What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

Ortofon have the WRD that is a Stacked Damper with a separator. I am led to believe the Damper Parts are different in their constituents and enable an  improved Damper function as compared to one Damper Part taking on the entirety of the Damper Function. This is typically seen adopted in Cart's from their Upper ranges and the odd Cart' that is a trickle down technology Cart' will be incprporating the design. From the 2020 period, I have a Kontrapunkt b with a WRD from a TOTR Cart' from that period added.

There is also the FSE which is a small ring produced to have a similar function to a ferrite? This is used as a Field Stabilising Element to create improvement in the  consistency of the wound coils EMF. The new controls of the emf, are also claimed to have a substantial reduction to current loop forming, loops / eddy current have an effect, as a proportion of a sent signal is being resent when and eddy is enabled to be effective.

Eddy current being without a control in a Cart' Coil winding is a subject not too commonly aired. I have been introduced to work undertaken to create low eddy upstream from a Cart' and the results have been very impressive, the idea of a control at the signal source is extremely attractive. I have even found one MC Cart' that has a design from the scratch build to address this issue.

The Cart' is referenced within this thread.

Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this discussion.

I have decided to purchase a DS Audio DS003 optical cartridge, plus a new SoulNote E-1 Ver 2 phono equaliser stage.  The SoulNote Ver 2 was only released last month, so there are no reviews available yet.  I have not seen one, nor had a chance to listen.  First shipments to Australia are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Unlike the original SoulNote E-1, the Ver 2 adds optical equalisation, as well as power for the optical cartridge.  It also supports MM and MC cartridges, but not simultaneously as far as I know.

My reasons for going DS Audio, and the DS003 in particular, include

1. I cannot afford higher end DS Audio cartridges
2. The DS003 has a micro-line stylus shape (or similar)
3. The very low effective tip mass should enable better tracking than other cartridge types
4. The very high output voltage from the powered cartridge should improve signal to noise ratio, especially over LOMC designs
5. The position-dependent signal, rather than velocity-dependent signal, is reported to mitigate surface noise, ticks, etc.
6. There are no moving coils or moving magnets to induce unwanted noise

A downside is that the cartridge cannot run in balanced mode because two of the four wires are used to carry power to the LEDs.

The SoulNote decision is far riskier for me.  I had not heard of SoulNote until I was offered a second-hand E-2, which is billed as the first (near) universal phono stage

1. Reviews of the E-2 phono equaliser are excellent
2. The second-hand one was sold just before I was convinced
3. The E-2 deals with far more record-company-specific curves than I will ever need
4. I cannot afford the higher-end E-2 or E-3 
5. The E-1 should improve my MM playback
6. The E-1 Ver 1 was affordable (just)

Effectively, this cartridge purchase has roughly doubled my investment in the Holbo air-bearing system.  Obviously I think the Holbo is so good it can take expensive cartridges

Congratulations! I think you'll be very pleased with the sound. I have been delighted with less surface noice, better channel separation and clear tonal qualities.

@richardbrand congrats!!! I was actually looking at the soulnote phono stage and reading up on it. Was wondering how it would perform as both optical and MC stage Looks to be a well built unit.
Please post updates. 

DS Audio DS003 optical cartridge+Soulnote E-+Holbo

You've got one helluva setup-great way to start 2026

Happy listening.

Now go get those stampers or UQHR's!