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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?

richardbrand
richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand OP
1,409 posts
 

@maxson 

I am interested in how you go about getting a motor replacement for your Holbo?  Is it under warranty?  Who physically swaps the motor unit?

You always need a special equaliser for DS Audio optical cartridges.  This is because the cartridges give a signal proportional to the position of the stylus, whereas electromagnetic pick-ups give a velocity signal. Maybe these optical equalisers should be called photo-stages.

Even with the SoulNote, you still need to feed the output to a pre-amplifier (for volume control and gain).  Equalisation of the RIAA curve can logically be done by either the photo-stage or by the pre-amplifier, but the actual implementation has to support the design intent.

maxson
100 posts
 

Holbo was out of warranty--I ordered the motor from Bostjan rather than sending the table to Slovenia--I still need to install it--requires soldering on a circuit board with very little room to move. Looking for a tech.

I was referring to the Nixie optical-Riaa converter, which takes the output of the DS cart and converts it to a signal that your regular phono stage can handle.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand OP
1,409 posts
 

@maxson 

Thanks for that service information.  I think Holbo changed to a Japanese motor for the Mk2 but that could be a rumour.

When you say "Nixie optical-Riaa converter" are you referring to what they describe as a "DS-Audio to RIAA Converter".  I think the key here is that it is a box that sits between a DS Audio cartridge and a conventional phono stage - the actual RIAA Converter.

Not easy to understand their ecosystem!

maxson
100 posts
 

Right, the RIAA Converter, which goes between the cart and a conventional phono stage. Seems like would repay the investment in my phono stage as opposed to a new one. Would I be able to sell the 003 equalizer I just got, tho? Only to people holding on to their lower level DS carts and upgrading their equalizers, I'd imagine.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand OP
1,409 posts
 

@maxson 

The market for your pre-loved DS003 Equalizer is much bigger than that.  It includes new DS003 cartridge buyers who are looking to save a bit of money.  This is because DS Audio have unbundled their cartridges from their equalisers, for which they deserve a big tick.

There are quite a lot of European equalisers that don't include the RIAA conversion and look a lot more professional than Mr Nixie.

But you do throw away one of the optical cartridge benefits - its very high output voltages of 70mV compared with 5mV for MM types.  This almost certainly would overload your MM input unless you add attenuating resistors.  You risk adding more noise than the benefits you get from using your fine pre-amplifier's RIAA curve.

At least that's my thoughts from a theoretical viewpoint!

 

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