DS Audio DS-E3 Third-Gen Entry-Level Optical Phono Cartridge

The DS-E3 model is an updated DS-E1, featuring the company's 'third generation' optical cartridge technology, which draws on developments made for the company's flagship models. We are told that this takes the design and performance to even greater levels while maintaining the same price as when the DS-E1 was first launched five years ago, in 2019.

DS Audio's optical cartridges do not use the usual moving magnet and moving coil designs. Instead, they use an optical system that converts stylus/cantilever movement into audio signals. This, says the company, eliminates the electromagnetic forces rife in traditional MM and MC designs, resulting in an astonishingly lower noise floor.

This works by delivering a significantly increased output voltage while apparently eliminating crosstalk and improving left-right channel separation through independent LEDs and photodetectors for each channel.

The cartridge's mass is further reduced thanks to a new, smaller, and lighter shading plate, which is now made of beryllium instead of aluminium. Finally, a fine 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 to the 'third generation' level. The new DS-E3 equaliser sports a symmetrical amplification circuit, and the voltage supplied to the cartridge has been stabilised to achieve a clearer and faster sound. The equaliser is also approximately one-third the size of DS Audio's next model up, the DS-003.

The DS Audio DS-E3 optical phono cartridge and phono stage/equaliser are available now, with the cartridge and equaliser package priced at £2,295. If you buy the items separately, you will pay £1,270 each.

Visit DS Audio for more information