DS Audio Optical Cartridges

[WesCrackin]

Wondering if anybody has experience with any of the DS Audio optical cartridge offerings. Aside from the usual rave reviews that we seem to find for any utterly expensive gear, the technical approach sounds pretty reasonable to me.

For the ones who might not have heard about optical cartridges or even how they & regular cartridges work (please comment in case I mess this up): MC or MM carts generate sound by having the stylus vibrate the coil or magnet, thus generating an electric output. The lower the mass, the easier for the system to transport the original signal with minimal distortion, this is why these things are such a delicate technical marvel.. In an optical cartridge, the stylus moves an incredibly thin sheet that throws a shadow. These changes in brightness are the only thing that is measured here and then interpreted by an external "equalizer" box and transformed into musical output. This box replaces a conventional phono stage.

The way I understand it, the main advantages are 1) the stylus doesn't have to create a magnetic resistance and can therefore move more smoothly and 2) the shading plate mentioned above is / can be of an extremely low mass, so in theory the system is less prone to distortion.

Due to my wallet I'm already hurting looking at the DS-E1 (2.750 EUR) or possibly the DS-003 (5.500 EUR) both including their respective EQ boxes. Prices go all the way up to 55.000 EUR for the Grand Master system (cartridge alone ~13.000 EUR). One thing to note is the EQ boxes are interchangeable so you could run an E1 with the Grand Master control unit and vice versa. There's also already third party EQ boxes like this one for under a grand from Mr. Nixie: https://nixiekits.eu/product.php?key=ds_audio or this higher end one from EMM Labs https://www.emmlabs.com/dseq1.php . The design of the control units seems quite simple and DS Audio is welcoming third party manufacturers by sharing the schematics so this opens up an array of possibilities for tweaking the sound to someones liking by having multiple different EQ units and not being bound to DS Audio pricing as well..

One major rave review by Danny Kaey (who btw owns a pair of Wilson Chronosonic XVXs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9bYueEJHwU

[docvale]

If you think about a cartridge plus phono stage pair, the entry level combination from DS Audio is not shockingly expensive. I’d rather ponder whether it might exceed so clearly a solution based on the Expert’s phono stage.
Personally, I consider the internal phono of the Devialet driven by a low output MC with a SUT excellent: no noise and no audible distortion.
Would the DS Audio be that better?

[ogs]

I think the DS Audio optical design is quite brilliant. Especially the newer cartridges with separate L R circuits. The older models had a bit low channel separation. I also notice that the measured frequency response tend to be a bit bass heavy, but I have not heard one and reviews don't mention this much so it's probably not a big issue.
The internal phono stage of a Devialet uses the same AD converter as the line input so working conditions should be more or less the same. Of course a good high output MC cartridge, for example, can work very well and is cheaper, but I doubt it can approach the strengths of an optical design which reviews talk so much about. If those strengths are important to you, go optical!

Edit: Emmlabs/Meitner now has a DSEQ2. Might be an answer to the very reasonable offering from Mr. Nixie

[WesCrackin]

Hmm lets see if someone comes across the thread who has has had the chance to listen to one.

@ogs thanks for pointing out the DSEQ2!