DS AUDIO – DS003 Optical Cartridge – First Look
All Images Credit: DS Audio
DS Audio, manufacturer of Japanese high end optical cartridges, has released a third generation optical cartridge, the DS003 featuring a comprehensively re-designed optical system. The earlier versions DS001 and DS002 are now discontinued.
DS Audio’s DS003 cartridge is the company’s third generation of its unique approach to phono cartridges and borrows on many of the design approaches used in their top of the line Grand Master cartridge. The DS003 features a totally re-designed optical system as well as a line contact stylus at the end of an aluminum cantilever that requires a tracking force of 2.0g～2.2g.
The DS003 cartridge uses two independent light emitting diodes (LED’ s) and photo-detectors (PD’s) for the left and right channels, and has optimized the position of the optical system increasing the cartridge output voltage by 75%.
The 7.7g cartridge’s rigid construction, including its aluminum body, has been designed to provide maximum rigidity and uses larger gauge internal wiring that provides a reduced impedance compared to the previous generation.
Aluminum Cantilever
The DS003 cartridge features a aluminum cantilever with a line contact stylus. The cartridge body structure has been designed to promote maximum rigidity and utilizes internal wiring 1.6 times thicker than used in the second generation cartridges thereby reducing impedance.
Beryllium Shading Plate
The use of independent left and right channel LED’s allowed the optical system to be optimized requiring the design of a new shading plate that has been significantly reduced in size compared to earlier designs. The use of 99.9% pure Beryllium reduced the weight of the shading plate by more than 50%, from 1.56mg to 0.74 mg. This is less than 1/10th of the mass of the typical core and coil system found in a typical moving coil cartridge and further improves one of the key advantages of DS Audio’ s optical cartridge technology, which is its low effective mass.
Independent Channels
This new independent LED and photo-detector (PD) design of the DS003 cartridge has made it possible to significantly reduce crosstalk, greatly improving left and right channel separation and improving high-frequency separation by up to 10dB in comparison to earlier models.
Output Voltage
The DS003 independent LED and photo-detector (PD) arrangement for the left and right channels has resulted in the cartridge output voltage being greatly increased from 40mV to 70mV. Despite this significant increase in output, the signal to noise ratio that DS Audio optical cartridges are renowned for has not been compromised. The DS003 cartridge now offers a greatly improved S/N ratio when compared to the earlier models, resulting in an even lower noise floor and greater musical clarity.
Power Supply and Equaliser
Compared to the DS Audio DS002 equalizer, the thickness of the circuit board has been changed from 1.6 mm to 2.0 mm, and the thickness of the copper foil has been changed from 35 µ to 70 µ. In addition, the DS003 equaliser allows you to select the low-frequency roll-off from four types, 25Hz, 30Hz, 35Hz and 50Hz, either 6dB or 12dB per octave, allowing you to taylor the output to better match your system.
DS AUDIO DS003 SPECIFICATIONS:
DS 003 Optical Cartridge
- Signal output: Photo-electric Conversion
- Channel separation: 27db (1KHz）
- Weight: 7.7g
- Output signal level: 60mV (1kHz cartridge output)
- Cantilever: Aluminium
- Body material: Aluminum (A5052)
- Cantilever holder material: Stainless
- Needle pressure: 2.0g～2.2g (2.1g is recommended)
- Stylus: Line contact
DS 003 Equaliser for Optical Cartridge
- Output voltage: 500mV (1kHz Equalizer output)
- Output impedance RCA: 120Ω
- Pre amp input impedance: More than 10kΩ
- Input terminal: RCA terminal
- Output terminal: RCA terminal×2
- Size: W33cm×H9.2cm×D29.5cm
- Weight: 5kg
PRICE – Cartridge & Equaliser:
Price: €5,900.00, AU$9,500.00, UK£4,995.00, US$TBA
