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?

richardbrand

When in doubt, ask the Artificial Imbecile: 

An FSE (Full Spectrum Extract) cartridge is a cannabis vape product containing a concentrate that preserves the full range of cannabinoids (THC, CBD, etc.) and terpenes found in the original plant, rather than just isolated THC.

There you have it, folks! That's FSE for ya

 

 

@audphile1 I welcome your exposing a person, that really does come across as very unattractive.

My first post made it known what I thought was to be expected as the follow up from other contributors. 

I think you fully got the brief

 

The Brexit/European difficulties must be a uniquely English. I have no trouble sending cartridges from the Antipodes to Europe and back - quickly, typically a week there and back, no extraneous taxes, costs.

What I do notice, having travelled many times through most of Europe, is that the English are treated poorly. There are reasons for this that are obvious to those who have lived in Europe.

It is presumptuous to think that Ortofon is the only companies to address non linearities in magnetic fields. In fact magnets themselves are non linear and generate phase issues when used in an electrical circuit, so the FSE technique may help, but it can't eliminate the fundamental non linearities induce by magnets/poles/coils.

I have a Glanz MFG61 moving flux cartridge which has had the suspension, coil and magnet arrangement specifically designed to ensure linearity is maintained no matter what position the cantilever is in.

It has some attributes in common with the DS Audio in that it uses magnetic flux to cut the coil directly ( no poles involved ) whereas the DS Audio uses the shaded plate to cut the light without the intrusion of poles. Some of the patents ( Mitachi ) are here -

https://patents.google.com/patent/US4072823A/en

The Glanz MFG61 sounds more like a moving coil than any other moving iron, induced magnet, moving permalloy etc.

From my own experience, the Glanz MFG61 moving flux makes most of the top Ortofons sound extremely coloured and course. It is one of the most neutral cartridges I have ever experienced, extremely linear in its response.

 

 

As a professional I am a fire fighter for Companies that work in Construction Projects where Package Values typically exceeds £50M, the projects that usually are the structures that create a City Scape for a Major City.

When I am introduced there are usually forensic analysts of the Contract and Programme with a regular reporting to the Groups most senior personnel.

My role is to undo all the blockers and give description of what is the causes of the project arriving in the current state,

This reminds me of when I project managed a major IT upgrade for an English multi-national some years ago. The UK company planned for 2 years of analysis to identify the companies needs. They had already spent 1 1/2 years in planning.

I put in a complete new system in 6 months, completed everything required for full blown IT system that supported MRP manufacturing, ISO approved to medical device standards, multi country distribution - even included IT systems to support the transport of live skin in a temperature controlled environment from the US to the other side of the world and delivered to the operating table within 36 hours anywhere.

Went back to the UK a year later after we went live across the southern hemisphere, they were still working on their plan.

That's why the UK is in such an economic mess.