I was told by an ex-pat living in the middle East that crashing into a camel was very dangerous, as their leg length was just right to ensure their body would fall through your windshield and crush you.
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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Uh, just to return to the subject of the thread for a moment.... I decided to return the DS 003 to The Music Room, for a 5% restocking fee. I loved the staging and dynamics, but felt my (higher end) MCs did a better job of nuance. So I guess I need a W3. Then I got my Holbo working again after a long story, so wasn't able to test out Richard's combo before he did. I'm so glad it's playing again, tho. Very light and airy sound (w/plenty of bass, too) vs. the more gutsy JVC/FR64. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
@maxson @audphile1 I’m still weeks away from listening to the Holbo with the DS Audio DS003 cartridge! Thought it might be useful to list some vital statistics of DS Audio’s current range of cartridges when sold separately (2024 list prices):
I don’t think there is much difference in the bodies between aluminium and ultra duralumin. Duralumin is a harder aluminium alloy but less corrosion resistant. The only other difference in the specifications is the channel separation which is 1-dB down in the cheapest (er, least expensive) cartridge. I’ve been looking at stupidly expensive cables, and just came across this quote in TAS Synergistic Research SRX Speaker Cables, Interconnects, and Power Cords - The Absolute Sound
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@maxson very interesting. What higher end MCs are you referring to? @richardbrand RF can definitely be an issue. But I believe if the cartridge is far from any source of RF, there’s no concern. And I agree about the noise reduction with higher end cables (some…not all). It’s very audible when the noise floor is reduced. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RF is everywhere! Except where my partner needs her mobile phone to work .... Despite what TAS said, I think the major contribution to lowered noise from DS Audio comes from the vastly higher signal to noise ratio achieved because the cartridge is powered. A signal of 70-mV versus 0.3-mV for LOMC is inherently less susceptible to external noise, be it RF or more general EMI. Plus, there's no magnets or coils to interact with EMI. I am still slowly trying to understand the different constructions of cables. As an engineer / scientist I believe any real differences are ultimately down to physics
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