What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

@richardbrand 

Just putting away the useless (to me) non-Australian power cord supplied with my SoulNote, with the useful caution not to use any other power cable.

Why don't you replace the plug on the supplied power cable with an Australian plug.

I have found that sometimes source related power cables which require little current often sound better with smaller gauge cable than the usual Fatboy audiophile go to's.

You should be able to work out the recommended gauge for the Soulnote phono from the markings on the supplied cable.

Lian Dung is a cable company in Taiwan that produces the cables, including with Australian plugs, so your distributor is a bit lazy.

https://www.liandung.com.tw/Australian.htm

@richardbrand 

Here in the US, there is a regulatory requirement that equipment be shipped with a NEMA-compliant power cord. Possibly Australia has a similar requirement for a locally-usable and code-compliant power cord.

You may want to complain loudly until your power cord is exchanged for the appropriate type.

Possibly Australia has a similar requirement for a locally-usable and code-compliant power cord.

Actually it does, but "high end audio" seems to operate on a different planet.

Nobody complains until the insurance company refuses a claim from the fire or other incident on the basis of non compliance. Then of course it is the nasty insurance companies fault.

@dover 

Thanks for sorting out what LIAN DUNG means!

I am only making a bit of a drama because of all the fuss around power cords in the audiophile world!  My SoulNote distributor tells me all his clients use audiophile grade power cords.  At the same time, SoulNote say only use the supplied cable.  Catch 22.

The supplied cable is labelled 250-Volts 16-Amps.  There are only two Australian plugs in the market, one is rated for 10-Amps while the other has a wider earth prong for 15-Amps and is normally only used in caravan parks.  I just used a 10-Amp power cable I had lying around.  For goodness sake, the unit only draws 28-Watts although its toroidal transformer is rated for 10 times that.

Obviously I could cut the Japanese plug off and fit an Aussie one and I might dissect the cable to see if there really is something special - shielding, twist perhaps.

Aussie rules for electricity are really stupid compared with the ring main system now prevalent in the UK.  You can basically have a tree configuration with heaps of outlets, but you will trip the circuit breaker if just two full power appliances are switched on at the same time.

Yes, there is Consumer Law in Australia, which says goods must be suitable for the purpose sold.  It also provides statutory warranty which is the expectation a normal citizen has about how long a product should last based on its price and place in the market.  Worked really well for me with an OLED TV that failed over 3 years after the manufactuer's warranty expired.  Got what I paid back in full, and bought the replacement model which had halved in price, and pocketed three grand.

@richardbrand 

So the specs for the 250v 16A max cable from Lian Dung are 3 core with cross section of 0.75 (18awg ) -1.5mm2 ( 16awg ).

Typically for a power cable for an amplifier you would use 2.5mm2 - 14 awg - which will handle 25 amps - well in excess of most amps. Some of the audiophile jumbo cables run up to 5mm2 which can handle 30amps plus.

So you can see Soulnote have supplied a cable that may in fact outperform more expensive larger cross section cables regardless of cost because there are electrical downsides from having larger cables than necessary.

With regards to the distributor - of course they want to promote after market cables - it helps their bottom line. 

I've got power cables here up to $10k, and I can tell you after experimenting with 3x1.5mm2 power cable from Gotham Audio ( model number 85215 ) as well as no name cable for low demand sources I found it quite illuminating. I used to distribute quite a few cable brands, and over the years I have successfully improved some systems by replacing the audiophile power cables with customer kettle cords.

Always pays to try with an open mind - many audiophile cables are tuned for a specific sound, which may or may not suit a given system.