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?
Thank you @richardbrand ! I’m very excited…can’t wait. I will post my thoughts after I install it. Should be arriving some tine next week. |
You are strictly correct, you did not post a formula in full. I took what you wrote to be the same thing as a formula, where the constant of proportionality is not specified. Unfortunately, it is far from the full story because the more capacitance you add for a given final voltage, the lower the ripple. Thinking about reducing ripple, I wondered about using a Class A amplifier being fed a constant signal. The output should be constant voltage, whatever the load. An over-the-top-solution maybe, but then I remembered that Wilson Benesch use three Class A amplifiers, one for each phase, to power their megabuck direct drive turntable. |
The Hana should have one advantage - straight lines for setting it up! The only flat surfaces on the DS003 are the top and the back, so there is really only one decent straight line, which makes azimuth and zenith hard to set mechanically Even the front LED has curved sides and the whole thing curves under like the prow of a boat |
@richardbrand yep I’ve been using Dr. Feichert protractor to set up cartridges. My VPI table comes with a good metal protractor that secures at the arm base as well. |
In rereading the Umami Blue review in TAS and Tom’s comparison of it with DS003, I think the below note must be taken into consideration…
How much of a difference he described between the two cartridges be attributed to the table/arm combinations? But in any case, I agree with his description of the Blue based on what I heard myself with that cartridge. Hopefully in my system with my Whest phono stage it will not overstep the boundaries and cross into analytical territory. |
