Optical cartridge pioneer DS Audio releases new top-of-range Grand Master Extreme

PRESS RELEASE: DS Audio’s multi-award winning Grand Master optical phono cartridge has been described as being among the world’s best, possibly even the best, ever heard. Now, DS Audio has created an even higher-performance option, the Grand Master Extreme, which combines a stylus and cantilever crafted from a single diamond.

The Grand Master Extreme is closely based on the original Grand Master model – featuring the same ‘third generation’ internal optical sensor systems and external power supply and amplifier – but with one significant enhancement: the stylus and cantilever are not two elements but one, carved from a single diamond.

In most cartridge designs, the stylus and cantilever are made separately and then bonded together using some form of adhesive. In contrast, DS Audio’s Grand Master Extreme uses a 0.22mm-square one-piece diamond cantilever with an integral Micro Ridge stylus tip. This state-of-the-art design ensures that, in tracking the intricate vibration of the needle tip, there can be no loss of precision or detail at the stylus/cantilever junction – since there is no junction – hence the stylus can transmit the groove modulation to the optical generator with incredible accuracy.

In common with all of DS Audio ‘third generation’ optical cartridges, the Grand Master Extreme utilizes independent LEDs and photo-detectors for the left and right channels, enabling an output of more than 70mV, while elevating left and right channel separation to above 27dB.

And, in common with all DS Audio optical cartridges, the Extreme requires its own phono stage/equalizer. While the entire DS Audio cartridge range is fully compatible with any of the company’s accompanying phono stages/equalizers, the Extreme is best partnered with the model created specifically for the Grand Master, in which the equalizer and power supply come as two independent units, both of which are crafted to fully enable the world-leading performance of DS Audio’s top-of-range Grand Master and Grand Master Extreme.

Every DS Audio product is hand-made and quality assured, and every component part tested and evaluated, by the company’s own in-house team of technicians in Japan.

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