What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

@pindac 

This Thread is deliberate in bringing DS Audio into the limelight.

The Tiger is caught by the tail, there is little control left, hang on for the ride

As the original poster, I was interested in hearing about DS Audio and how it compares with TOTR (I'll spell that out for politeness' sake - Top Of The Range)  moving coil.  I mentioned the Audio Technical ART-1000 so that's 50% each.

It pretty quickly became clear that the compromises with low output moving coil (LOMC) between getting a very low effective tip mass and sufficient signal for reasonable signal to noise ratios, simply do not apply to DS Audio's current implementation of optical.  DS Audio has both lower effective tip mass and vastly greater signal - hundreds of times more.

I have now put my hard-earned where my analysis led.  I am not opposed to optical equalisers from sources other than DS Audio and in fact have purchased a SoulNote Equalizer rather than one from DS Audio.  Before starting this thread, I had heard of Mr Nixie but I had not heard of SoulNote!  It is hard to compare a fully balanced equaliser with no negative feedback and no operational amplifiers, that weighs 9.5 kgs, with a cigarette packet-sized unit.

Neither my DS003 cartridge nor my SoulNote are anywhere near TOTR in their lineups. Nevertheless, my SoulNote follows the RIAA curve within 0.3-dB.

I think it is worth mentioning that one of the functions of an equaliser for DS Audio is to supply DC power to the 3 diodes in the cartridge.  Any ripple in that power supply will surely imprint on the diodes' output.

The TOTR DS Audio equaliser is a two box system weighing 40-kgs which together contain about 5 Farads of high-grade capacitors.

I am expecting the sound to be analytical (or CD-like) and I may not like it.

Meanwhile I am about to plug my SoulNote in for the first time, using moving magnet cartridges and a cheap pair of XLR cables while I wait for my DS003 cartridge to reach Australian shores.  Stay tuned ....

Speaking from experience, the tracking ability of this cartridge is amazing. Passages that used to make me cringe because I knew distortion was coming, are now crystal clear. Rickie Lee Jones comes to mind.

@richardbrand I’m sure you know there will be some break in period for the phono stage so don’t jump to conclusions too soon. I would keep it on 24/7 and it should settle in a week or so. 
Some phono stages are designed to be as quiet and as transparent as possible. My Whest definitely falls into that category. If you recall I mentioned in one of the threads that my vinyl rig sounded like a CD. It was a combination of Clearaudio Concept table and Whest. When I got my VPI table the sound characteristics changed. No it’s not as sweet as some other phono stages but it’s not analytical per se. My buddy’s McIntosh MP100 phono stage is much sweeter sounding but not as dynamic. 
I’m wondering where the Soulnote falls sonics wise. I will be looking to do a cartridge and phono stage upgrade later this year so I’m anxiously awaiting your thoughts on your new setup. 

Approximately 50% of the OP is dedicated to DS Audio and plenty of post after are about DS Audio.

This Thread is deliberate in bringing DS Audio into the limelight.

@pindac 

You are correct, and DS Audio is certainly a legitimate and worthwhile topic within this thread.

However, it almost seems as if more attention has been lavished upon Mr. Nixie’s products than DS Audio’s, including the entirety of your 3,000,000-word penultimate thread :)

Mr. Nixie makes only three DS Audio-related products: a €800 pocket-size equalizer that appears to have sprouted an extra zero in its price, and two standalone equalizers - a SS one and a tube one.

I have auditioned none, to be clear, and his two standalone equalizers may very well deserve all the praise they’re getting from certain online forums. But his cigarette pack-sized entry-level offering can probably safely be dismissed, to the extent that it adds an extra box, an extra layer of signal conversion, an extra pair of interconnects, and an extra power supply between the DS Audio cartridge and a conventional MM phono stage that was, obviously, never designed to process the output of an optical cartridge. One is probably better off with a dedicated equalizer, whether from DS Audio or an alternate maker, but that’s just my opinion. 

@audphile1 

I’m sure you know there will be some break in period for the phono stage so don’t jump to conclusions too soon. I would keep it on 24/7 and it should settle in a week or so. 

SoulNote states that the electronics in the E-1 Ver2 Equalizer need an hour's warm-up to reach peak performance.  I need a lot more than that!

Anyway, it is on being warmed up as I write this.  It only consumes 28-Watts so I will leave it on unless I am away for days on end, which is most of the time.

My initial cables will not do it justice, either.  6-meters of microphone cheapo XLRs