“Throw in a spirited mono cartridge, like Hana’s new SL Mono MK II, and you’ll be living like Frank Sinatra. Highly recommended.”
JULY 1, 2025
"Aki has now “trickled down” much of the Grand Master technology into one of his latest “entry-level” products—the DS003, the subject of this review. At “only” $2500 (with another $3500 for its dedicated DS003 phonostage/equalizer), it is not dirt cheap. But $6k is still a far cry from $60k. What do you get for one-tenth the money? Well…just about everything that makes the Grand Master the benchmark that it is...This is just a marvelous transducer. It will certainly be my nominee for TAS Phono Cartridge of the Year.”
- Jon Valin, The Absolute Sound
RECENT NEWS
Promising ‘a new era of analogue sound’, DS Audio launches its first all-tube energiser/equaliser to partner its growing range of optical pick-up cartridges. Has it succeeded?
MARCH 12, 2025
Garth Leerer, Ken Bowers, and Chris Thompson from Musical Surroundings will be at AXPONA this year, along with Robert Suchy and Stefan Kmuch from Clearaudio, Tetsuaki Aoyagi of DS Audio, and Hiroshi Ishihara from Hana.
This year, we have new products from AFI, Clearaudio, DS Audio, and Hana.
As always, it is an honor to present them with Quintessence Audio LTD, Chicago, Illinois.
MARCH 12, 2025