日本DS Audio 推出 DS-W2

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DS Audio DS-W2 Cartridge
Review: Ken Kessler, Lab: Paul Miller


Silent Background
I pondered with editor PM his discovery that 'the response of the cartridge is free of the multitude of small HF resonances that afflict all MM and MC types'. Furthermore, with a DS Audio pick-up in one turntable and any others in another turntable, with the gain turned up full, A/B switching reveals that even the finest combinations of phono stages and MM or MC cartridges exhibit hum. The DSes? Nada. Silence. And this means retention of the one hugely desirable element of CD playback that none can deny: the blackest of backgrounds.

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Optical cartridge equalizer from EMM Lab
An optical cartridge equalizer made by EMM Lab was exhibited and demonstrated at RMAF last weekend.
It is fully compatible with DS Audio optical cartridges.
This development is a product that EMM LAb has been developing with DS Audio for more than a year ago.
At first, Meitner started development by saying, “I want to develop a phono equalizer with an optical cartridge function,” but Meitner liked the sound of the optical cartridge very much. And then Meitner-san finally said that, “Once the customer listens to the sound of the optical cartridge, the MC is no longer needed, so the MC input is no longer attached!”
That is why there was a development of an optical cartridge dedicated equalizer without MC input.

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Mr. Ed Meitner talks about why he started developing an optical cartridge equalizer. @ RMAF2019
“it was a revelation and ever since I’ve been very much in the analog and really with the cartridges I’ve enjoyed it incredibly.”

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Traditional MM & MC cartridges rely on magnets and coils to generate the electrical signal. The optical cartridge uses a beam of light to detect cantilever movement, making the cartridge much lighter and more agile in tracking the record groove. With the coils, magnets, and magnetic field of a conventional cartridge removed—and its subsequent influence on cantilever movement and sound quality, the optical cartridge produces the most natural sound from vinyl LPs. The purity of the musical signal created by the optical cartridge is perfectly matched to the DS Audio preamp/equalizers. These elegant and straightforward dedicated phono stages are built to the highest standard, removing end-user guesswork for loading and gain..

Avantgarde-HK

Avantgarde-HK

DS Audio DS-W2 Optical Cartridge

The DS-W2 is an ‘optical generator’ cartridge with a number of trickle-down technologies first implemented on the company’s flagship Master1 cartridge – “Emulating the Master” as DS Audio states. In the DS-W2 the optical ‘screen’ has been placed in close proximity to the stylus, a strategy that is said to provide better photo-electrical efficiency or conversion, and a higher level of information accuracy pulled from the vinyl’s grooves. Further groove-tracking improvements are via the DS-W2’s boron cantilever and re-engineered ‘Micro-Ridge’ stylus which is claimed to be an improvement over the DS-W1’s Shibata stylus, itself a highly-regarded stylus design. DS Audio has included an aesthetic feature in the handcrafted ‘Natural Rose Quartz’ LED indicator.

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DS-W2唱頭放大器的製作猶如一部精密儀器，機內各部以1.5mm厚銅板作屏蔽，採全平衡雙單聲道設計，配備12枚濾波電容、總容量高達56,000μF。DS-W2採用 Microridge 針尖、能深入黑膠唱片更小的溝槽，因此高頻表現相當好，並且他拿出自己儀測分析的結果，證明DS-W2有互調失真低、分離度高的特性。

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Avantgarde-HK

所謂“光學唱頭”，在發聲原理和能量轉換方式上就與傳統唱頭不一樣。大家都知道，傳統的動磁和動圈唱頭，在唱針桿的尾端一定會帶有磁鐵或線圈。當針尖在唱片表面帶有音樂信號的溝槽中移動時，針桿會在通過溝槽時產生振動，這些振動會通過線圈的電磁感應方式產生電流信號，再傳到唱頭放大器做進一步的放大。

這樣的發聲原理和能量轉換方式雖然比較簡單易於實現，但是也存在著不可避免的問題：磁鐵或線圈相對於針桿來說是一個“沉重的負擔”，如果想要針桿準確而沒有任何延遲地跟隨溝槽的起伏移動，它的動作必須非常輕巧靈活，要做到這一點就必須把磁鐵或線圈重量盡可能地減小。但是，磁鐵或線圈的重量減小之後，唱頭的輸出聲壓級也會變小，這就需要唱頭放大器加大放大倍率。加大放大倍率之後帶來的副作用就是：在放大音樂信號的同時也會放大隨之帶來的噪聲，從而產生不夠乾淨的聲音。所以，對於傳統唱頭來說，如何在還原聲音的準確性和純淨性之間做取捨、實現合理的平衡，對任何一個唱頭設計生產廠家來說都是一個必須要面對的重要問題。

DS Audio的“光學唱頭”方案，其核心是“先進光學機芯”，就是拋棄機械接觸方式，而是用光去感應唱針的振動，不需要外加磁鐵或線圈，也可以產生足夠的輸出，同時讓信噪比達到更理想的狀態。 DS Audio光學唱頭內部主要由3個部件組成：LED發光體、遮光板、感光元件，同時也和傳統唱頭一樣具有唱針桿、針尖、懸吊臂、阻尼器等部件。光學唱頭的遮光板位於唱頭的針桿上，處於LED發光體和感光元件之間，LED發光體發出的光會在感光元件上形成感應。當針桿順著黑膠唱片表面的溝槽移動而振動時，遮光板也會一起振動，感光元件上的感應會產生變化，感光板也會因此產生電流變化，直接轉化為音頻信號。由於遮光板非常小非常輕，基本對針桿的動作不會產生任何壓力，因此針桿可以非常靈活地跟隨黑膠唱片表面溝槽的形狀進行移動，從而避免了磁鐵或線圈安裝在針桿尾端所帶來的所有弊端。同時，光學唱頭的信號輸出完全是純模擬方式，但必須搭配自家專用的唱頭放大器。

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MM/MC的發聲原理，靠唱針的擺幅產生電壓變化，所以RIAA等化需要大約100倍放大，修正幅度很大.

DS Audio 光學唱的發聲原理靠光學的振幅比例，等化修正幅度僅需要3~4倍。從這項技術特點來看，可以知道DS Audio唱頭為何能做到更低的背景噪訊，因為RIAA修正補償的倍率小，自然背景噪訊更低。

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The DS-W2 cartridge has a patch of “silicone” located just above the top side of the stylus tip. Should the cartridge dropped onto the platter or LP by mistake, it serves as a cushion to prevent damage to the cartridge suspension. However, the silicone does attract dust and will appear as if “gunk” has accumulated on the surface.




Dust accumulation on the “silicone patch”.

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DS-W2 + AMG Viella/ 12J2 Turbo 是絕配,  令很多發燒友垂青

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The Optical Advantage

Traditional MM & MC cartridges rely on magnets and coils to generate the electrical signal. The optical cartridge uses a beam of light to detect cantilever movement, making the cartridge much lighter and more agile in tracking the record groove. With the coils, magnets, and magnetic field of a conventional cartridge removed—and its subsequent influence on cantilever movement and sound quality, the optical cartridge produces the most natural sound from vinyl LPs. The purity of the musical signal created by the optical cartridge is perfectly matched to the DS Audio preamp/equalizers. These elegant and straightforward dedicated phono stages are built to the highest standard, removing end-user guesswork for loading and gain..

Avantgarde-HK

Avantgarde-HK

The DS-W2 cartridge has a patch of “silicone” located just above the top side of the stylus tip. Should the cartridge dropped onto the platter or LP by mistake, it serves as a cushion to prevent damage to the cartridge suspension. However, the silicone does attract dust and will appear as if “gunk” has accumulated on the surface.

Avantgarde-HK

DS W2 能讓你的系統連升幾級, 實屬重要, 必試!

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In under five years, DS Audio has revived the optical cartridge – mooted decades ago but only viable now, thanks to LEDs and other developments – and cornered the market for such devices. They are as alien to moving-coils and moving-magnets as are oddities like Londons (née Decca), Grados and others that choose a different path, but even those involve magnets and coils. However, optical cartridges, by definition, are free of this iron and copper.

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Simcity

之前 DS 002 用係 Air Force One 唱盤， 有一種耳目一新嘅感覺. 曾認真考慮購置DS Master1, 因為買咗CH precision P1 phono 而放棄咗。