Do you feel the connectors moving when you are connecting cables?
No more than the nervous twitches in my hands, which will get worse when holding a delicate optical cartridge worth thousands!
Lol. You’re going to be fine.
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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So I had a wee feel last night, and the connectors feel very solid. Maybe on the cheap (ha!) units, SoulNote do not include all their tricks. The manual definitely mentions the 'floating' top panel. To understand why they hypothesise (guess) that this is good, you first have to believe that vibrations affect the sound quality from at least some electronic components, and that the effect is not good! Then it follows that the PCB these components are on should be protected as much as possible from vibrations, including from the very sound waves your system produces. So, let the PCB float on 3 pins inside a chassis that floats on 3 spikes. Anecdotally, SoulNote noticed during product development that the lid was usually left off. When they put the lid back on, they heard the sound quality get worse. Conclusion: More vibrational energy was reaching the PCB. Tightly coupling the lid to the chassis made for a more resonant structure than having the lid float. My own thought experiment goes like this. Imagine you are inside an empty steel shipping container, and somebody is hammering on the outside. Now imagine you are in a tent being hammered. Tent surfaces must be near the ultimate for de-coupling. |
I am mindful that the shading plates attached just above the stylus are made of very thin beryllium. In the atomic table, beryllium is the fourth lightest element after hydrogen, helium and lithium. It is an alkaloid metal much lighter than aluminium but stiffer than mild steel and highly stable. Of relevance to @lewm it is non-magnetic. But it is also very brittle, very very expensive, highly highly highly toxic and hard to fabricate. Shure used if for some cantilevers in the V15 series. I guess that's why the next element up, boron, now finds favour. |
My DAC has some sort of vibration deadening material affixed to the inside of its lid. When I tap on it, it’s solid as hell. Not sure if they managed the PCB vibration or they just didn’t think it was needed. The approach Soulnote chose to use is definitely interesting and I admire it. Just another way to skin the cat. I’m curious to know what particular frequencies excite the phono stage chassis and PCB to impact the sound quality. I have no way to measure it though. |
I am just the poor interpreter / reporter here! SoulNote would probably say you are using your frequency brain. Tapping is time dependent, not frequency dependent. They would also say don't measure first, first use your ears. Almost all easy measurements are in the frequency domain, but they say these, when optimised for frequency, are often detrimental to the real sound quality which is always in the time domain. 100% with you on turntable / cartridge resonances. I often tap mine to see if my sorbothane hemispheres are calculated correctly, and / or are settling under 60-kgs load. There's probably some mythical burn-in time for them, and they need to keep away from the Holbo's resonances! Massive panels store energy for longer. Lightweight panels dissipate it earlier (time domain brain). I also find it interesting that SoulNote likes lightweight interconnects. Obviously they are less likely to transmit resonances than stiff, heavy interconnects. After all, our entire universe and everything in it resonates |
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