1. Home
  2. analog
  3. 196519-196045

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
richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand OP
1,407 posts
 

@dogberry 

Old hands will be shaking their heads as history repeats itself

This is the first time I have seen a self-referential link to an earlier Post in the same Thread!  You can go round and round - is this a record!

I find it interesting that one user complained about a 2-degree error in the stylus alignment.  This is the same error endured twice per side when a record is played using a conventional pivoting tonearm.

As an aside, I have just dialed my anxiety level to near maximum, having today transferred the balance of the DS003 price to an Australian distributor I have only contacted by email, for a cartridge that has yet to land!

Real maximum anxiety was buying a turntable from a country on the other side of the world - a transaction that was absolutely problem free as it turned out.

I wish I could emulate @dover and say the equivalent of "Kia pai tō rā" in one of the 800 or so first nations languages that were spoken when Captain Cook 'discovered' Oz.

Post removed 
richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand OP
1,407 posts
 

@viridian 

Could this be a case of two nations divided by a common language?

I don't think audiophiles should feel free to redefine words which have commonly accepted meanings in a wider context.  As previously noted, The Absolute Sound (TAS) awarded 2025 Innovator of the Year to DS Audio - see TAS-Fall-2025_Innovator-of-the-Year_Tetsuaki-Aoyagi.pdf. This was done while acknowledging the pioneering work of Toshiba in the '70s which in turn was preceded by Philco in the '40s.,

I'd hate if every time I mentioned modern tangential tonearms I should also feel duty-bound to reference a 1920's design which used a 6-foot-long papier mache horn directly amplifying the needle, and floating on two mercury baths.  Fascinating though this is, it hardly influences a buying decision today.

Anyway, this thread has had more legs than expected and is all the better for that ...

 

devinplombier
1,677 posts
 

@richardbrand wrote:

Anyway, this thread has had more legs than expected and is all the better for that ...

... and it’s far from over. Your cartridge is arriving soon! 

 

Post removed 
More to discover