March 2, 2018 (Friday) 18:56

To obtain this piece of wood, I embarked on a long journey today. This wood was extracted from a Steinway grand piano in need of maintenance, having served as a supporting material for the piano’s soundboard for over a decade. I must keep the specific wood species confidential for now. This wood will undergo CNC machining for testing purposes in cartridge housing applications. We continue conducting tests with various woods, as density and rigidity profoundly impact numerous parameters in the cartridge’s vibration system. If a vibration parameter measures 0.01 within one square inch of volume, it may seem negligible. However, when the volume shrinks tenfold, this value doesn’t simply become 0.1 - it increases exponentially. This represents the most significant variable and challenging aspect in cartridge design and simulation, unlike the cartridge’s metal components (such as magnets and pole pieces) which have fixed density and mass values. Certainly, we could eliminate the housing entirely and create a houseless cartridge. But that’s not my intention. The aesthetics of sound don’t exist independently from physical objects. Form, structure, texture, and color - these tangible elements perceived by sight and touch - must coexist with the beauty of sound, all miniaturized within the cartridge.