Is there an award that hasn’t been won by one or more of DS Audio’s pioneering optical cartridges? The brand and its products continue to wow reviewers and customers alike – and with good reason, given designer Tetsuaki Aoyagi’srelentless commitment to further advancing his innovative technologies and designs, and equally to bringing the benefits of optical technology to ever-more accessible price points, thanks to his judicious use of trickle-down technology.

Product of the Year Award 2025: Grand Master Extreme

The Grand Master Extreme is a further-enhanced version of DS Audio’s flagship Grand Master optical cartridge, the key enhancement being a one-piece diamond cantilever that dispenses with the need for the adhesive joint that most cartridges employ. “The difference is palpable, even astonishing… its entire sonic presentation is elevated to another level”, says The Absolute Sound. “It offers a rarefied experience, one not subject to the usual limitations of vinyl playback. Instead, it ascends to lofty Everest-like peaks of musicality that fully access the hidden treasures buried in the black grooves of an LP.”

The magazine then goes on to print a full review, in addition to the Award article, in which reviewer Jacob Heilbrunn sets out his arguments for summarising the Grand Master Extreme as “a musical tour de force”. Heilbrunn, who had already previously purchased the original Grand Master, itself a mutli-award winner, concurs that the new one-piece diamond cantilever is a game-changer. “Forget about break-in. I immediately heard a radical improvement… it has a profound effect on the sound”. “The color and dimensionality of the entire gamut is audibly improved, as is the resolution of performance detail” he notes, as he puts the cartridge to the test across a diverse array of musical challenges – from jazz to classical, from rock to pop. Colleague Jonathan Valin chips in to add that “the Grand Master EX is the highest fidelity cartridge I’ve heard, coming far closer, in direct LP-to-open-reel comparisons, to the sound of mastertapes than any moving-coil, moving-magnet, moving-iron, or strain-gauge cartridge I’ve heard (and I’ve heard a lot of them)”.

“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. I can’t recommend this supremely lifelike transducer highly enough.”

Editors’ Choice Award 2025: DS Audio DS-003 optical cartridge and equalizer

If you don’t have the budget for DS Audio’s flagship masterpiece, fear not, as the company specializes in using trickle-down tech to extend the sonic benefits of optical cartridges to a wide range of budgets.

One step up from entry-level is the DS-003, also a previous Product of the Year Award and Golden Ear Award winner in 2022,  and still going strong in 2025 with an Editors’ Choice Award. And with good reason, since it sports many of the benefits of the “nonpareil” Grand Master for around one tenth of the price.

Like the Grand Master, the DS-003 uses ‘third generation’ optical cartridge technology, including a dual-mono optical/electrical generator with independent LEDs and photodetectors for each channel. As a result, “channel separation is greatly enhanced—to the benefit of soundstaging”. At the same time, a reduction in mass “improves tracking and lowers noise to a near-inaudible level, increasing resolution and dynamic range”, while thicker wiring and improved equalization “help render tonality in the same lusciously rich, full-bodied, deep-reaching fashion that you hear on the Grand Master, with [open reel] tape, and in life.”

Find out more about DS Audio’s multi-award winning optical cartridges at https://ds-audio-w.biz and locate your nearest specialist retailer via UK distributor www.soundfowndations.co.uk

Discover the full list of Editors’ Choice Awards in the November 2024 issue of The Absolute Sound. For the Product of the Year Awards it’s the January 2025 issue.