What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

@dover 

Power supply in Australia is very different from the North American experience.  Apart from the slower frequency, we need under half as much current to get the same power.  As you know, current is the real villain when it comes to cross-sections of conductors, and also switching noise.

Every suburban street has three phase power. Normally every third house is connected to one phase, but you can pay more and get all three phases.  My place has a 3-phase sauna and a 3-phase sander!

One experience of mine shows where a power cord made an absolutely repeatable, measurable difference.  My free-to-air terrestrial television reception is pretty marginal.  When a KEF subwoofer was powered up, it obliterated the TV signal.  The KEF has a built-in class D amplifier and it was pushing sufficient RFI down the mains cord to take out the TV signal.  A couple of $10 ferrite rings round the same power cord fixed the issue.

@richardbrand 

Yes - I am in New Zealand, so we have the same environment.

What I do know about digital is that it dumps a lot of noise into the earth as well.

I basically run all the signal amplification ( head amp, preamp, power amps ) through one line from the mains board, and run all other ( digital, turntable power supplies ) through a separate line. I like to keep all amplification on one line to minimise earth loop noise.

I had a bad experience from an Australian distributor, when I picked up some stock off him, we ended up with a blown amp because he had chopped the plug and installed a fancy Furutech with phase and neutral round the wrong way. Unbeknown to the distributor that particular American company uses black for phase, and he made a very expensive assumption. Shudder to think how many amps he’s blown up in OZ.

@dover 

Great to hear you are in Godzone!  My kids are 50% Kiwi ... and I run a Perreaux amp.  As your past Prime Minister said when flying into Sydney and told that New Zealanders had the highest crime rate of any ethnic group in Bondi "I don’t know about that, but my statisticians tell me there is a net outflow from New Zealand to Australia and it has the effect of raising the intelligence levels on both sides of the Tasman"

When you say

What I do know about digital is that it dumps a lot of noise into the earth as well

can you clarify whether you mean the earth wire in the power cord, or the planet at large?  In remote areas, Australia also delivers power by SWER (Single Wire Earth Return)  which means that only one wire is run to a property, usually on poles, and the circuit is completed via the ground (the planet), When training to fly gliders, SWERs were counted as a real hazard during remote landings - the poles are way apart, and the wire is virtually invisible but deadly.

In my opinion, audiophiles should concentrate on the electronic noise coming from their own equipment, not noise supplied by the power company.  What do you think?

@richardbrand 

I meant digital dumps a lot of noise back into the earth paths via the power cord.

That's why having any digital equipment on a separate line from the mains board can help, even though ultimately the 2 earths come together at the mains board.

I would agree with your comment about focussing on minimising noise from your own equipment, logic tells me you can't control the incoming power, but you can address issues in your own gear. Getting rid of noise in your own gear is no different to upgrading components, lower noise - more resolution, at a much lower cost.

Interestingly I have used the Naim system power protocols with my amplification - all on one line, power amp first into the wall then preamp then head amp. My distribution box is daisy chained, not star earthed - I've compared the two formats and the daisy chain  with power amp first in to pre to source wins every time. This system has worked well for many high end installations I've done with primarily  non Naim systems. That Naim protocol system has removed mains noise from other non audio sources very effectively. I also make sure the house earth is in good shape, no corrosion, decent wire etc.

I don't like mains filters per se, they tend to suck dynamics. I used to distribute high end years ago, so I've done many installs.

@audphile1 

You encouraged me to pull out Bruno Walter conducting Mahler 9 with the Columbia Symphony.  This is a box set I've owned for around 60 years.  While the performance and sound quality are superb for the era, my copies have very bad surface noise, especially Record 1 which contains the first and last movement.  Designed for autochangers, Record 1 gets put back in its sleeve twice as often as Record 2.  The sleeves were paper with a plastic lining, replaced with anti-static sleeves after an ultrasonic clean.  As a box set, the records were much freer to slide around inside than records in normal record sleeves.  This surface noise is not the snaps, crackles and pops I associate with static - more a subterranean murmuring or leaves rustling.

Before my DS Audio cartridge arrives, I will ultrasonically clean these records again, and then listen to see how much noise the optical cartridge transmits.

I have a couple of SACDs of Mahler 9 - the Osmo Vanska BIS recording A$30 and Gergiev's complete set with LSO live which costs about A$60 for 10 SACDs.  The Walter / Columbia set is still available on CD for about $30.  All these disks added together cost less than one Achromat here.

PS:  Did your post unpacking my joke about STIFF DUNG get censored?