What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

Oh boy, That iron alloy structure works like this: imagine a long thin triangle of metal, then bend the point down 90° from the plane of the triangle. Now fashion that downward pointing part into a tube and plug a diamond stylus into it. Decca called the metal an ’armature’ and so should we. The metal triangle we started out with has a ridge stamped into it to provide rigidity so it will not exhibit unwanted movement beyond what might be required by lateral movement of the groove, which will cause slight torsional movement of the armature.

It should be obvious to all that this was designed for mono records, and is likely the very best way of reproducing them. What surprises me is that another set of coils was able to be placed to read vertical motion, and using a sum-difference wiring arrangement, stereo becomes possible. Bloody engineers, can no one stop them?

As for the ART1000 cantilever "wafting" around, it does so no more than any other cantilever. At least its transducer is close to the stylus, much more so than any conventional design (which is why extremely short cantilevers have been recently mentioned).

And the Neumann cartridge came along way after the original Decca. In fact, the Decca is an electronic adaptation of an acoustomechanical design from the days of wind-up gramophones.

But I agree, there is no reason to limit the discussion to which kind of tip-sensing cartridge is best. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that might be the way the thread has developed! 

@dover 

I've set up at least 30 Deccas, both original and modified, the original Ikeda MC and Decca's are certainly the quickest and most direct sound of any of the modern cartridges

Out of interest, are you including any DS Audio optical cartridges in your group of "modern cartridges"?

There is a review of the DS003 here DS Audio DS 003 Optical Phono Cartridge - The Absolute Sound where it is compared with the mega expensive Grand Master and the effects of trickle-down technology are explored.  Trickle-down is more like a tropical downpour.  The reviewer puts most of the sonic differences (not necessarily better or worse) down to the Equalizer, not to the cartridge.

DS Audio is a subsidiary of Digital Stream Corporation in Japan, who made major contributions to a device you are probably using now - the optical mouse!  It is hard to find a mechanical mouse these days.

Richard, I am not trying in any way to diminish your proleptic pleasure in your DS Optical cartridge. I hope it will be all you want it to be. I only draw attention to the fact that many cartridge designs have tried to place the transducer as close as possible to the stylus, and there may have been good reasons for them to do so.

@dogberry 

Decca called the metal an ’armature’ and so should we

Terminology so often trips us up!

When I mention "current models" I mean those that are manufactured and available today.  Some could interpret it to mean those that produce a current.  And so it goes.

Armature seems to have two meanings - the structure that holds coils in an electric motor, or a skeleton-like structure on which things can be affixed.

Cantilever is much closer in my opinion:  a beam anchored at only one end. I suggested the Decca structure is a double cantilever because at the bend, the vertical bit cantilevers from the horizontal bit, which cantilevers like a springboard from the clamp plates.

In the drawings I referenced, the same structure is sometimes labelled a cantilever and sometimes an armature.

The names don't affect how the thing works 

Well, Decca-type cartridges are manufactured today, so perhaps we might call them current?

As for armature versus cantilever, there are obvious physical differences between a flat metallic plate and a rod (tubular or crystalline). I don't see a good reason for anyone to have a semantic argument about them.