DS Audio Grand Master EX Optical Phono Cartridge - The company that perfected the modern optical cartridge has elevated its performance to new heights, says Jacob Heilbrunn. JV adds his comments.
www.theabsolutesound.com
...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
...The first thing to hit home was its absurdly quiet presentation, revealing a vanishingly low noise floor, one as close to pure silence as I’ve yet encountered. This system presents with a starkly quiet presence, allowing sounds to emerge from a much darker background than that generated from any electromagnetic induction-based phono cartridge system in my experience...
Grand Master Extreme Optical Cartridge = $22,500 , Grand Master Equalizer and Power Supply = $45,000