DS Audio Grand Master Extreme Optical Cartridge System
The DS Audio Grand Master Extreme is DS Audio's absolute flagship optical phono cartridge and the current pinnacle of the company's optical cartridge development. It shares every element of the Grand Master cartridge except for one: the cantilever and stylus assembly, which in the Extreme is grown from a single, continuous piece of diamond with no adhesive joint between the two elements. The Grand Master Extreme does not have a dedicated equalizer of its own. It is designed to be paired with the Grand Master two-chassis equalizer system, and is sold as a standalone cartridge or as a complete set with that equalizer.
DS Audio and the Optical Cartridge
DS Audio, founded in Japan by Tetsuaki Aoyagi, is the company that brought the optical phono cartridge to the forefront of modern high-end analog. Unlike conventional moving magnet (MM) or moving coil (MC) cartridges, DS Audio optical cartridges convert stylus movement into an electrical signal using light. A miniaturized LED shines onto a photodetector, with a lightweight beryllium shading plate attached to the cantilever modulating the light intensity as the stylus tracks the record groove. The output voltage is approximately 70mV, far higher than any MC cartridge, generated by a moving system of extraordinarily low mass entirely free from the electromagnetic distortion mechanisms inherent in coil-and-magnet designs. Because optical cartridges detect stylus displacement rather than velocity, they require a dedicated optical equalizer rather than a standard RIAA phono stage.
The DS Audio Product Lineup
The DS Audio range includes the E3, DS003, W3, Master 3, Grand Master, and Grand Master Extreme. The Extreme sits at the very top of the lineup. Every DS Audio cartridge below the Extreme uses a cantilever and stylus that, however fine the materials, are two separate components joined with adhesive at the tip of the cantilever rod. The Extreme breaks from that in the most fundamental way possible: there is no joint. The cantilever and stylus are a single continuous diamond element. All DS Audio cartridges, including the Grand Master Extreme, are cross-compatible with all DS Audio equalizers and with third-party optical equalizers from select manufacturers including Soulnote, EMM Labs, Meitner Audio, Soulution, Uesugi Labs, and Westminsterlab.
One-Piece Diamond Cantilever and Stylus
The defining feature of the Grand Master Extreme is its one-piece diamond assembly, produced by Orbray (formerly Namiki Seimitsu), one of the world's foremost manufacturers of precision diamond components for audio applications. The cantilever is a 0.22mm square-section diamond rod, and the Micro Ridge stylus profile is formed directly at the tip of that same diamond rod. No adhesive is used anywhere in the assembly. Cantilever and stylus are a single, seamless object.
In every other cartridge design, including the Grand Master, the stylus tip is a separate diamond that is precision-ground and then bonded to the end of the cantilever with adhesive. While this bond is extremely fine in premium designs, it is a material junction with different acoustic properties from the surrounding materials, and it represents a potential source of resonance, energy storage, or subtle mechanical inconsistency at the critical point where groove information first enters the cartridge. The one-piece diamond eliminates this junction entirely. Groove modulations are transmitted from the stylus contact point through an unbroken, uniform material directly to the shading plate, with no intermediate boundary. This is the engineering rationale DS Audio and Orbray apply to the Extreme, and it is what separates it from every other cartridge below it, including the Grand Master.
Optical Mechanism and Cartridge Construction
Beyond the one-piece diamond assembly, the Grand Master Extreme shares the full complement of third-generation DS Audio optical technology with the Grand Master. The dual-mono optical mechanism uses independent LEDs and photodetectors for the left and right channels, delivering 70mV output at 1kHz with channel separation of 27dB or greater. The 99.9% pure beryllium shading plate weighs 0.74mg, reduced by more than 50% from the aluminum plates used in DS Audio's second-generation designs, and less than one-tenth the effective mass of a typical MC cartridge's coil assembly. Internal wiring is 1.6 times thicker than in second-generation DS Audio cartridges. The body is machined from ultra duralumin and finished in a distinct color from the Grand Master for straightforward visual identification. The cantilever holder is stainless steel. The cartridge weighs 7.7g and tracks at a recommended 2.1g.
Equalizer Pairing
The Grand Master Extreme is a cartridge-only product. It has no dedicated equalizer. DS Audio designed it to be used with the Grand Master two-chassis equalizer system, which provides the optical equalization curve, the LED power supply, and the 700mV line-level output required to drive a preamplifier. The Grand Master equalizer system is available separately, and the Grand Master Extreme can be purchased with it as a complete set. Existing Grand Master cartridge owners who wish to upgrade to the Extreme can do so as a cartridge-only purchase, retaining their Grand Master equalizer without any modification or adjustment required.
Critical Reception
The DS Audio Grand Master Extreme has received the highest assessments from every major reviewer who has heard it. Ken Kessler, reviewing it for Hi-Fi News, built his conclusion directly on his prior Grand Master review, in which he had written that the Grand Master was "so truly supreme in resolution, transparency, spatial recreation, neutrality and any other parameter I can name" that he felt compelled to call it "the best cartridge I've ever heard." Of the Extreme, he stated simply: "I cannot deny: the Grand Master Extreme is even better." Jonathan Valin, writing for The Absolute Sound, called it "the highest-fidelity cartridge I've heard," noting that in direct comparisons with open-reel tape it came closer to the sound of mastertapes than any moving-coil, moving-magnet, moving-iron, or strain-gauge cartridge he had encountered. He also wrote: "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." The consensus is consistent: the Grand Master Extreme represents the current absolute state of the art in optical phono cartridge performance.
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