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Japanese optical phono cartridge pioneer DS Audio has introduced its new entry-level DS-E3 cart, featuring the company’s third generation of optical cartridge technology. DS Audio explains that its optical cartridges dispense with the usual moving-magnet and moving-coil designs and instead employ an optical system that converts stylus/cantilever movement into audio signals. The theory is this completely eliminates the electromagnetic forces found in traditional MM and MC designs, resulting in a lower noise floor.

The company says the new DS-E3 replaces the previous DS-E1 and draws on technology developed for its flagship models to take the design and performance to even greater levels, all while maintaining the same price as when the DS-E1 was first launched in 2019.

Independent LEDs and photo-detectors have been used for the left and right channels, delivering an increased output voltage while eliminating crosstalk and improving left and right channel separation. The cartridge’s mass has been further reduced, thanks to a new smaller and lighter shading plate – now made of beryllium rather than the light aluminium of the previous mode. An elliptical diamond stylus is mounted on a rigid lightweight aluminium cantilever. Like all DS Audio optical cartridges, the DS-E3 requires its own equaliser/phono stage, which this new design also brings up to third-generation level. In the new equaliser, the amplification circuit has been made symmetrical, while the voltage supplied to the cartridge has been stabilised to achieve a clearer and faster sound. The equaliser uses an operational amplifier as the amplifying element to minimise the signal path, thereby reducing the number of components and achieving a smaller size, making the DS-E3 equaliser approximately one third the size of that of DS Audio’s next model up, the DS-003.

Like every DS Audio product, the DS-E3 phono cartridge and equaliser are hand made They are priced as follows: Cartridge and Equaliser package £2,300. Cartridge only: £1,270, Equaliser only: £1,270.

Available now, you can find out more about the DS-E3 here.