Dirk Sommer, senior editor of the German high-end audio publication HIFISTATEMENT, has published an in-depth review of our DS-W3 optical phono cartridge (5 July 2024).

The headline takeaway: after his listening sessions, Sommer purchased the DS-W3 for his own reference system. This is despite an already extraordinary cartridge collection that includes the Lyra Olympos SL and Etna, Transrotor Tamino, Einstein The Pickup, Brinkmann EMT ti, and SPU Century. Adding the DS-W3 to that lineup is, in itself, a powerful statement about where the cartridge stands.

He gives three reasons for the decision:

• Sonic qualities not found — or at least not as fully expressed — in any other cartridge
• A working principle (photo-electric conversion) that sits outside the MM, MC and MI traditions, making it a category of its own
• An open ecosystem: because DS Audio publishes the equalizer specification, an expanding roster of high-end manufacturers — including Soulution, EMM Labs/Meitner, Keces, Soulnote and WestminsterLab — now offer dedicated phono stages for our cartridges

In his closing STATEMENT, Sommer ranks the DS-W3 among the very finest cartridges he has ever heard for spatial portrayal and dynamics, and adds that he knows of no other cartridge that presents music so completely free of background noise, against such a deeply silent backdrop. He concludes that he does not want to — and happily does not have to — be without the DS Audio any longer.

▶ Read the full review (in German): https://www.hifistatement.net/tests/item/3877-ds-audio-ds-w3