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?
@pindac DS Audio is not the only high-end cartridge maker to offer a variety of cantilever constructions. The LOMC Wilson Benesch Tessellate I referenced earlier offers boron, sapphire and diamond:
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@pindac wrote:
Because before those kinetic energy signals (I'll call them vibrations) get to the transducer they must be faithfully read in the groove and transmitted up the cantilever to the transducing mechanism, whatever its sort. Up to that point all we are doing is transferring those vibrations. If you say it doesn't matter for an optical cartridge, why should it matter in any other kind of cartridge? |
Agreed. For the initiated, and this is subtle, there is a longer path through the cantilever to the transducer for most cartridges, so more scope for evil vibrations to wreak havoc. The DS Audio and AT ART1000 originally mentioned in this thread are unusual in that their transducers are closer to the pointy end. I am mindful that some of the cartridges mentioned above are more expensive than my entire Holbo air bearing turntable system with tangential arm plus DS003 cartridge plus SoulNote Equalizer combined! Ken Kessler's review for HiFi News concluded
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I hope you are not as anxious as I am! I really have to thank you for getting me this far into vinyl. My latest steps have mainly been guided by recommendations, reviews, physics, engineering, and price / discounts. I rarely make changes to my gear, so I am an unreliable reporter when it comes to changes in sound quality because I do not have much basis for comparison, except large-scale live music. My normal starting point is skepticism, and a belief that if there is a real difference, it should be explained by physics, now or in the future Fingers crossed |
