The laser beauty treatment for your LPs – From DS Audio who last year launched the Grand Master optical cartridge now comes the DS003 update to the older DS002 with "3rd-gen tech. Independent LEDs and photo detectors for left/right channels increase output voltage from 40mV to 70mV whilst upgrading S/NR and eliminating crosstalk altogether. It also sports a smaller shading plate of 99.9% pure beryllium for a 50% weight reduction to 0.74mg so less than 1/10th the mass of a moving coil cartridge's core and coil system. An aluminium cantilever with line contact stylus mates to an aluminium body. Internal wiring is 1.6 x thicker than before to reduce impedance. Like all optical cartridges, the DS003 requires its own equalizer/phono stage. The new design includes a thicker 2mm PCB with 70µ traces. The DS003 equalizer also offer four low-frequency cut-off points." The cartridge is £2'298, the equalizer £3'147, the package of both £4'995.
