – we GROW these.

Superior cantilever designs have always employed tapered cantilevers - Hard to do with aluminum, and all but impossible with the super hard and durable materials, such as boron, ruby or diamond. Cantilevers must also have dualistic qualities that are mutually exclusive; both stiffness and damping are required. The tapered, longitudinal stacked columnar fibers, stacked and damped with desiccated resin are exactly what one would build if one could - fortunately “nature” has done it for us. The best of both worlds - extreme rigidity, internal damping, and tremendous strength define what we feel is the best cantilever that can be built. Used in conjunction with our most highly refined Moving Iron cartridge design, the Helios has realized our hope - to further resolve our enjoyment of vinyl replay. Our moving iron design allows the required stationary magnetic parts to be rigidly held in exact position at all times thereby allowing dramatic reduction of the moving mass in the generating system.

Technical Specifications:

Soundsmith medium output cartridges require a minimum load of 1500 Ohms, and may be used all the way up to 47K Ohms. The capacitive loading is not terribly critical, but does have an effect. Anything from 100 – 400 Pf will help tune it a bit.