Experience with DS Audio Optical Cartridge Systems

Wow! Many local guys. I too would enjoy a get together. I would also add that I’m a member of the DC HiFi group and we meet monthly.

My previous cartridge before the DS GM was a Ortofon Century.

Lance

About five years ago, I attended a event for HiFi Enthusiasts about 200 Miles North of my home in the UK.

I took my Custom Built 845 Power Amps along, which created a steady flow of interest and inquiries.

One inquiry came from two individuals who had attended the event for the first time, and we soon learnt we lived quite local to each other and exchanged contact details.

That meeting developed into a Local Group of which there are Ten Members and  4-6 Individuals meet regular to experience HiFi and bring new devices/ancillaries to be shared within the groups systems. 

This has been an very important part of my HiFi enjoyment over the past years, and some of the demonstrations shared in has helped me to re-right some of my thoughts I had about certain subjects within HiFi.  The Group are also keen to put on their own local HiFi Event - Post Covid Times.

I thoroughly encourage meeting with other enthusiasts, meeting with local shared interest enthusiasts, in my case, has been the cherry on the cake.  

I agree with @pindac , I enjoy meeting with my fellow enthusiasts. The sharing of ideas has caused me to spend more money, ha ha.

I attended the Capital Audiofest and noted that the cartridge was used in at least four different setups.  I was told by some exhibitors that it sounds good to their ears.  I don’t know myself because I was only hearing it in unfamiliar systems, none which I liked a lot.  I had the same sort of experience a few years ago with the SoundSmith cartridges, except the show setups using it were less common and the sounded quite bad to me.

I would like to hear it in familiar surroundings.  It is pretty decently priced if you consider that a phonostage is not needed.

IMHO the DS cartridges are complexity for the sake of it. It is all electromagnetic energy. The DS cartridge just exchanges some of the weaknesses of MC cartridges for a new set. Remember, it all moves at the speed of light. Light is not easy to contain, it can bend around corners. The shading plate has it's own set of resonances. I prefer to stick with low impedance moving coils and transimpedance phono stages. There are moving coil cartridges that track better and have much lower distortion levels. At 10 kHz the DS Grand Master almost hits 10% and it's tracking is no better than 65 um. Lyra and ortofon cartridges will stomp on it. So why do people like it, two reasons. from 7 kHz the frequency response rises until it is up 4.5 dB at 18 kHz. This is a very bright cartridge which will mesh beautifully with the hearing loss of the older people who can afford to buy it. Next is price. DS audio did everything possible to jack the price as much as possible. The Equalizer and it's power supply are wastefully overbuilt. But, if it costs more it must sound better right? 

I remember back in 1984 I was finally earning a living and I wanted a sports car. The new Corvette was getting rave reviews so I got one. It was pure junk. The manual transmission did not belong in a tractor. The top of the dash was styrofoam covered in black plastic. I sold it in two months and got a 300 ZX turbo.