(EAT also offers customers the opportunity to part with an additional £1,349 for the optional linear power supply, which can be had for a mere £1,079 if it’s specified at the same time as the turntable is rung through the till. It’s certainly a more purposeful-looking item than the rather humdrum power cable the turntable is otherwise supplied with – but EAT insists the C-Dur Concrete’s AC generator, which uses the DC current from the power supply, generates an almost entirely clean AC signal for the motor. It’s this ‘almost’ that’s addressed by the cost-option linear power supply.) 

As a package, the C-Dur Concrete with Jo No.8 cartridge is undeniably glamorous – just the sort of thing that set-dressers around the world like to use a shorthand for ‘wealthy and sophisticated’. The concrete plinth is chic in an industrial kind of way (although it’s well worth bearing in mind that its weight is supported on three high-adjustable damped aluminium feet that are quite aggressively conical in shape. They wasted no time in driving themselves into the wooden shelving of my Blok Stax 2G), and the combination of aluminium and carbon fibre from which the C-Tone arm is constructed catches both the light and the eye. The cartridge may be a bit of a biffer (and that’s putting it mildly – at 19.2 x 25.1 x 28.3mm (HxWxD) it looks almost comically large) but its chestnut body looks the part too.      

Not just design

The C-Dur Concrete (plus its peripherals) is no mere design exercise, though. As the asking price demands, it’s got the technical chops to back up the looks – which is just as well, given that your price-comparable alternatives are, without exception, profoundly capable machines.

So the C-Dur Concrete is supplied with a hefty (5.2kg) platter that’s internally damped with TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) to provide both density and stability. An 900g aluminium sub-platter further isolates this platter from the motor and improves overall tolerances – it rides on an inverted ceramic ball main bearing that pairs with a Teflon plate for even greater rotational stability. The bearing block itself adds another 1.8kg to the kerb weight and uses a polished stainless steel spindle to support the ceramic ball. 

The drive system isolates the motor in a steel ring positioned in the chassis itself, which further contributes to the stability and uniformity of the platter’s rotation. It also reduces resonance transfer (which is already vanishingly low, thanks to, well, all that concrete). The C-Dur Concrete is supplied with a couple of anti-static polished rubber belts to connect the motor to the sub-platter – the broader of the two fits on the upper part of the motor, and facilitates 33.3 and 45rpm (two of the three buttons on the top of the plinth are for speed selection, the other is to put the turntable into ‘standby’.) The second belt fits over the lower portion of the motor, and with this fitted the ‘45rpm’ button actually delivers 78rpm.

C-Note

At 254mm, the C-Note tonearm is notably long, and the materials from which it’s made offer optimum rigidity – just as well, when you consider the relative heft of the cartridge it’s designed to support. The unipivot design ensures the Cardan bearing is never overloaded, and the bearing itself is designed for maximum stability and minimum friction – the tonearm, meanwhile, is internally damped with silicon grease in a drive for even greater resonance rejection.

The high-output moving coil cartridge uses a nude Shibata stylus on a boron cantilever. EAT supplies a semi-balanced five-pin DIN-to-RCA cable to deliver the cartridge’s output to a preamplifier. It’s galling – but not, by this point, surprising – to discover a fully balanced alternative is a cost option. 

Connected to a Chord Huei phono stage and amplified by a Cambridge Audio W Edge stereo power amplifier driving a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 Signature loudspeakers bolted to their matching FS-700 S3 stands (with a Naim Uniti Star acting as gain control between phono stage and power amp), the EAT C-Dur Concrete doesn’t waste very much time setting its stall out. This is not one of those sources of music that takes a while to reveal itself – what the C-Dur has, it’s willing to hand over in the most immediate and unequivocal fashion. 

Which means that it doesn’t matter if there’s a heavyweight 2025 reissue of Kevin Ayers’ Bananamour [Cherry Red] spinning or a much-loved (for which read ‘mildly distressed’) original pressing of Pere Ubu’s The Modern Dance [Blank Records] playing – the C-Dur Concrete plays no favorites and is entirely even-handed no matter the circumstances. 

Staggering

It’s a staggeringly clean and uncolored listen, and seems able to keep the spaces and silences in a recording as dark as any record player I’ve ever heard. Its powers of detail retrieval are remarkable – there’s not a huge amount of light and shade in the Pere Ubu recording, but the EAT nevertheless finds and contextualises harmonic variations with something very close to fanaticism. The dynamics of tone and timbre are given proper weighting, just as the broad dynamics of ‘quiet’ and ‘loud’ are (or, in the case of Pere Ubu, ‘loud’ and ‘louder still’). Low-frequency control is unswerving, and the rhythmic positivity that results is as natural as can be. Its overall tonality is very carefully neutral, and its frequency response is brilliantly even from the top end to the bottom – the sound it creates is vividly true to life, and it seems able to peer deep into a recording and locate information that even some very capable alternatives can overlook.

It hits with well-mannered determination at the bottom end, and grants the highest frequencies a decent amount of substance to go along with their undoubted bite and sparkle. It has tremendous powers of midrange resolution – so no matter if it’s the animal-in-a-trap stylings of David Thomas or the dazed Canterbury approximations of Kevin Ayers, a vocalist’s motivations, character and attitude are made every bit as obvious as their basic technique.  

The C-Dur Concrete collates every scrap of information in a recording and presents it as a coherent, and consequently convincing, whole. Four-piece garage band or extended ensemble with numerous elements, it’s all the same to this turntable – it unifies a recording in the most unfussy manner, and hands over the results as a singular occurrence that sounds very much indeed like a performance.

Size matters?

If there’s a shortcoming, it concerns the size of the sound the EAT generates. It has no problem describing a soundstage with real confidence, and making its layout as explicit as possible – but it just doesn’t sound very big. Everything that happens, happens strictly between the outer edges of the two speakers at the end of the chain – so while the soundstage itself is organised carefully, there’s a slight sense of confinement to the overall presentation that just isn’t an issue with the vast majority of the deck’s price-comparable alternatives. 

It’s a shortcoming, there’s no two ways about it – but everything the C-Dur Concrete does so well goes a fair way towards minimising it as an issue. And it doesn’t seem impossible that the expansive visual appeal of the C-Dur Concrete might further help you overlook the slightly hemmed-in nature of its sound. 

Specs & Pricing

C-Dur Concrete turntable

Type: Full size
Rotational Speeds (RPM): 33.3, 45, 78
Supported Tonearm Length(s): 254mm
Drive Mechanism: Belt
Speed Control: Automatic
Platter Type: Aluminium
Platter Weight: 5.2kg
Bearing Type: Inverted ceramic ball
Dimensions (h x w x d) (mm): 170 x 496 x 396
Weight (kg): 32
Price: £6,499, $7,490, €7,490

C-Tone tonearm

Type: Unipivot
Tonearm Length (mm): 254
Effective Tonearm Mass (g): 16.5
Offset Angle (deg): 21.4
Weight (g): 16.5
Price: N/A

Jo No.8 cartridge

Type: High-output moving coil
Stylus: Nude Shibata
Tracking Force (g): 2
Load (ohms): >15
Compliance: 15 μm/mN
Output (at 1 kHz @ 3.45cm/s): 0.3mV
Weight (g): 12.5
Price: £1,999 (£1,599 if purchased with the C-Dur Concrete turntable), $2,699, €2,349.

Manufacturer EAT
www.europeanaudioteam.com

The Hana SL MK II was installed on the Graham Phantom III tonearm on a TW Acoustic Raven Two ’table and fed four different phonostages (my custom Raptor, Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+, the Soulution 350, and the Soulution 757 Deemphasis Preamplifier). In addition to the ’table/’arm combo listed above, I also listened to the SL MK II in the Theile TT01 turntable with the TA01 pivoted linear-tracking tonearm (reviewed in Issue 358). Each tonearm installation was treated to my complete set-up process (a previously documented version of this procedure can be viewed in the pages of TAS online by searching for “setting up a phono cartridge” on the site’s search engine). Mechanical cartridge alignment was straight forward. Adjusted for optimal crosstalk in the Graham Phantom III, the measurement results for each channel of the SL MK II were –32.2dB (left), –32.5dB (right) with a 0.1dB difference in channel balance. These are excellent numbers for any cartridge at any price. The SL MK II mounted on the Thiele TA01 ’arm had similar measured results. (The remaining downstream components are listed in the reference system sidebar accompanying this evaluation.)

My first listen to the Hana SL MK II, after setup, revealed a cartridge with admirable harmonic richness, very good transparency to the recorded music, and excellent soundstage depth (when the music contained such information). Further listening over the evaluation period solidified those initial impressions and, at least with this in-house sample, the cartridge gained refinement without the usual sonic ups and downs that often attend new-cartridge break-in. 

Compared to the original Hana, the new Hana SL MK II not only excelled in all the areas mentioned above; it also offered increased musical clarity, reproducing the speed, pacing, and tempo of initial transients and the richness of decays with great realism. The MK II’s bass was more lithe (agile and nimble) than that of the Hana SL, and it also appeared to extend deeper in frequency. Lastly, perhaps most evident on direct comparison, the Hana SL MK II moved a few steps closer to neutral when contrasted with the Hana SL’s warmer musical pallet.

Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “While I’m Alone” is a good example of a dense-sounding R&B/Soul track from their 1977 eponymous debut album. The band, then called Raw Soul, was founded by Howard Stanley “Frankie” Beverly in Philadelphia in 1970. Beverly caught a break when Marvin Gaye took the band on the road with him as an opening act. They were so good that Gaye suggested, in 1976, they change their name from Raw Soul to a more attractive name. Beverly chose Maze, and the band signed a contract in 1976 with Capitol Records. The next year, they released the debut album mentioned, Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. The SL MK II kept the pacing of “While I’m Alone” intact via incisive rhythmic timing of the percussion instruments. Throughout the track, Beverly’s vocals were unmistakably present, harmonically accurate, and as smooth as ever. The spread of instruments across the soundfield displayed excellent transparency with solid imagery and precise location. Each instrument’s unique tonal characteristics were easy to hear. 

For a long time, Maze has been one of my favorite bands for enjoying good fun and, most importantly, happy music. On September 10^th of 2024, during this Hana cartridge evaluation, the group’s founder, Frankie Beverly, passed away. Those that knew him and his music will forever continue to have those “Happy Feelin’s” of joy he gave the world through his music. The Hana SL MK II did nothing but enhance the delightful compositions of Frankie Beverly and Maze.

On DG’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the sound of Nathan Milstein’s violin is well captured. The space in which the recording was made imparts a liveliness to the sound, thanks to the SL MK II’s ability to capture the ambient reflections of the upper harmonics generated by bow and violin. The cartridge remained locked to the grooves and allowed the wonderful tone and dynamics (both soft and loud) to come through in a way that made these solo violin performances a delight to listen to. The Hana SL MK II captured the complex harmonics from multiple strings with such ease and flow that I ended up listening to the entire 3-LP set.

For further evaluating the tracing ability of the SL MKII, I played the Henry Purcell Sonata for Trumpet, Strings, and Continuo from The Virtuoso Trumpet (Vanguard, The Bach Guild, BG-617). This sonata is on the last track of the first side of the album, which serves as a reasonable check on the tracking ability of the cartridge. The opening has the trumpet singing with energetic fortes. The SL MK II managed to capture the trumpet’s call and the stringed instruments’ response with relative ease. There were no concerns or tracking errors from perceived inner-groove distortion, only delightfully enjoyable music delivered from the SL MK II in concert with the Graham Phantom III.

One afternoon/evening during the completion of this evaluation, with the Hana SL MK II mounted to the Thiele TA01 linear-tracking pivoted tonearm on the Thiele TT01 turntable, I managed to listen to music in this order as the mood evolved from John Williams, Eric Bibb, Pink Floyd, Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, Lady Blackbird, Luigi Boccherini, Vivaldi, Kent Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, Duke Ellington, Art Pepper, and Regine Crespin performing Ravel’s Scheherazade. Each piece was a delight to hear, and the genre selected at random didn’t matter. As the mood shifted among the different pieces and different performers, the cartridge adapted to the moment and output what the grooves of the LP presented with all the ease, liveliness, vigor, elegance, and emotional moods captured in the recording session.

I could continue discussing the artists and genres of music the SL MK II plays well, but in the end, I would’ve come to the same conclusion. This cartridge does justice to the music in every instance, never adding any off-putting characteristics to detract from the meaning of the compositions. The Hana SL MK II is a worthy successor to the wonderful original Hana SL and becomes the new low-cost overachiever, outdoing nearly everything the cartridge it replaces did so well. It’s a keeper. 

Specs & Pricing

Type: Moving-coil cartridge
Output level at 1kHz: 0.4mV
Channel balance at 1kHz: <1.5dB
Channel separation at 1kHz: 28dB
Frequency response: 15Hz–32kHz
Tracking ability at 2 grams: 70µm
Dynamic compliance: 10 x 10-6cm/dyne (100Hz)
Stylus type: Shibata nude diamond
Cantilever material: Tapered aluminum
Magnet material: Alnico
Yoke & polepiece: Pure iron/cryogenic treatment
Coil wire: High-purity copper
Armature: Permalloy/cross-coil
Recommended tracking force: 2.0 grams
Internal impedance: 8 ohms
Recommended load impedance: >80 ohms
Cartridge body material: Elastomeric-coated ABS w/threaded brass top
Cartridge body color: Black
Cartridge weight: 8.6 grams
Price: $850

MUSICAL SURROUNDINGS (U.S. Distributor)
5662 Shattuck Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 547-5006
musicalsurroundings.com
hanacartridges.com

Reference System

Analog tape: Otari MTR-10 Studio Mastering (¼” 2-track) tape deck with custom Flux Magnetic Mastering Series repro head and secondary custom tube output stage, Studer A820 Studio Mastering (¼” 2-track) tape deck (x2), Studer A80VU MKII Studio Mastering (¼” 2-track) tape deck, ReVox A700 (¼” 2-track and ¼” 4-track heads) tape deck (x2), Stellavox SP7 (¼” 2-track) tape deck with ABR large reel adapter, Nagra IV-S tape deck with custom large reel adapter, ReVox G-36 (¼” 4-track) tape deck, 1950 Ampex 400A tape repro electronics, Soulution 757 Deemphasis unit
Analog vinyl: Basis Audio Debut Vacuum with Synchro-Wave Power Supply, Basis Audio 2800 Vacuum, Thiele TT-01 w/Active Isolation Platform, TW Acustic Raven Two turntables; Basis Audio SuperArm 9, Basis Audio Vector IV (x2), Graham Phantom III, Graham 2.2, Thiele TA-01 tonearms; Lyra Atlas Lambda, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL, Lyra Etna Lambda SL, Lyra Titan-i, van den Hul Colibri XGP, Hana SL, Hana SL MK II, Hana Umami Red, Hana Umami Blue
Analog phonostage: The Raptor (Custom), Ayre P-5xe, Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+ w/Linear Power Supply, Soulution 350
Digital source: Intel i7 10th generation processor-based music server hosting JRiver Media Center, Roon, and Qobuz
Preamplification: Dual Placette Audio Active Linestage, Soulution 326
Amplification: Custom/Modified solid-state Monoblocks, Soulution 312
Loudspeakers: Vandersteen Model 3a Signature with dual 2Wq subwoofers and dual SUB THREE subwoofers using M5-HPB high-pass filter
Cables: Assortment of AudioQuest, Shunyata, Tara Labs, Acoustic Research, Cardas, and custom cables
Support: Minus-K BM-1, Neuance shelf, Maple wood shelf, Symposium Ultra
Acoustics: Walker Audio
Accessories: Aurios Pro, Pneuance Audio, Walker Audio, Klaudio KD-CLN-LP200, Kirmuss Audio KA-RC-1, VPI 16.5, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic
Room: 18′ (W), 43′ (L), 8′ (H)

The operation of the cartridge has not changed. The CliffsNotes version is that it relies upon two shading plates and two LEDs housed in the cartridge to replicate and transform the movement of the stylus. The shading plate attached to the cantilever in front of the LEDs vibrates with the stylus, producing alternations in brightness that are converted into differing voltages by LED photoelectric sensors for each channel. Those voltages are then minimally amplified and equalized by a separate DS Audio box or, if you prefer, a rival product such as the Meitner equalizer. Other manufacturers have begun to make provision for optical cartridges in their phonostages such as Doshi and Soulution.

So, what’s the big deal with the new and vastly more expensive cartridge? The main alteration boasted by the Extreme version is the introduction of a one-piece diamond cantilever. Most cartridges feature a needle tip and cantilever that are bonded with an adhesive. The single piece, as outlandish as it may seem, has a profound effect on the sound. Forget about break-in. I immediately heard a radical improvement in vinyl playback after mounting the cartridge to the Swedish Analog Technologies CF1-09 tonearm on the TechDas Air Force Zero turntable. It wasn’t simply that detail retrieval was improved or that there was even more dynamic slam. Overall, the biggest change was a drop in distortion and an increase in the sensation of tape-like continuity.

The technology that DS Audio is employing is not new. It dates back to the early 1940s. But like not a few older technologies in the high end, it is only now being properly implemented in its current whiz-bang configuration. The plus side of an optical cartridge is that it eliminates the coils and magnets that weigh down a conventional cartridge. A light beam weighs close to nothing. The result is ultra-quiet backgrounds, slam, phenomenal detail retrieval, and no hum. The downside, as JV observed in his earlier review, is “the way that reading the amplitude of a signal, rather than its velocity, accentuates the bottom octaves.”

This is why DS Audio offers a switch on the rear of its custom EQ box to filter the bass frequencies that are delivered to your phonostage.

As it happens, the bass reproduction was something that wowed me. For the most part I did not feel the need to engage the rear switch to begin truncating the bass frequencies at 50Hz. For example, on songs such as “Limehouse Blues” and “Agitation” on jazz pianist Victor Feldman’s album The Artful Dodger, the bass playing of Chuck Domanico came across as nimble and lithe. There was a real sense of palpability and snap to his playing that can often get lost with other cartridges or phonostages. If anything, I felt that the weight of the bass delivered by the DS Extreme helped prevent the sensation of an attenuation of the lowest frequencies that sometimes occurs with LP playback. Was I a sucker for a pinch of extra bass or was it more akin to the real thing? I thought the latter. Anyway, my sense, for what it’s worth, has always been that digital has a more linear frequency spectrum than LPs, which is also why, at times, it may seem a trifle more sterile. The human ear may not be averse to a few anomalies in sound reproduction—it may even have a slightly titillating effect.

Another jazz album that I recently acquired and listened to is called Great Guitars. Featuring Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis, it was originally released by Concord records. (Here I feel compelled to give a tip of the hat to Concord LPs, which are pretty inexpensive on the used market—it’s noteworthy, as it were, that the quality of sound, more often than not, has little to do with the actual cost of used LPs, at least in the jazz arena.) I was struck both by the solidity of the soundstaging—each guitar was firmly set in its own acoustic space—and the richness of sound of this live recording. There was a warmth and fullness to the sonority of the three guitars that suffused my basement listening room. Add in the alacrity of the cartridge, and it really seemed to convey you back to July 28, 1974, to Concord California’s Boulevard Park, where this great trio performed to an appreciative audience on that evening. Here I should single out the song “Latin Groove,” which could hardly have sounded groovier. Throughout, the Latin-based sound of Byrd and the more mellifluous sound of Ellis offered a stark contrast that was expertly delineated by the Extreme cartridge.

Something similar occurred on the superb Blue Note re-release of the Pacific Jazz Records 1964 album For Django by guitarist Joe Pass. This was flat out the best I’ve ever heard this classic album sound in terms of presence, dynamics, and spontaneity. The DS Audio’s presentation of the song “Fleur D’Ennui” left me agog at the sheer scale of the proceedings. The blunt fact is that the Extreme cartridge produces a sweeping sonic palette that fills the room, every nook and cranny, with a warm and inviting sound. It’s not that the drums on this number were particularly loud, but they possessed a clarity and snap that offered an exciting backing to Pass’ nifty solo work.

Another guitar recording that I plopped onto the TechDas Zero turntable featured sonatas by Anton Diabelli and Ferdinando Carulli. Performed by Pepe Romero of the legendary Romero family and recorded by Phillips, this exemplary LP highlighted the subtle refinements that the Extreme cartridge could convey with ease. The melodic interplay between the delicate forte piano and guitar was delivered with real panache by the Extreme cartridge, which stinted neither on instrumental timbre nor on rhythmic drive.

When it came to the larger scale works such as Verdi’s overture “The Force Of Destiny,” the Extreme did not falter, either. Instead, the same sense of composure that I had heard with smaller ensembles manifested itself. What was particularly impressive on the Decca recording of Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra playing the Verdi overture was the silky sense of continuity that prevailed throughout, no matter how loud the brass unison chords at the outset and end of the piece. Instead of smearing or bloat, the Extreme produced, or seemed destined to produce, thunderous crescendos with precision and oomph.

Perhaps the most representative demonstration of the prowess of the DS cartridge, however, came when I played the Acoustic Sounds 45rpm LP of Shelby Lynne singing “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.” Maybe not, but I can say that I loved what the cartridge accomplished on such numbers. Everything was laid out so neatly with guitar, drums, and bass in their respective pockets while Lynne’s vocals were perfectly centered. Above all, I was struck by the pristine black backgrounds—no muss, no fuss, just purity of sound emerging from the Avantgarde G3 Trio loudspeakers. This truly was sonic bliss.

But it only seems fair to acknowledge that as taken as I was by the DS, others may not agree. Indeed, my colleague Michael Fremer has some longstanding reservations about optical cartridges. When I recently spoke to him about the optical cartridges, I asked him to spell them out. He observed that “each generation has gotten better. They’ve improved it. The frequency response in the midrange is fantastic. Some people like the extra bass. I still feel it’s at a level that would be unacceptable in most situations. My feeling is records are cut with a velocity-sensitive cutter head. That is the appropriate way to play records back. To me it sounds fundamentally different.”

I understand but do not share his critique. For me, the Extreme cartridge is a remarkable invention. In listening to a variety of LPs, from jazz to classical, from rock to pop, I have consistently been impressed by the ability of the Extreme to deliver not merely a technical but also a musical tour de force.

JV Comments:

I’m tempted to simply add “Ditto” to Jacob’s review, since I completely agree with him that this is the best DS Audio optical cartridge yet (and that the Grand Master equalizer is also the best device of its kind that youthful innovators Aki Aoyagi and his DS team have created). Indeed, the Grand Master EX is the highest-fidelity cartridge I’ve heard, coming far closer, in direct LP-to-open-reel comparisons, to the sound of mastertapes (which are, after all, the documents from which the LPs are made) than any moving-coil, moving-magnet, moving-iron, or strain-gauge cartridge I’ve heard (and I’ve heard a lot of them).

The addition of a single-piece diamond stylus/cantilever is clearly the reason for the EX’s sonic superiority. One has to think that its unitary structure eliminates any spurious resonances that may typically develop at the “joint” between the stylus and the metal or gemstone rod of the cantilever to which it is glued. When you’re using a shading plate fixed to that cantilever to transmit the vibrations of the stylus, any such resonances will affect the precision with which the mix of light and dark mimics the signal engraved in the grooves. You will get some “blur.” And one of the chief boons of the EX is the absence of same, particularly in the bass, which has a three-dimensional solidity and fixity of body and outline and a density of color that come astonishingly close to the sound of the same music on mastertape (and in life). This may be one of the reasons why Jacob did not feel the need to low-pass-filter the bottom octaves. With the Grand Master EX, I didn’t, either—the low end was that much improved.

Indeed, the color and dimensionality of the entire gamut is audibly improved, as is the resolution of performance detail. Like reel-to-reel, the Grand Master EX manages to reproduce things like cymbal taps or the fingering of standup bass strings without making such transient details sound overly emphatic or isolate. My guess is that this has something to with the EX’s smooth, tape-like way with the duration of notes, in which attack, steady-state tone, and decay are reproduced with equal weight as a continuous event rather than as separate, discretely weighted moments.

The result puts me in mind of what I once said about the MBL X-Tremes: Listening to other cartridges is like watching a hi-res movie; listening to the DS Audio Grand Master EX is like going to a play. Flat, often highly detailed images, viewed in near, middle, and far perspectives, become three-dimensional presences on the same stage viewed from the same perspective. Like Jacob, I can’t recommend this supremely lifelike transducer highly enough.   

Specs & Pricing

Grand Master Extreme Optical Cartridge
Cantilever and stylus: One-piece diamond
Chassis material: Ultra duralumin
Output signal level: >70mV
Channel separation: >27dB
Recommended tracking force: 2.0g–2.2g
Weight: 7.7g
Price: $22,500

Grand Master Equalizer and Power Supply
Output voltage: 700mV
Input terminals: 1x RCA
Output terminals: 3x RCA, 3x XLR
Impedance: 120 ohms (RCA and XLR)
Dimensions: 2x 425 x 152 x 486mm
Weight: 55.2 lbs. (EQ box), 66 lbs. (power supply box)
Price: $45,000

DS Audio
4-50-40 Kamitsuruma-Honcho, Minamiku, Sagamihara
Kanagawa, 252-0318 Japan
+81-427-47-0900
ds-audio-w.biz

MUSICAL SURROUNDINGS (North American Distributor)
5662 Shattuck Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 547-5006
musicalsurroundings.com

Price: $11,100. mbl-northamerica.com

Dynaudio Contour 20 Black Edition Loudspeaker

Dynaudio’s Contour 20 Black Edition  is a super-premium version of the award-winning stand-mount Contour 20i two-way monitor. Its tweeter has been upgraded from the already-stellar Esotar2i to a full-on Esotar3, also found in the company’s Heritage Collection and top-of-the-line Confidence range. The Contour 20 Black Edition also features a new MSP mid/bass driver with improved motor and spider designs, and its crossover has been given a full makeover as well—everything from resistors and capacitors to the internal cabling and inductors has been given a boost in quality to wrench every bit of performance from its superlative drivers and quiet cabinet. The Contour 20 Black Edition is available in a mirror-like Black High Gloss finish, which nicely complements its exclusive black anodized-aluminum baffle and black powder-coated tweeter front-plate and mid/bass-driver basket.

Price: $8500/pr. dynaudio.com

Improved, non-resonant body shape, modeled after the Hana M Series, is damped with a matte Soft Feel Black elastomeric resin paint, and features a brass cap with threaded cartridge mounting fittings. The heavier Mk II cartridges offer better coupling with expanded compatibility to a wider range of tonearms, improving bass and dynamics.

The SL MK II generator, as found in the Umami Blue and ML, incorporates an Alnico magnet and cross-coil using high purity 30-micron copper wire with an 8Ω impedance. This improves signal to noise, reduces moving mass for higher resolution and trackability, and optimizes performance for a broader range of phono stages.

Hana S Series MKII Specifications

Stylus – Nude Diamond Shibata

Cantilever – Tapered Aluminum

Magnet – Alnico

Yoke & Polepiece – Pure Iron/Cyro treatment

Coil Wire – High Purity Copper

Armature – Permalloy/Cross-coil

Output Pins– Gold Plated/Cyro treatment

Cartridge Housing/Cap – Elastomeric coated ABS/Threaded Brass

Cartridge weight – 8.6 grams

Cartridge color – black

Output level – 0.4mV/1KHz SL MKII and SL Mono MK II, 2mV/1KHz SH MKII

Coil Impedance – 8Ω SL MKII, 23Ω SL Mono MKII, 130Ω SH MKII

Load impedance – ≥80 ohms SL MKII, ≥230Ω SL Mono MKII, 47kΩ SH MKII

Frequency response – 15 – 32,000Hz

Channel separation – 28dB/1KHz SL MKII and SH MKII

Output balance – <1.5dB/1KHz SL MKII and SH MKII

Vertical tracking force (VTF) – 2 grams

Trackability – 70µm/2gr

Dynamic Compliance – 10×10-6cm/dyne

US Retail price – $850

On sale date September 23, 2024

I found that the non-SL Etna performed similarly, adding that its overall nature is “seductive” and concluding by stating that the Etna makes “musical magic.” That’s high praise. So high that it’s hard to imagine the Lambda being better, let alone way better. But it is.

The first hint comes before music even starts playing—during the lead-in grooves. There is so much less groove noise, I found myself wondering if my tonearm’s cueing system had gotten stuck in the up position. Nope. Instead, this silence turns out to be just one manifestation of the Lambda’s absence of mechanical noise.

Of course, the real testament to what Lyra has achieved comes when the music begins. The reduction of noise from cartridge mechanics allows previously hidden musical mechanics to emerge. For instance, with the Lambda I can hear Bruce Springsteen’s fingers brushing his guitar strings on “The Ghost of Tom Joad”—a previously obscured detail. The Boss’ voice, too, is less prone to sibilance and generally more relaxed. Another big change I notice on this track: more powerful and incisive bass than you get from the pre-Lambda Etna. 

The Lyrita LP of Moeran’s Symphony in G Minor is another, very different showcase of where the Lambda Edition and the standard Etna part ways. The Lambda manages to maintain—and even reinforce—the innate lushness of the previous Etna, but it does so without adding any trace of heaviness. Images are even more solid and fleshed out than before. Meanwhile, timbres are more realistic-sounding, and the soundstage is notably deeper.

If that weren’t enough, consider one more example, the famous Royal Ballet Gala Performances LP, originally on RCA Victor. Here, the strings, which are notoriously difficult to reproduce, show great gains. They are meatier, yet less shrill.

So how did Lyra achieve these feats? Primarily, through just two strategic tweaks. I can’t describe the first of these as well as Lyra designer Jonathan Carr, so I’m going to quote him. “First, a bit of background that applies to both the pre-Lambda and Lambda Etnas. Ideally, a stylus should follow the shape of the LP groove and nothing else. But in a moving-coil cartridge, the pull between the coil armature and the magnet/polepiece, a pull that varies with the distance between those two elements, introduces a conflicting force. This force makes the movement of the stylus more erratic and less under the control of the LP groove.

“The typical method of counteracting this pull is to make the suspension stiffer. But while this does make the armature less likely to waver due to magnetic pull, it also makes the stylus harder to move, which can necessitate the use of higher VTF (vertical tracking force) and/or adversely affect tracking performance. Lyra feels that there is great value in keeping vertical tracking forces low (less wear to both the stylus and the LP), while prioritizing tracking ability (better performance and sound on more LPs).

“We therefore developed our New Angle technology, which is a mechanical preloading system that pushes the cantilever down towards the LP by a predetermined amount when VTF is not being applied to the cartridge. That way, the application of VTF causes the armature and front/rear magnets (we don’t use polepieces) to become parallel to each other. Having the armature and magnets parallel when playing an LP significantly reduces pulling forces, making it possible for us to use a softer suspension, thereby achieving higher tracking performance without the need to impose high VTF requirements.

“The difference between the pre-Lambda and Lambda versions of the Etna is that they use different means to achieve cantilever preloading. The pre-Lambda Etna employed dampers that were tapered like a shallow wedge, whereas the Lambda version uses a system of flat dampers with a separate support structure we call the ‘pillow.’ The flat dampers ensure that the preloading of the cantilever angle is optimal and remains entirely in the vertical domain. This allows greater consistency in all aspects of performance. The revised design and new, specialized materials result in superior tracking and dynamics, as well as a lower noise floor for superior detail retrieval.”

Now I don’t know about you, but to me these sound like the tweakiest of tweaks. Flat dampers versus wedges? How much could that change the sound? Nonetheless, the results speak for themselves.

The second alteration in the Lambda Edition is easier to describe. Simply put, the new olive-colored front piece is now made from stronger, more rigid industrial polymers.
Note that these changes were applied to what was already a highly advanced and unique cartridge design. To recap, all Etnas feature: a single-assembly stylus/cantilever mounted directly to a “nude” body to reduce resonances; an asymmetrical design that offsets the screw securing the front magnet carrier, so that it isn’t in line with the cantilever mounting points; a solid-titanium core structure machined with nonparallel surfaces to inhibit internal reflections; a slightly undersized anodized duralumin outer body that locks over the core; a yokeless dual-magnet system; a diamond-coated boron rod cantilever and Lyra-designed variable-radius line-contact stylus; and X-shaped signal coils rather than the usual square-shaped coils.   

As you can see, much more stayed the same—including the stylus, cantilever, coils, and overall structure—when Lyra created the Lambda Series. In that respect, Lyra was correct in not calling this the Etna II. However, from a sonic perspective, the latter would have been fully justified. The Etna Lambda isn’t a cartridge that, upon first listening, elicits an “Ah, that sounds a little better here and there.” Rather, your reaction is likely to be closer to mine: “Holy cow! This thing sounds fantastic!”

For any Etna owner (including owners of the SL, which is also now available in a Lambda Edition), the Lambda is an unquestionably worthwhile upgrade. Lyra will rebuild yours to the latest spec for $4495. For non-Etna owners shopping for a superlative cartridge in this price range, the improvement in the Lambda is even more reason to put the Etna at the top of your list.

Specs & Pricing

Type: Medium-weight, medium-compliance, low-impedance moving-coil cartridge
Stylus: Variable-radius line-contact nude diamond (3μm×70μm), slot-mounted
Cantilever system: Diamond-coated solid boron rod with short one-point wire suspension
Body: Machined titanium central core, anodized aluminum
Output voltage: 0.56mV @ 5cm/sec., zero to peak, 45 degrees (CBS test record)
Frequency range: 10Hz–50kHz
Channel separation: Greater than 30dB at 1kHz
Compliance: Approx. 12 x 10cm/dyne at 100Hz
Cartridge mounting screws: 2.6mm 0.45 pitch, JIS standard
Weight (without stylus cover): 9.2g
Recommended tracking force: 1.62–1.72g
Price: $8995

And the DS Audio oc is a success story. It is not often that a new product makes its own market in an old industry. But Aki’s products have done that—to such an extent that certain forward-looking electronics manufacturers (Soulution, EMM Labs, Meitner, Westminster Labs, and more to come) are now incorporating optical eq in their phonostages.

Why oc’s have become so popular is not hard to fathom—they work and sound better. First, without the weight of magnets and coils they have extremely low moving mass, which reduces inertia. Moreover, since there is no magnetic resistance to the movement of the stylus (since there are no magnets or coils to generate such resistance), the stylus can glide through the grooves without having to fight against a restraining back force, allowing for more accurate tracking and tracing, higher resolution of musical detail, and an octave-to-octave smoothness and continuousness of tone and dynamics that is very tape-like (and very realistic).

Second, since oc’s generate no magnetic fields and their output is typically >70mV, they do not induce any hum, noise, or RFI (at least, they don’t when their eq unit is properly grounded). Their noise floor is vanishingly low. Though digital fans are used to it (or at least to a frighteningly dead, interstellar version of it), this depth of background silence is new to LP playback. As I’ve written before, we analog hounds have become so inured to the way in which RF audibly modulates the signal from an LP that a transducer/phonostage without RF simply has to be heard to be believed. Even then, it’s hard to accept. It’s as if you’ve been listening to music with your window open on a noisy street. All of a sudden, the DS Audio closes the window. You just hear so much more, so much more purely and faithfully.

Third, thanks to the oc’s extraordinarily powerful, deep-reaching bottom end, which, in theory, goes down to 1Hz, and the absence of background racket (including the occasional AM station or passing CB), its similarity to the sound of 15ips R2R tape (which also has rich, powerful, deep-reaching bass and little-to-no susceptibility to RF) is far closer than what you get from conventional magnetic playback. As a result, DS Audio transducers have been a revelation to fidelity-to-source listeners, for whom the sound of the mastertape is the Golden Fleece. However, it’s also a dream come true for as-you-like-it and absolute-sound listeners, since its noise-free clarity is accompanied by unusually plush timbre, three-dimensional imaging and soundstaging, superb dynamic range and transient response, and (on great recordings) a superior illusion of real musicians making music in a real space.

Fourth, Aki has “shared the wealth” of his remarkable technology, offering more and more outstanding products that incorporate his latest innovations at a wide variety of price points. Rather than catering solely to the ultra-rich (though he does that, too), Aki has made a point of trickling his ingenious new designs down to a broader market. Which brings me to the cartridge under review—the $5000 DS-W3.

According to DS’s North American importer Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings, the W3 is the new first entry in DS Audio’s “Reference Level” line. The classification is based on the materials used in the W3 and its more sophisticated and expensive ($10k) dedicated equalizer, which features improved circuitry (allowing for four levels of bass eq), two balanced outputs to go with two unbalanced ones (just like the Grand Master equalizer), and a very large power supply (ditto). For considerably more moolah, the $9500 Master 3 (add $17.5k for its dedicated equalizer) and $15k Grand Master (add $45k for its dedicated equalizer) are the next steps up in DS’s “Reference Line,” with the $22,500 Grand Master EX and its novel single-piece diamond cantilever/stylus at the very top.

The improvements in the W3’s cantilever material, stylus, and dual LED/photodetector system (derived from the Grand Master) are said to allow it to translate groove modulations more readily to the super lightweight moving parts of its optical generator. Its higher output (>70mV) and better channel separation (typically >33dB) combined with the minimal filtering of its massively engineered dedicated equalizer are said to deliver more immediacy, higher resolution, truer tone color, and larger dynamic swings than the still-outstanding $2500 DS-003 (add $3500 for its dedicated equalizer).

And so they do—and then some.

As was the case with the DS-003, the DS-W3 bears a marked sonic resemblance to the DS Audio Grand Master, from which it has inherited so much technology. Indeed, the resemblance is so close that had I not already heard (and fell in love with) the GM, I could have easily settled for the W3 and its equalizer. (Frankly, I could have settled for the DS-003, although it doesn’t have quite the same low-end power, color, and extension, soundstage breadth and depth, and tape-like dynamic/harmonic continuousness as the DS-W3.)

Though the W3 uses a boron cantilever rather than the 003’s aluminum one and a slightly improved line-contact stylus, the two transducers are otherwise more alike than different. As noted, both make use of the third-generation design advances introduced in the Grand Master (independent LEDs and photodetectors for the left and right channels, independent beryllium shading plates for each channel with 50% lower mass than the original aluminum plates, internal wire that is 1.6-times thicker and lower in impedance than that used in DS Audio’s second-generation transducers). However, their dedicated equalizers are entirely different, and it is the improvements to the W3’s far more sophisticated EQ unit that more than likely account for the sonic edge it holds over the 003.

To hear what the DS-W3 can do, you need only put an old, familiar, well-recorded LP on your table, sit down, and listen. As has been the case with every DS Audio transducer, affordable or not-so-much, that uses Aki’s third-gen technology, the DS-W3 shows its virtues immediately. This is not a component you will have to puzzle over, trying to deduce via close listening how and where it is better (or worse) than what came before it. In large part, this is because the DS-W3 (and its brethren) aren’t analytical transducers that seemingly break musical sounds down into component parts (“Boy, those cymbal transients are hard hitting!” “Listen to the decay on that piano!” “Man, those voices are tightly imaged!” “Gee, that Fender bass is powerful!”). It is, instead, one of those rare synthetic products that turns parts into wholes without losing expressive performance or engineering detail. You hear everything (or almost everything)—and you hear it against (and in part because of) an unequaled backdrop of silence—with a completeness that (on the best sources) turns the audible into the visible.

Another signal advantage of the W3—one that, as you will see, it shares with Magico’s marvelous 2023 S3 loudspeaker (reviewed elsewhere in this issue)—is what HP called “continuousness.” Though HP used the word to describe the broad, seamless soundstaging of an orchestra in a real hall (as opposed to the left-center-right imaging of same on a stereo LP or a digital transfer), I’ve long applied the term to dynamics and timbre, as well, because in life (and on a good 15ips R2R tape) tone colors and dynamics also sound smooth and continuous, without the bumpy dips and peaks in pitch and timbre or the sharp step-like (rather than smooth, ramp-like) changes in intensity that make LPs and CD/SACDs sound, well, recorded.

Like all DS oc’s, the WS also has superb transparency to sources. Take Ted Jensen’s phenomenal two-LP remastering of Stop Making Sense [Sire], the great soundtrack to Jonathan Demme’s film of the Talking Head’s December 1983 live concerts at The Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I’ve been listening to original pressings of this LP since its release in 1984, and, folks, it’s never sounded this wonderful before. Where the original was markedly digital in balance—which is to say, flat in aspect, thinned down in timbre, and amped up in transient response—the remastered version is uncannily analog. Not only do Tina’s bass and Chris’ drum kit sound much fuller in body, deeper-going in pitch, and denser and more lifelike in timbre—in my opinion, DS Audio optical cartridges simply own the bottom octaves (for which see the sidebar)—but the mindboggling complexity of Byrne and Company’s arrangements, in which so many musical threads, acoustic and electric, are being spun simultaneously and harmoniously in real time, is laid out in front of you like the table service and crystal at a three-star in Paris. If you want to hear who is doing what on which instrument, and you want to hear this without any digital subtractions of color and body, the DS-W3 is your ticket to musical bliss.

This astonishing trick of retaining (indeed, clarifying) complex musical lines and performance details without verging on the analytical is another signal virtue of DS’ opticals—and, along with a high measure of continuousness, one that it shares with reel-to-reel tape. While the DS-003 has these qualities, it doesn’t, as noted, present them with quite the same completeness as the W3 and its equalizer.

So, why should you buy a Master 3, a Grand Master, or a Grand Master EX rather than a DS-W3 and its equalizer? Well, the answer is you shouldn’t—unless you simply can’t live without the ultimate in musical resolution and smooth tape-like color, body, and bass. The DS-W3 will take you, maybe, 85% of the way to Nirvana. Where it falls just a bit short of the better and the best is in overall neutrality (it is a mite on the bottom-up side in tonal balance) and resolution of the finest musical, performance, and engineering detail.

As I said earlier, I could live with it happily. And you could, too. It’s as close as you’re going to come to a mastertape-like presentation for anything near its price.   

Specs & Pricing

DS-W3 Optical Cartridge
Signal output: Photo-electric conversion
Channel separation: >27dB (1kHz)
Output signal level: >70mV
Cantilever: Boron
Body material: Aluminum
Stylus: Line contact
Weight: 7.9g
Price: $5000

DS-W3 Equalizer
Output voltage: 500mV (1kHz)
Output impedance: Greater than 120 ohms
Preamp input impedance: Greater than 10k ohms
Input terminal: RCA
Output terminal: 2x RCA terminal, 2x XLR
Dimensions: 45cm x 12cm x 435cm
Weight: 13.5kg
Price: $10,000

MUSICAL SURROUNDINGS
(510) 547-5006
info@musicalsurroundings.com

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: MBL 101 X-Treme MKII, Magico S3 2023, Magnepan LRS+, 1.7, and 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair), Magico SSub (pair)
Linestage preamps: Soulution 727, MBL 6010 D, Siltech SAGA System C1
Phonostage preamps: Soulution 757, DS Audio Grand Master EQ
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711 (two), MBL 9008 A, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos
Analog source: Acoustic Signature Invictus Neo/T-9000 Neo, Clearaudio Master Innovation, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5
Tape deck: United Home Audio Ultima Apollo, Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon, Analog Audio Design TP-1000
Phono cartridges: DS Audio Grand Master EX, DS Audio Grand Master, DS Audio DS-W3, Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2.1, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital source: MSB Reference DAC, Soulution 760, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
Cable and interconnect: Synergistic Research Galileo SRX (2023), Crystal Cable Art Series da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream
Power cords: Crystal Cable Art Series da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo SRX
Power conditioner: Synergistic Research Galileo SX (two), AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two)
Support systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands
Room Treatments: Synergistic Research Vibratron SX, SteinMusic H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: DS Audio ES-001, DS Audio ION-001, SteinMusic Pi Carbon Signature record mat, Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner

With the official closing of Koetsu, Aidas’ ability to create artistically and sonically beautiful phono cartridges from exotic materials offers a unique opportunity to own The Best.