What innovative, unconventional cartridge designs can you recommend?

@richardbrand Firstly when I get confused about audio, I have a few sources I rely on that are not typically using forums, who are sought out to give me an assistance with becoming better gathered in my thinking about a certain line of thought on a matter that sticks as being of interest.

One individual who is consulted with, is through a very long Career and prior to their retiring. Become a Design Leader for electronic circuits used in vessels that are part of a Countries Defence Strategy where when deployed are solely present to defend nations. Such an individual has been the mind that designed the circuits and protections for the circuit that enables a micro Voltage current to be sent uncorrupted over 150ish metres in an environment that is for from optimum for such transfer.

An individual with such a Career and who has also run parallel with that a passion for audio experiences where Vinyl media is the Source Material for near 60 Years is a very good contact to be able to converse with. 

This same person has over the years become a good friend and I visit him and his Wife a few times a years for social interaction.  

Through discussion I have learnt about Ortofon, and as you have recently discovered Ortofon are not shying away from showing their Technology in a very public exhibition.

What Ortofon are not doing is sharing their IP for the assembly and function of the Cartridge, which I am totally in agreement with. They invested substantially to learn such valuable information, why should it be free issue.

My friend has a through acquiring a substantial range of Ortofon Cartridges produced across the past 25 years took the opportunity to become much better educated with Ortofon IP.

Ortofon have their own Rubber Producing Sister Company that produces Rubber Compounds for the Medical Industry. It is strongly suggested Ortofon are the most educated Company on Rubber Compounds able to be selected for a Damper Role in a Cartridge. Ortofon also produce a large range of Black Coloured Rubber Compounds, which makes it almost impossible to identify when a different compound is selected across different models.

It is also strongly suggested that Ortofon are producing Dampers Compounds that are extremely accurate and the Damper Parts are identical in properties when produced from a particular compound.

The highly polished Replicant Stylus > Bonding Substance > Selected Cantilever > Armature > Coil Winding are strongly suggested to be extremely close in their  weights for each assembly for each Cartridge. The same goes for the Magnet and Poles.

The overall assembly is able to be fastened onto the Damper with extreme accuracy across Cartridges due to the extreme accuracy of each Compound used fir the Damper Part. The Tension Wires also have a methodology for anchoring them, that enables extreme accuracy to the force applied to each Damper.

The differences that can be measured across Cartridges for produced distortion that can occur through the placing of the Armature and how this impacts on the B Field / Flux Relationship is at it ultimate control when the FSE is used, as this serves as a Jig to create a extremely accurate alignment of the Armature across Cartridges, resulting in consistent distortion readings. If Ortofon then choose to leave the FSE in place, there is the optimised alignment and the effect the FSE has on the B Field / Flux, which is the next level of creating distortion readings that are much more beneficial for the End Sound being produced.

Hence, The FSE is strongly suggested as being a critical part for both Cartridges not with it as a permanent part and especially those that do have it as a part.

How other Cartridge Producers overcome the across Cartridge accuracy for Armature Alignment and applied Tension to a Damper Part. That may not be consistent in the Compound for each Damper part selected, is an unknown if they are able to meet the standards Ortofon are able to consistently create.

The outcome of such IP being utilised, is that Ortofon Cartridges as a result of being consistent in how the B Field / Flux is managed. Results in Cartridges with a a measurement with very close similarities for distortion produced and End Sound being closer to each other when heard side by side.         

@pindac 

as you have recently discovered Ortofon are not shying away from showing their Technology in a very public exhibition

Ortofon has been around since the end of the first world war, and together with Audio Technica would constitute the two major volume suppliers of audio cartridges worldwide.

I have recently discovered DS Audio but Ortofon has permeated my awareness for close to 70 years.  The first cartridge my dad owned was an Ortofon.  That does not mean I know every model and every acronym they use!  I did not single out any Ortofon model in my monologue introducing this thread because I was looking for unconventional designs, not incremental developments.

I know specifications are not everything, but compare the most expensive Ortofon with any DS Audio cartridge and be prepared to be shocked

@richardbrand Stated "I know specifications are not everything, but compare the most expensive Ortofon with any DS Audio cartridge and be prepared to be shocked"

If by such a statement it is meant A/B Compare Cartridges in a End Sound Comparison used on the same audio system, which is a audio System costing close to £200K. This is what I have done, where from recollection the system owner was demonstrating their Grandmaster DS Audio Cartridge.

Part of the days plan was for my Demonstration of my Rebuilt Ortofon Cartridge, which as part of the rebuild had a Ortofon Specification WRD included for one of their TOTR Models from this time period. 

The following is an extract from the Invoice:

 Manual cleaning of 
generator

nw Ogura 
cantilever + Ogura Vital 
SA+ tip

nw Vienna spec 
Damper

Optimal 
generator alignment & testing

What was not expected was for my Cartridge to be used as an immediate follow up, as a comparison demo' against the Grandmaster. From recollection this comparison was encouraged by the attendees, prior to Phonostage Comparisons commencing which was the main topic of the arranged meeting and which I had brought my Bespoke Custom Design and Commission Built Phonostage.

The Cartridge produced as a rebuild design, inclusive of Donor Model was less than £1K.

In my own evaluation, my rebuilt Cartridge was to my assessment noticeably more attractive as an End Sound than the DS Audio Grandmaster.

Individuals who were present inclusive of a well known audio media journalist, approached me to learn how the same design for my Cartridge was able to be acquired. 

As stated previously, it is this experience that left me of the view, that the DS Audio Cartridge was not to my taste for an End Sound.

As stated previously, I followed a particular thread within a German Forum about DS Audio Cartridges and also introduced the Grandmaster owner to a alternative energizer as the result of learning what other DS Audio Cartridge owners were reporting.

I am yet to read anywhere, a content that is convincing that a DS Audio Cartridge is a betterment over any other Technologies Cartridges. Neither at near Parity in price or when the DS Audio Cartridge is substantially more expensive in price.

@pindac 

"I know specifications are not everything, but compare the most expensive Ortofon with any DS Audio cartridge and be prepared to be shocked"

If by such a statement it is meant A/B Compare Cartridges in a End Sound Comparison used on the same audio system, which is a audio System costing close to £200K

No, I meant the exact opposite!  I meant compare the specifications.

You have raised a lot of objections to DS Audio optical cartridges including allegedly poor quality control.  Their specifications are tighter than TOTL Ortofon.

The one objection of yours that I can accept without hesitation is that their sound is not to your taste.  If we all had the same tastes in sound quality, there would be more convergence in the systems we buy and life as an audiophile would be less exciting.

I am yet to read anywhere, a content that is convincing that a DS Audio Cartridge is a betterment over any other Technologies Cartridges

You might care to absorb this article from SoundStage! Hi-Fi | SoundStageHiFi.com - EMM Labs DS-EQ1 Optical Phono Preamplifier.

By way of background, you need to research Canadian brands EMM Labs and Meitner Audio, whose main claim to fame is digital, and in particular Super Audio Compact Disk (SACD), mainly for the professional market.  Founder Ed Meitner's view is that the best audio reproduction is achieved from Direct Stream Digital (DSD)

“I’ll never make a phono stage,” Ed Meitner told me with flat finality. The fact that I was in the midst of a Skype call with Ed and his son, Amadeus, to discuss EMM Labs’ DS-EQ1 optical phono preamplifier was packed with an irony we were all studiously ignoring.

But as our discussion continued, it became clear to me that Meitner the senior views the DS Audio optical cartridge series (see my review of the DS 003 System) as so far above the archetypal magnetic cartridge that they’re not even the same species. So it’s not vinyl that Meitner holds in disregard, it’s the magnetic cartridges employed to scrape off its signal.

Meitner had kept his records, you see, but he no longer played them, viewing DSD specifically and digital in general as far superior playback sources. He’s spent a lifetime working with digital audio, riding far, far ahead of the wave with products like the Museatex Bidat DAC, originally produced in the late 1980s, and he’s moved forward with DSD as his touchstone.

Now there is no way that I am trying to convince you, @pindac, but I would like some clear air to share with others my personal excitement at finding an interesting alternative to the mainstream cartridges.  I hope others might find my documented references to professionally written reviews and articles more convincing than anecdotes.

By the way, I was first alerted to DS Audio's cartridges by the designer and manufacturer of a turntable system from a European country that shares a border with your home country (my guess, anyway!).  Hope that is cryptic enough for your taste ...

@richardbrand Stated " You have raised a lot of objections to DS Audio optical cartridges including allegedly poor quality control "

This is not exactly accurate, I added Copy/Paste extracts from a forum I had followed for approx' 4 Years, to be seen if wanted in the Threads post made on   01-13-2026 at 10:48am. My actions but not my words, they are the words of others in ownership and using the DS Audio Cartridges. 

The Copy/Paste content was supplied solely to offer an alternate view to what was, from a particular forum member an uneducated and derogatory assessment of the Mr Nixie Energizer for DS Audio Cartridges. It spilled over into the concerning about the raised quality issues. As some posters had this info combined, as did some posters have their comparisons to electromagnetic impulse Cartridges combined. 

I stopped using audio media to learn about audio equipment many many years ago, I have sources I trust outside of these biased presentations of products.

In the description given about the modern design Optical Read Cartridge supplied by my friend. The same person has witnessed measurements taken for a DS Audio Cartridge that in his assessment, totally confirm the non linearity of the Photocell and the need to custom produce supporting ancillaries for each Photocell. This person would not comment with such an offering, if the content was not backed by data to show accuracy to the description supplied.

My friend has convinced me that my original inquiry was flawed and that critical parts on a Cartridge are equally important to both designs. Hence, I no longer sought a further substantiation.

My friend more importantly brought forward new to the Thread Information, and this info, due to the description given about witnessed measurements. Leaves me convinced that the modern design Optical Read Cartridge is met with a supporting ancillary is based on the following:

The usual approach to nonlinear circuits, is to bend over backwards to make it seem linear over at least some small range of operation 

I am confident the links to the media coverage clearly is avoiding sharing such pertinent information for the Cartridges function. 

I will visit this thread as a non poster only from here on.

As stated, I remain keen to see another user report on the DS Audio Cartridge.