“While we’ve grown used to a parade of game-changers in digital audio, analog is a different story,” writes Jonathan Valin in the April issue of US audio magazine The Absolute Sound. “There haven’t been many radical developments in the world of vinyl”… until, that is, DS Audio’s reinvention, and ongoing envelope-pushing, of the optical cartridge. The DS-W3 is the latest such example.

If you’re not yet familiar with DS Audio’s “ingenious” tech, Valin’s review is a fascinating read in which he unpacks precisely how optical cartridges work and, more to the point, how and why they deliver a sound quality that’s so superior to that of traditional coils and magnets.

Designer Tetsuaki Aoyagi certainly has the pedigree to pull it off, his innovations being the direct result of the work that his father’s company, Digital Stream Corporation, did to develop the optical computer mouse. Fortunately for us all, Aoyagi’s talents also include a commitment to ‘sharing the wealth’. Despite having been the only optical cartridge designer in the world for some ten years now, rather than capitalizing on that by maximizing prices and profits, he has invested heavily in making his designs increasingly accessible to a broader range of budgets, using trickle-down technology to offer an increasing number of outstanding products at a variety of price points.

The DS-W3, Aoyagi’s latest release, could be described as the entry point to DS Audio’s reference-level models (the next steps up being the Master 3 and the top-of-range Grand Master and Grand Master Extreme). In fact, the DS-W3’s proximity to the upper end, at a significantly lower price, is quite remarkable.

“The DS-W3 bears a marked sonic resemblance to the Grand Master, from which it has inherited so much technology,” notes Valin, who includes the Grand Master in his reference system.

“To hear what the DS-W3 can do, you need only put an old, familiar, well-recorded LP on your ‘table, sit down and listen… the DS-W3 shows its virtues immediately. This is not a component you will have to puzzle over, try to deduce via close listening how and where it is better (or worse) that what came before it.”

The optical cartridge is at once “a revelation to fidelity-to-source listeners” and also “a dream come true for as-you-like-it and absolute-sound listeners”, says Valin. The difference it makes “has to be heard to be believed. It’s as if you’ve been listening to music with your window open on a noisy street. All of a sudden, the DS Audio closes the window. You just hear so much more, so much more purely and faithfully.”

Read Jonathan Valin’s review in full in the April 2024 issue of The Absolute Sound.

Discover DS Audio’s complete range of optical cartridges and accessories at https://ds-audio-w.biz and track down your nearest specialist retailer via UK distributor www.soundfowndations.co.uk