'Diamond' cantilevers: a man's best friend?


An increasing number of cartridge manufacturers is offering models with 'diamond' cantilevers at the top of their range, generally priced at the wrong side of $10k. The price hike compared to - otherwise identical - models with boron (or other) cantilevers runs in the multiple thousands.

Can anyone explain why? Is this just an artificial price point to emphasize exclusivity or does it have to do with material or manufacturing cost, even if there's not much material to begin with? And speaking of artificial, are these cantilevers made from 'real' diamond, or some industrial type? Are all diamond cantilevers created equal or do we see a variety of diamond-like materials sold as 'real' diamond? And what about the rare 'one piece' diamond stylus/cantilevers used in a few vintage cartridges (Sony XL-88D, Dynavector, Kiseki Lapis Lazuli); are these new top dollar diamond cantilever cartridges (like some Koetsu's, Ortofon MC Century, Transfiguration Orpheus Diamond, etc.) of the 'one piece' type? And if not, what is the presumed advantage compared to ruby, sapphire, boron or any other cantilever materials? In short: does anyone know what the 'diamond' cantilever landscape really looks like?

And finally the really important question: do 'diamond' cantilevers - all else being equal - offer superior performance that would begin to justify the price difference? Has anyone done the required comparative listening?

PS: a have a nice collection of MC's with a variety of cantilever materials: sapphire, ruby, boron, aluminium, beryllium, or some combination of materials. But not 'diamond' (real or otherwise), so I'm curious to find out if I'm missing out on something.



edgewear

Showing 4 responses by howardalex

I have a Koetsu Jade with diamond cantilever.
when I bought the Jade originally it had a standard cantilever but after an “accident” (from which I still experience ptsd) it went back to Koetsu via the UK importer and they took pity on me and offered to rebuild it with a diamond cantilever at something less than the crazy retail price...
Maybe I was expecting too much but mounted in my FR 66s arm with Arche headshell and aggalos silver headshell wires it gets brought out once in a blue moon: my vastly preferred London Decca Reference , various FR 7s and SPU’s  all (to my low rent ears) sound nicer.
Somebody I know with much better hearing than me and a huge amount of experience listening to high end systems (as well as much live classical) prefers my Koetsu Urishi vermillion to the Jade in my system.
His comment is that the Jade makes everything sound like the Jade ...
@halcro, my understanding is that the Koetsu diamond cantilevers are one-piece, ie the stylus and cantilever is hewn from one piece of diamond so as to eliminate the interface between stylus and cantilever.
I have a love/hate relationship with the Jade dc :)
@halcro - I read that it was a single piece of diamond in a review in Absolute Sounds a few years ago, although I suppose that’s not direct from the horses mouth ...