DS Audio DS-W3
The DS-W3 optical cartridge makes vinyl feel startlingly immediate: silent groove backgrounds, authoritative bass and expansive, precisely layered imaging reveal the life within dense mixes. Its boron cantilever and ultra-light optical system deliver crisp focus without sacrificing flow; HiFi News and Tracking Angle found it exceptionally revealing, dynamic and musically absorbing.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
96/100
Build Quality
92/100
Features Usability
88/100
Value for Money
87/100
Pros
Exceptionally quiet backgrounds uncover low-level detail and make music emerge with striking clarity.
Expansive, sharply focused soundstage places instruments as discrete, convincing images with strong depth.
Powerful yet defined bass, refined treble and low distortion keep complex recordings coherent and engaging.
Tracks confidently, including warped records, and performs consistently across varied tonearm designs.
Cons
Requires a dedicated optical energiser/equaliser and cannot connect to a conventional RIAA phono stage.
The cartridge and matching equaliser represent a substantial premium investment; one reviewer questioned the extra outlay over the less expensive DS-003.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 96/100
Reviewers describe an exceptionally revealing yet musically involving optical cartridge, combining powerful, well-defined bass with clear mids, refined treble and unusually quiet backgrounds. Its presentation is highly focused and spacious, while remaining able to make dense recordings sound coherent rather than merely analytical.
Overall Sound
96/100
Dave McNair calls the DS-W3 the finest cartridge he has heard, praising its linearity, low distortion, smooth vocal range and treble presentation. Jason Thorpe likewise found it notably more focused and involving than the DS 003, with strong bass impact, midrange richness and greater clarity on complex music.
Tracking Retrieval
96/100
The boron cantilever and line-contact stylus are accompanied by strong real-world reports: McNair praises the cartridge's tracking and ability to reveal tiny setup changes, while Kessler reports clean tracking even on a severely warped LP. Multiple reviewers also note outstanding low-level retrieval, reduced smear and an exceptionally quiet groove background.
Soundstage Imaging
97/100
Spatial performance drew especially emphatic praise. McNair found imaging “off the charts” and enveloping, Thorpe heard a huge stage with discrete, smear-free instrumental images, and Kessler describes an airy, wall-to-wall stage with convincing depth and precise definition.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 88/100
Tonearm compatibility / system fit. The cartridge appears notably consistent across different arm designs, but its optical operating system requires the matching energiser/equaliser rather than a conventional RIAA phono stage.
Tonearm Compatibility
88/100
At 7.9g, the DS-W3 is relatively light and was comfortable in the reviewed tonearm setup. Kessler found tracking and background silence remarkably unaffected across carbon-fibre, metal and titanium tonearms; however, buyers must accommodate the dedicated externally powered DS equaliser and take care not to connect a conventional cartridge to it.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
92/100
The DS-W3 uses a boron cantilever, line-contact stylus, aluminium body and very light beryllium shading plates, with the latter representing a substantial reduction in moving mass over prior designs. Reviewers also note the substantial milled-aluminium presentation case and practical snap-on stylus guard, though there is little direct comment on long-term durability.
Value for Money
87/100
The DS-W3 sits at a serious premium, with reviews citing roughly £4,995 for the cartridge, £9,495 for the matching energiser/equaliser, or £12,995 as a package. Thorpe clearly hears worthwhile improvements over the cheaper DS 003 but remains uneasy about the extra outlay, while Kessler considers it among the best available at its price and sees the DS ecosystem as a meaningful, non-obsolescent upgrade path.
Reviews & Sources
Professional reviews and sources for this product's Watt'n Potatoes analysis.
Online Reviews & Mentions
YouTube Reviews
Forum Mentions
No forum mentions found yet
Specifications
- DS-W3 Optical Cartridge
- Signal output: Photo-electric Conversion Channel separation: 27db more (1kHz) Weight: 7.9g Output signal level: 70mV more Canti-lever: Boron Body material: Aluminum Stylus: Line contact
- DS-W3 Equalizer for Optical Cartridge
- Output voltage: 500mV(1kHz) Output impedance: More than 120Ω Pre amp input impedance: More than 10kΩ Input terminal: RCA terminal Output terminal : RCA terminal×2, XLR terminal×2 Size: W45cm×H12cm×D435cm Weight: 13.5kg
Manufacturer's Description — DS Audio
Cartridge
Independent LED and photo-detector arrangement for the left and right channels
The new DS-W3 optical cartridge system has been optimized, by implementing an independent LED and photo-detector arrangement for the left and right channels. As a result the cartridge output voltage has greatly increased from 40mV to 70mV. The DS-W3 cartridge offers a greatly improved S/N ratio when compared to its stable mates, resulting in an even lower noise floor and far greater musical clarity.
Weight of shading plate reduced by more than 50%
The implementation of independent left and right channel LED’ s allows for the positioning of the optical system to be optimized as well as necessitating the use of a new shading plate that has been significantly reduced in size compared to our earlier designs. In addition to this reduction in size, the material used to produce the shading plate has changed from aluminium (as used in the second generation cartridges) to 99.9% pure beryllium.
Boron cantilever & Aluminum body
The DS-W3 cartridge features the combination of an boron cantilever with a line contact stylus. The cartridge body is made by aluminum and the structure has been designed in such a way as to promote maximum rigidity. In addition to these features, the DS-W3 utilizes internal wiring 1.6 times thicker than used in the second generation cartridges in order to reduce impedance.
Equalizer
Changed the thickness of the circuit board and the thickness of the copper foil.
Compared to the DS-W2 equalizer, the thickness of the circuit board has been changed from 1.6 mm to 2.0 mm, and the thickness of the copper foil has been changed from 35µ to 70µ.Components are also optimized for third-generation cartridges.In addition, the DS-W3 equalizer has four different low-frequency outputs to choose from. The DS-W3 equalizer has both unbalanced and balanced outputs, so you can choose the output that best matches your system.
Hand-made in Japan circuit board
Every component part used in our products is tested and evaluated by our expert Japanese technicians.
In addition to using a specially printed circuit board, twist-connection of the component legs is further evidence of DS Audio’ s excellent attention to detail.
Each and every product is hand-made and quality assured by our skilled engineers.
Verified Dealers
Online Dealers
All Dealers
Zoom out the map to see more dealers
Authorized dealers for DS Audio DS-W3
- The Audio Association — in-store — Anaheim, California, United States (website)
- The Music Room — online and in-store — Erie, Colorado, United States (website)
- 3mA Audio — online and in-store — Houston, Texas, United States (website)
- A/V Solutions — in-store — Pleasanton, California, United States (website)
- Absolute Audio - Canada — in-store — Calgary, Alberta, Canada (website)
- Absolute Hi End — in-store — Ormond, Victoria, Australia (website)
- Acoustic Sounds — online and in-store — Salina, Kansas, United States (website)
- Acoustic Technologies — online and in-store — Montréal, Québec, Canada (website)
- Alma-Audio — online and in-store — Majadahonda, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain (website)
- Alpha High End — online and in-store — Brasschaat, Vlaams Gewest, Belgium (website)
and 94 more verified dealers
Featured Partners
