What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

@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.

@dogberry 

The opening monologue of this topic was

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

So I think we are in violent agreement!  Most contributions here have been extremely useful and informative, including yours of course.

I made my buying decision after starting this thread and as you so aptly point out, am now in a proleptic state (had to look that up, too) 

@dogberry 

there are obvious physical differences between a flat metallic plate and a rod (tubular or crystalline)

Surely Decca's structure is a bit of each!

From a marketing standpoint, I believe Decca created unique selling propositions by downplaying cantilever and damping.

And now the origin story of DS Audio, which can be found at DS Audio.

Tetsuaki Aoyagi was finishing university and was pondering his future.  He decided he "wanted to create a unique product that would bring joy to people" and therefore should start a company.  Meantime he was working for his dad's company and one day, a consultant played him Michael Jackson's Thriller on vinyl, through a 40-year-old Toshiba optical cartridge. These had faded from the market, but the next day he started to design a modern version to “create something new that brings joy to people”.

So DS Audio became a subsidiary of dad's Digital Stream Corporation, which already manufactured advanced optical systems.  If only we could all choose our parents!