DS Audio PH-001 phono cable
DS Audio’s optical phono cartridges have earned worldwide acclaim for their incredibly low noise floor and astonishing sonic performance. Now, designer Tetsuaki Aoyagi has turned his attention to creating the best possible phono cable for the ultimate optical cartridge performance.
Japanese pioneers DS Audio launched their first optical phono cartridge onto the worldwide audio market in 2013. Since then, the company has continually advanced and refined the state of the art to its current ‘third generation’ level, delivering groundbreaking – and multi-award winning – performance. Still unique in the world, DS Audio’s optical cartridges dispense with the usual moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) designs and instead use an optical system that converts stylus/cantilever movement into audio signals, completely eliminating the unwanted electromagnetic forces that are rife in MM and MC designs.
When it comes to phono cables, in an MM or MC cartridge set-up, the ‘cold’ side of the phono cable serves only as a ground. With an optical cartridge, however, the cold side is used to supply power from the equalizer to the cartridge, hence the cold side is equally as important as the signal-carrying ‘hot’ side. DS Audio’s new PH-001 phono cable therefore features identical materials and construction on both the hot and cold sides, ensuring that the power supply is kept highly stable.
Another feature of optical cartridges is their relatively high impedance, due in part to the photo sensors used in their design. As a result, some external noise could potentially be picked up if an unshielded phono cable were used. The DS Audio PH-001 is fully shielded with a silver-plated copper braid, thus eliminating any possible interference.
The PH-001 features silver-plated, pure copper conductors. Each conductor comprises 37 strands of 0.26mm diameter wire, giving a very large overall conductor cross-sectional area of 1.964mm2. The RCA phono terminals are machined from pure copper, and the pure copper base conductor is then gold-plated, enabling even more musical detail and texture to shine through, along with a heightened sense of openness.
And, should you wish to retain the option of switching between phono cartridges, the PH-001 cable can also be used with moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) models. The DS Audio PH-001 phono cable is available now, priced at £1,895.