Photo-electric pick-up cartridge and equaliser
Made by: Digital Stream Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan
Supplied by: Soundfowndations Ltd, Berks
Telephone: 0118 9814238
Web: www.ds-audio-w.biz; www.soundfowndations.co.uk
Price (inc. equaliser): £12,995

CARTRIDGEDS Audio DS-W3

RIGHT: The DS-W3’s alloy body and top
plate ensures it can be bolted tight tothe headshell. The decorative LED strip
is a very useful cueing aid but is separate
from the internal LEDs that form thephoto-electric mechanism

Updating the DS-W2 with a host of trickle-down technology from the brand’s flagship‘dual mono’ Grand Master, the new DS-W3 ‘optical’ pick-up looks to steal the limelight
Review: Ken Kessler Lab: Paul MillerAn object lesson in how to createa monopoly: make something
no-one else can copy. As tricky
to manufacture as CD players,electric cars, digital cameras and quartz
watches might have been at the outset,
competitors soon emerged for each. Not
so DS Audio’s ‘optical’ cartridges, whichhave captivated the high-end since arrivingin 2015. Imitators have yet to emerge.
At £4995 for the new DS-W3 cartridge,£9495 for the matching energiser/equaliser, or £12,995 if purchased
together for a £1495 saving, it’s not likethe rewards aren’t there to inspire othermanufacturers. The package, it must be
remembered, also obviates the need for aphono stage as DS cartridges do not workwith RIAA circuitry [see PM’s boxout, p69].

has sounded slightly different they haveall borne an evolving family resemblance.
The third generation was launched in2020 with the flagship Grand Master [HFN
Feb ’21], and the technology has trickled
down to the ‘W’ model, to create theDS-W3 tested here, as a replacement for
the DS-W2 [HFN Jan ’19]. Visually, this new
cartridge looks like its siblings until you
switch on the energiser. An LED strip glows
a fiery red, in place of the less boldcolours – such as lavender, green
or blue – we’ve seen before.
This hue, not dissimilar tothat of a Ferrari, promises
performance, and it’smatched by the redtell-tale on DS Audio’s
matching energiser.

A HEAD START

Split mechanism

As for the dearth of opposition, cynics
would argue that rewards are limited
because the high-end pick-up market isn’t
that large. But R&D costs would be high,and DS Audio has the very real advantage
of being in the wing of a company withlong experience in related optical devices.
The Japanese company has been
prolific – I think this is its 11th or 12th
new cartridge – but while each model

Inside, the optical systembenefits from ‘Gen 3’ gains
including independent LEDs and photodetectors for the L/R channels, resulting
in increased output voltage (from thecartridge, not the equaliser), which is now
70mV versus the earlier models’ 40mV. The
manufacturer also attributes improved left
and right channel separation and S/N ratio
to the split optical mechanism.
Keeping with the lookof extant models, theDS-W3’s body isstill unusually
shallow. DS
Audio produces
lightweightplates to insert
between theLEFT: The boron
cantilever andlightweight
beryllium ‘shadingplate’ are visible
here in front ofa thin-film screen
designed to limit dust
particles accumulating on thetwo photocells beneath

Reprinted from Hi-Fi News for global distribution | www.hifinews.co.uk

INSET: Although the DS-W3 benefits frommuch of the Grand Master’s updates, the pickup still uses a boron cantilever. The clean linecontact stylus, seen here at x30, is cemented
into a hole at the tip of the boron rod

cartridge and headshell if arm height
becomes an issue, particularly with sometonearms – SME specifically – that widen
towards the rear, at the LP’s edge. As theDS-W3 weighs only 7.9g, use of
these plates should not add
substantially to the mass.
Also part of the third
generation improvements
is a thinner, lighter shadingplate, reduced from1.56mg to 0.74mg byusing 99.9% pure berylliumin place of the previousaluminium. The cartridge
body is aluminium, and thewiring 1.6 times thicker than thatof the previous generation, lowering
its internal impedance. The cantilever isboron, the stylus a line contact type [seeinset pic, above] and the DS-W3 tracks at
1.9g, 0.2g higher than typical of the Gen 2models, if I remember correctly.

Quick change
For once in my on-going relationship withDS Audio cartridges, I auditioned theenergiser before the cartridge, rather thancartridge first or both at the same time.
This was a simple substitution that took
all of two minutes as I keep a DS Audio
cartridge in operation at all times on oneof my record decks; the model in question
being the DS-003 [HFN Oct ’21], an earlier
Gen 3 design costing a modest £4995
with energiser, or the same as the DS-W3
cartridge on its own.
Wow! The new energiser utterlytransformed the performance to anotherlevel, especially for bass solidity, an even
quieter background (quite an achievement
as the DS Audio cartridges have always
been ghostly in that area), and greater‘speed’. Also indicative of the energiser
improvements, eg, greater reservoir

capacitance, is that it takes longer for thecharge to dissipate, the lights staying on
far longer than with previous models.
All of this suggests – and I hope retailers
won’t hate me for saying this – that while
each DS Audio cartridge has a matching
PSU/equaliser which is its natural partner,
the upgrade path isn’t necessarily buythe-next-model-up-cartridge. Instead,some might opt for a less expensive
cartridge with a dearer energiser/equaliser,or vice versa, because occasionally thebetter energiser may be a wiser solution,
especially for perennial upgraders.
To understand this, I contacted Tetsuaki
Aoyagi, DS Audio president, who told me:‘The basic configuration of the DS-W3
equaliser has not changed, but we haveoptimised the components tomatch the third-generation
cartridge’. What this simply
confirmed was that theDS Audio system, whichallows any of its cartridges
to be used with any of theenergisers, needs to beauditioned both as a package,and in mix ’n’ match mode. Depending on
your responses, you might end up saving
money… or spending more.
It is also important to note that thisenergiser, like the Master models, allows

you to choose between balanced XLR andsingle-ended RCA outputs, with a choice of30Hz and 50Hz filters. I certainly preferred
the balanced output, while the filters cameinto play when I switched loudspeakers
from Quad ESL63s [HFN Sep/
Oct ’81] to Falcon Acoustics
LS3/5As [HFN Dec ’18],
and then to Wilson Sasha
DAWs [HFN Mar ’19]. Andthese settings can be easily
determined by ear, because
the DS-W3’s delivery is as
revealing as any you will
hear, especially at the frequency extremes[see PM’s Lab Report, p71].
Another issue to consider is how the DS
Audio DS-W3 – indeed, all DS cartridges– seems immune to tonearm influence.

‘Like a Denon
DL-103 onsteroids? Yes,
it’s that huge’

LIGHT SPEED
Strictly speaking, while all DS Audio’s phono cartridges use photo-electric
technology – derived from the guitar pick-ups and computer mice of the Digital
Stream ‘optical device development’ company – they still ‘pick-up’ from thegroove using a mechanical stylus and cantilever. However, the stereo current
that’s output via the DS-W3’s L+ and R+ terminal pins is derived from thelight of two fixed, narrow-beam 5V LEDs (one per channel) shining on a pair ofphotocells. This output directly reflects the passage of the stylus through theanalogue groove because the LED light paths are partially interrupted by what
DS Audio calls a ‘shading plate’ – a lightweight beryllium film that’s connected tothe moving cantilever. The LEDs, meanwhile, are powered via the DS-W3’s L– andR– pins using a proprietary PSU and equaliser [inset picture].
Because DS Audio’s photo-electric conversion is sensitive only to theamplitude of the movement of the stylus, unlike velocity-sensitive MC/MMs
whose output increases with both groove excursion and frequency, the DS-W3
requires only a relatively subtle HF boost to realise a‘flat’ response with all RIAA pre-equalised LPs [see LabReport, p71]. So while DS Audio’s various ‘optical’ pickups can be mixed-and-matched with its range of PSU/
Eq boxes, none are compatible with traditional phono
preamps (and vice-versa). PMI tried it in a straight carbon-fibre-tube
arm, a J-shaped metal-tubed arm and astraight titanium arm, and the tracking,silences and other concerns remained sotruly constant that it was a struggle todifferentiate between them. Indeed, evenwith a severely-warped LP, in a deck costing
1/10th the price of the entire package, theDS-W3 tracked without complaint.

Wide open
Although I tried both DS Audio’s least
expensive energiser and the Master model,
I settled on the DS-W3 cartridge/energiser
pictured and tested here as it’s this naturalpairing that really concerns us. My notes
include mention of the superbly recorded
Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones live
set Checkerboard Lounge – Live Chicago
1981 [Eagle Vision/Ward VQBD-10107],
where the initial impact was the recreationof the club’s soundstage, so airy and sowide open and perfectly defined that I
immediately thought of it as ‘Denon’s
DL-103 on steroids’. Yes, it’s that huge.
I was able to match liner notes tolineups, so even a non-musician like me
could distinguish Ron Wood’s guitar fromthat of John Primer, and Mick Jagger’s
distinctive vocals struggling to match thelegitimacy of Muddy Waters’ gruff tones.
What the new DS Audio system brought
to the performance was an opening up of
the sound such that a listener with forensic
tendencies could more easily home in on aparticular performer.

www.hifinews.co.uk | Reprinted from Hi-Fi News for global distribution

Lab
reportDS Audio DS-W3

ABOVE: Rear view of the DS-W3’s PSU/equaliser. The pick-up’s internal 5V LED is
powered via the R– and L– pins while the output is returned via R+ and L+, through the‘input’ RCAs. The equalised outs, on RCAs and XLRs, are filtered at either 30Hz or 50Hz

Still with live material, and evenmore illuminating, was Eric Clapton’s
Crossroads Guitar Festival 2019
[Rhino/Reprise RI 628789], with astellar lineup including Jeff Beck,
Buddy Guy, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie
Raitt, Keb’ Mo’ and of course,
Slowhand himself. I could only
marvel at the way the cartridgeemphatically recreated the soundof each guitar, Fenders vs. Gibsons,solid-bodied vs. semi or acoustic.
I don’t want to portray the DS-W3
primarily as a tool for analysis, andseasoned listeners know that too
diagnostic a sound can be fatiguing,
because the DS Audio ‘sound’ is both
unforgiving, revealing warts and all,while also being gently ameliorative,eg, the way it handles warps. On‘Baby, Please Come Home’, withJimmy Vaughan on guitar and Bonnie
Raitt on vocals, the fear of ‘too muchinformation’ proved groundless.

Mission impossible
Too much information? This trackplaces a traditional electric blues
band in front of a horn section,with a massive, Hammond-y organ
pumping away. What resulted was
the near-impossible combination ofa Spector-esque ‘Wall of Sound’ butwith such precision that nothing was
swamped by the rest. Better still was
the sensation of stage depth, which– if one could look at the soundstage
from above – was a big, fat oval
stretching from wall to wall.
Sailing through the mono tracks
on the The Beatles’ ...The Christmas
Records [Apple/Universal 0255791485] also proved revelatory.
These remastered transfersfrom what were only previously
available on low-fi flexi-discs, a lonecompilation LP from 1969, also of
so-so sound quality, or via bootlegs
which were needle-drops of either,were elevated to another level
entirely by DS Audio’s duo.

Yule love it
While regarded merely as the FabFour fooling around in the studio tooffer an annual thanks to the Official
Beatles Fan Club’s members, thedetails exposed by the DS-W3 wereear-opening – even to this aged
fan who’s heard them countlesstimes. The festive sound effects andsnippets of chat revealed as much as
any documentary about the band’s
evolution when all seven singles
were played chronologically. And
the mono aspect? Rock-solid central
positioning, even from coloured
vinyl 7in discs. I am dazzled.

HI-FI NEWS VERDICTABOVE: Cartridge pins are gold-plated,clearly marked and usefully spaced. Notethat the DS-W3 can only be employedwith one of DS Audio’s purpose-designed
LED power supply and equalisers [top]Three years ago, DS Audio leveraged advances in its then-flagship
Master 1 [HFN Dec ’17] to ‘evolve’ the DS-W1 [HFN Nov ’15] into
DS-W2 [HFN Jan ’19], and it has performed the same trick with
the new DS-W3, which borrows heavily from the current flagship
Grand Master [HFN Feb ’21]. Except, in this case, the ‘upgrade’
from DS-W2 to ’W3 is more significant than from ’W1 to ’W2.
Specifically, the ’W3 now has the ‘dual mono’ generator withseparate L/R LEDs, a lighter shading plate and thicker internal
wiring that we saw in the Grand Master. It benefits from a
reduced moving mass which pushes the ’W2’s 13kHz treble peakout to a higher 15kHz in the ’W3, also at a less severe +3.2dB
amplitude [see Graph 1]. The improved light path has tightened
the channel balance to 0.2dB, and widened HF stereo separationfrom a poor 6dB (W2) to 15dB (W3, re. 20kHz) while conferring
better lateral/vertical symmetry – this is evident in both theresponse and distortion versus frequency plots [see Graph 2].
The bass boost, seen in all previous DS cartridges, amounts to+3dB/20Hz with the 50Hz filter in tow or +4.5dB/20Hz with the30Hz filter, neither being especially useful when partnered withbig, reflex-loaded speakers. DS Audio has attempted to counter
this by ‘stiffening’ the compliance of the DS-W3 away from the15cu of the ’W2 closer to the 11cu of the Grand Master while
also increasing the downforce from 1.7g to ~2g. This pushes thearm/cartridge resonance upwards, but tracking suffers slightly,
the DS-W3 only clearing a 70µm groove pitch and moderate+15dB modulation (315Hz lateral cut, re. 11.2μm) at <2% THD.
The 2.1V output (1kHz/5cm/sec) is a function of the equaliser. PMWith the DS-W3 pairing, DS Audiohas again created an upgrade
which – rather than confoundprevious owners – increases
the number of choices while
reinforcing the avoidance ofobsolescence. New to the brand?
Buy the package. Existing user
due for an upgrade? Either
component will yield a boon. TheDS-W3 is among the best yet,certainly at the price point, andI’ll despair when it’s returned.

Sound Quality: 88%
0-------- 100

ABOVE: Frequency response curves (–8dB re. 5cm/sec) lateral (L+R, black) vs. vertical (L–R, red) vs. stereo(dashed, 50Hz filter, grey; 30Hz filter, black)

ABOVE: Lateral (L+R, black), vertical (L–R, red), stereo(dashed) tracing and generator distortion (2nd-4thharms) vs. freq. from 20Hz-20kHz (–8dB re. 5cm/sec)

HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONSGenerator type/weight

Photo-optical / 7.9g

Recommended tracking force

18.5-20.5mN (19.5mN)

Sensitivity/balance (re. 5cm/sec)

2068mV / 0.18dB (from Eq unit)

Compliance (vertical/lateral)

12cu / 15cu

Vertical tracking angle

22 degrees

L/R Tracking ability

65μm / 70μm

L/R Distortion (–8dB, 20Hz-20kHz)

1.0–6.6% / 0.55–7.5%

L/R Frequency resp. (20Hz-20kHz)+3.6 to –3.9dB / +5.5 to –0.6dB

Stereo separation (1kHz / 20kHz)

24dB / 15dB

www.hifinews.co.uk | Reprinted from Hi-Fi News for global distribution