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.
What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?
Most cartridges have a stylus and cantilever where the transducer (magnet, iron or coil) sits on the far end of the cantilever. What other designs are there?
I am mindful of two designs which put the business end right on top of the stylus. The first is the moving coil (MC) Audio Technica AT-ART1000 which places two tiny coils, each 0.9-mm diameter, with eight turns of wire directly above the stylus. Australian price is about AUD-7000 and there apparently is a newer model, slightly less exxe. the ART1000X. This has square coils for a bit more output, and threaded mounting holes.
A downside is that stylus replacement involves a factory maintenance program and the Australian website page describing this service does not exist.
Another design is optical, exemplified by DS Audio's range. While these still need a stylus to trace the groove, the signal is produced by reading the intensity of light produced by a Light Emitting Diode (LED) hitting two sensors. Between the LED and the sensors are two 'shades' mounted above the stylus which change the amount of light as the stylus vibrates. These cartridges need a special "photo-stage" to replace the conventional phono-stage which is an additional expense.
Australian prices including photo-stages range from AUD-2,150 for the DS-E1 to the DS Master 3 at approximately AUD-40,800, which is a bit outside my price range! Where is the sweet spot?
What other way-out designs are there?
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@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. |
Thanks for your input, especially on the DS003 cartridge and equaliser. Can you comment on how static affects the cartridge? There is no electromagnetic pickup to be excited by a static discharge. Mind you, I am not convinced that static directly affects any cartridge. I think it is the lumps of dirt that the static attracts. |
Apparently SoulNote was started by people from Marantz’ high-end team. I must say that I find their product range and website quite confusing! They currently offer three ranges, the Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3 - let’s call them entry-level, mid-range and high-end. They are prefixed E.1, E.2 and E.3 respectively. The E might as well stand for Expensive! Each range may include equalisers, preamplifiers, amplifiers and other components. Then there are different versions, which appear as nothing or Ver 2. So to precisely identify a SoulNote box, you need for example to specify E.1 Ver 2 Phono Equalizer. The box I have ordered is not on their website yet, and the major difference from the E.1 Phono Equalizer according to their press release is the provision of circuits to support optical cartridges instead of just MM and MC. That’s a pretty big difference for what just appears to be a mere upgrade. The high-end E.3 Phono Equalizer only supports optical cartridges and weighs in at 27-kgs compared with the E.1 at about 10-kgs and the E.2 at 20-kgs. Price is approximately proportional to weight! But the E.2 supports four inputs, and can switch between them. Again rather confusingly there is a Ver 2 but there is no information apart from a photo on SoulNote’s website. Lends credence to SoulNote being a technology-led company, not a slick marketing machine. All the equalisers carry the term non-NFB which is not explained but seems to mean no negative feedback. Ken Kessler has reviewed the E.2 Phono Equaliser Soulnote E-2 Universal Phono Preamp | Hi-Fi News - the review was enough to convince me Cheers, Richard |
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