Головки звукоснимателя — Reed Reed SF

The Reed SF is an optical phono cartridge from Reed, the Lithuanian analogue company founded in 2007 in Kaunas by radio engineer Vidmantas Triukas, known for its tonearms. It was developed in collaboration with DS Audio of Japan, the pioneer of modern optical cartridges, and launched at High End Munich 2025 together with the Reed EQ phono equaliser and Reed PS power supply. Its Australian price was AUD 19,000.

Key specs that matter

The Reed SF uses an optical generator instead of magnets and coils. The cantilever is sapphire. The stylus is a Micro Ridge type. Tracking force is 2.0 to 2.2 g, with 2.1 g recommended. The cartridge weighs 9.8 g, compliance is 12 um/mN, channel separation exceeds 27 dB at 1 kHz and the raw signal level is 70 mV. The body combines HD phenolic resin with aviation-grade aluminium. The output requires a dedicated optical equaliser, and with the Reed EQ it produces 600 mV at 1 kHz.

Engineering and use context

In an optical cartridge, an LED shines on a photo cell, and a small shade, or mask, attached to the cantilever varies how much light reaches the cell as the stylus follows the groove. The varying light produces a varying voltage, so the signal is still analogue. Because nothing on the cantilever moves through a magnetic field, there is no magnetic resistance acting on the stylus, and the moving mass is very low. An optical generator responds to the displacement of the cantilever rather than its velocity, which is why it needs a matching equaliser with a different correction curve and a power supply to drive the LED. The output voltage is also much higher than that of a moving-coil cartridge. Reed paid particular attention to the housing, choosing a material that is acoustically passive, homogeneous and highly damped across the working range, since the body must not add its own resonances. Reed compared aluminium, Panzerholz and HD phenolic resin by measuring how quickly shock-induced vibrations decayed in identical samples. Separate LED and photo-detector pairs serve the left and right channels. Reed was only the second company to release an optical cartridge of this kind after DS Audio. Reed builds its products in a small facility in the Kaunas region with around five staff, and Triukas has worked in audio since 1985.

Pairing

The Reed SF works only with an optical equaliser, and Reed designed the Reed EQ with Reed PS for it. Reed tonearms such as the 2G or 5A suit it.

Alternatives

Reed has no other cartridge in its range, since the Reed SF is the brand's only phono cartridge.