@richardbrand that sounds fantastic! What kind of diamond and cantilever does your cart come with?
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?
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It is the cheapest but one! Or the most expensive bar four. The stylus is a 'line contact' and the cantilever is aluminium, probably a tube quashed flat at the end. The cheapest stylus is elliptical so it would probably track the wear in my records very closely. That's why I went up a notch. I've just realised that the visible led on the front, which has no function except to show power is on, is colour-coded so afficionados can tell how much you spent! From the amount of detritus that the stylus attracts, it covers a different part of the groove compared with my Micro-Ridge styli. It seems to have more in common with the top-of-the-line cartridges than others in the range. To quote Ken Kessler
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There's also scope to go nuts on the power supply. I presume any ripple on the working Light Emitting Diodes would be detrimental. DS Audo's top of the line Equalizer has a separate power supply (about 25-kgs) and packs several Farads of capacitance. The phono-stage is similar in weight and capacitance Part of the confusion over matching Equalizers and cartridges arises because DS Audio offers them in pairs. But they also let you buy separately and mix-and-match, including with third parties. I think it is a good business model when you are trying to create a new market. It is a bit like the choice of engine types we had ten years ago. Petrol or diesel. Then Tesla introduced electric cars. Outside N America, we see these starting to dominate the market. In China, they already do
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Before I'm crucified for getting powertrain history horribly wrong, I acknowledge that the first four-wheeled electric car was probably the "Flocken Elektrowagen" from 1888. Rover tried the gas turbine, but it never took off (fortunately). And I've always fancied a steamer. Any car that can lift its front wheels off the ground when you open a valve has my vote |
Finally some first impressions! Exactly what I expected you to hear. Lower noise floor - better detail retrieval, better focus and soundstage, improved clarity. It’s amazing what a good cartridge can do. Never gets old. You should definitely check out some new AAA vinyl from Analog Productions, Craft and Rhino. Mobile Fidelity is awesome although not fully analog but still absolutely amazing quality. |
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