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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
1,446 posts
 

@dogberry 

Yes, my DS Audio distributor offered me SoulNote Equalizers as an alternative to the DS Audio range.  I bought one of the first shipment of SoulNote E1 Ver2 into Australia, basically on specifications, reviews of other SoulNote models and his recommendation.

DS Audio lists about 18 third-party equalisers on their website - Ed Meitner makes 2 of them, and SoulNote 3.  SoulNote is much more ambitious than DS Audio, for example offering fully balanced operation for Moving Coil cartridges in the E1 Ver2.  They don't use the feedback needed to get good measurements in the frequency domain; they concentrate on getting the time domain as accurately as they can.  Works for me!

Back to Mahler laugh.  Presto Classical lists more than 170 offerings of his sixth symphony alone!  There are incredible 150th anniversary deals - for example a 12-CD set with Sir Simon Rattle conducting all the symphonies for under A$50. Includes his towering performance of #2, for your #1.  My #1 even thanked me for playing it to her yes

dogberry
967 posts
 

Rattle's #2 is my favourite of all the ones I have (ten). I'm also very fond of his version of #10 as put together by Deryck Cooke.

I bet you can't wait to get to Canberra!

 

elliottbnewcombjr
7,858 posts
 

DS Audio Optical for sale

https://www.ebay.com/itm/197183978732?_skw=turntable&itmmeta=01KJZC7N33NYY0D10TMEQP4K3P&hash=item2de914bcec:g:kvkAAOSw8F5n8rVg&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xD7msMAg1iWxDSm1ieVixwIjLF1reoxyCEoPrUhegOoRL6vfxI1JNTnz7iEW6sms4nN3093MDpUzYUVWPis7cG86AZ68elzwdqbiZMPMBU2fWq7wnLbCFnAX7kp8npQsWTwoGkw1zqcJY3h5c5UWFibDaBWBmlvIZn4SUf3Z5UYRbJxOmw6vl1OPag9U8JRUSj5dlnKX76PP7c%2FWoaeSlLIPdWF3c37nhMb7XuYhnEvtKt0f80sVciWlyMEnL5lbZ4%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-zRnuyXZw

Equalizer, no cartridge

https://www.ebay.com/itm/198006627792?_skw=turntable&itmmeta=01KJZDPVZNBHRQ5J30ZQJ8EGJ4&hash=item2e1a1d5dd0:g:PLgAAeSwodFpXO1A&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCFxC02Y5U%2F5QyWforzzbV51HU8M00ZTFWynrmuF48rnWIdvCtCapoprJe6DD0WS8ceeIEALvoGkVqcAiyO6lHbBooKD9xsiAnTvKPGepxqE%2B4Za0Y%2BnBBZKNoHqVXi7Z8E0N2Smrv0h7WTCTqnNGtND8pdpVTvOPZQnDnGC0z4KkuazWe8iTALsc7aawOlZy7pnbz1vzGbKXLUOXe%2FMy5bkNW%2Fa6RS5GdBOGk1P370OWa%2FPI1HOAlqkZ0ynpPF%2FY%2FJNEM6UE8%2FcZ%2F5hWIk44n7%2FCrLJZZb1%2BbQsYL7Vr8QEQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5DA2-2XZw

 

pindac's avatar
pindac
4,022 posts
 

" Our price is 100% negotiable!"

Is it the actual statement or the " ! " on the end, that is the cause for sending  shivers through my defences

devinplombier
1,685 posts
 

@pindac I interpret the following sentence

Our price is 100% negotiable!

to mean "You are 100% welcome to try and negotiate our price", whereas the follow-up

Please make an offer and we will give you the best price!

means "We will ignore your silly offer and give you $100 off".

As for the "!", recently I was corresponding with a business in the UK. I had to make an actual effort to not use exclamation marks or emojis! 😃

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