advertisement


Are Koetsus worth it?

I wasn't questioning the quality of Jensen transformers. I did test some years ago but I wouldn't use them because there were better performing transformers made within Europe. Jensen are American made and I try to use UK and EU manufactured parts where ever I can, unless something special appears. FWIW there aren't many transformers I haven't tried or tested over the years.

Fair enough.

So what do you consider the pinnacle of SUT's? e.g. Lundahl, Slagle, Audionote, Kondo, etc. Or have you a particular 'favourite' and what is that based on, measurements or subjective listening?
 
Low output MCs have a very low impedance generator - therefore changes to either capacitance or resistive loading have no effect unless extreme.

i kinda agree with this common wisdom re MCs and capacitance however this evening while searching for a tonearm to SUT cable i bumped into saec sx 5006

http://v2kpc.com/p3197203/saec-cx5006

it's a cable saec made in 2 versions for MC pickup use

a) saec sx 5006 (brown), low resistance (?), low capacitance, low inductance
b) saec sx 5006b (blue), low resistance, mid capacitance, low inductance

so for bloody sake it seems they thought the MC pickups need a cable of an appropriate capacitance?!

and how shall i found which one is the right cable for koetsu black, koetsu black goldline, SPU spirit and miyajima shilabe?
 
I'm approaching one of those system rethink moment wherein I'll have an opportunity to do some good things. Alongside my distinctly out of date digital set-up, I'd like to take an opportunity to equip my SME20/3A and Aurorasound Vida with something less lowly than the current Benz Micro Ace SL cart I've had on for the past year or so.

That's a good cart I had one whilst my Transfiguration Orpheus was in hospital.

I haven't liked many cartridges in my 40 odd years of using vinyl TBH. So I regard that as high praise for what was once a £350 cart.

2Juki used to sell Urushi's on ebay years ago for unbelievably low prices. They probably were worth the money:)
 
There are stories of fake cartridges coming from that part of the world so it's buyer beware...

So pay a 100%+ UK dealer mark up?

He's got great feedback over the years. I have no doubt what he was selling was genuine. In fact it is bloody obvious from what he sells he is an expert seller. I'd not hesitate to buy from him and know a few who have.

At the end of the day they are only cartridges and they fight to present a reasonable performance. Very few are really seriously good. If I was running an SME deck I'd make sure I was running better than the cheaper Benz options, though. At whatever level of SME.

In my experience of K's on SME arms, generally on Michell decks - great match. Not so sure of full blooded SME set ups but fairly sure it'd be good at Rosewood Sig and above.
 
So pay a 100%+ UK dealer mark up?

He's got great feedback over the years. I have no doubt what he was selling was genuine. In fact it is bloody obvious from what he sells he is an expert seller. I'd not hesitate to buy from him and know a few who have.

2juki has got loaded of decent FB on the *bay. But GT is correct in that a number of counterfeits have been around and that some people have been stung (not by 2juki as far as I am aware).

Don't forget that some buyers don't have the skill or confidence to mount and set up a cartridge properly. Failing to set up a high end MC cart properly is a travesty and the listener will not get every bit out of his/her expensive purchase. A false move can leave your £3-4k with a broken cantilever and hefty repair bill.

Most high end dealers will happily mount, set up and make sure that your new purchase is working to the optimum. Some will even come to your own home with a plethora of set up tools, set up the cartridge and check that the customer is happy before leaving.

I have set up and mounted countless cartridges over the last 35 years, having started off selling hi-fi in the late 70s before going to medical school. But if a customer needs old fashioned service, that's not available over the internet (yet!).

Charlie
 
So pay a 100%+ UK dealer mark up?

He's got great feedback over the years. I have no doubt what he was selling was genuine. In fact it is bloody obvious from what he sells he is an expert seller. I'd not hesitate to buy from him and know a few who have.

At the end of the day they are only cartridges and they fight to present a reasonable performance. Very few are really seriously good. If I was running an SME deck I'd make sure I was running better than the cheaper Benz options, though. At whatever level of SME.

In my experience of K's on SME arms, generally on Michell decks - great match. Not so sure of full blooded SME set ups but fairly sure it'd be good at Rosewood Sig and above.

+1 I've had great service from Juki over the years including putting right stuff where I have had issues on arrival. Agreed that his stuff is genuine though also certain that he must be a huge irritation to certain vested interests where, no doubt, such rumours have originated.
 
2Juki is the real deal. Bought many times from him without any issues.

Great service and very good prices.
 
So pay a 100%+ UK dealer mark up

At the end of the day they are only cartridges and they fight to present a reasonable performance. Very few are really seriously good. If I was running an SME deck I'd make sure I was running better than the cheaper Benz options, though. At whatever level of SME.

In my experience of K's on SME arms, generally on Michell decks - great match. Not so sure of full blooded SME set ups but fairly sure it'd be good at Rosewood Sig and above.

I've had a few upper level cart's, and they were ALL seriously good; at the time. One moves on to even more seriously good cart's though !:)

It's said that it's better to put a cheaper cart. on a superior deck/arm than the converse, and surely, a lowly Benz in an excellent deck/arm combo will give of its all and still be upgradable without the greater cost of changing anything else.

The SME Five is quite capable with Koetsus, but not ideal. I'd disagree (from experience (with Orbe)) about 'Red K Sig. and above'. as stone-bodied Ks are simply not suited to the 11g eff. mass of a Five. So, Red K Sig. and BELOW would seem more apposite.
 
I've had a few upper level cart's, and they were ALL seriously good; at the time. One moves on to even more seriously good cart's though !:)

It's said that it's better to put a cheaper cart. on a superior deck/arm than the converse, and surely, a lowly Benz in an excellent deck/arm combo will give of its all and still be upgradable without the greater cost of changing anything else.

The SME Five is quite capable with Koetsus, but not ideal. I'd disagree (from experience (with Orbe)) about 'Red K Sig. and above'. as stone-bodied Ks are simply not suited to the 11g eff. mass of a Five. So, Red K Sig. and BELOW would seem more apposite.


Personally never wamed to the V at all .. too wimpy to drive the low compliance stuff I like (including Koetsus). Most times I've heard one it's sounded a bit Meh. Much prefer my Ikeda or the FR64S that preceeded it.
 
Some years ago I bought an AT33PTG 'direct from Japan' for a ludicrously low price. Came air mail in the letter post in two or three days. At that time they weren't officially available in Europe, but awesome cart for (IIRC) about £180 all in. Looking at EBay now it seems to make little difference, at about £420+ for the replacement model. Which is interesting.

One of the fantastic things about the modern world is that anybody can buy anything from anywhere. Panasonic mic capsules from Hong Kong not so long ago, last week a pair of bicycle wheels directly from some nice people in China. Less of the slurp, as it were.

Paul
 
That's a strange collection, and I wonder which gets used most. As I've had the Goldline, I'd be interested in how it differs from the Sugano San Black.

Well strangely the most used one is SPU Spirit, mostly because it's a great overall player and I like the overall setup it sits in (301 plus FR64). Next is Shilabe which I liked but the setup annoys me - Stabi S plus 4Point - too smooth for my taste.

None of my Koetsus are the original ones and I deliberately wanted to improve them trough different cantilever and stylus choice. I wanted to keep the original dynamic, bouncy sound with great tone, just to get better extension and detail in upper range. The work was done by a Koetsu specialists (who himself has one of the most amazing collections of stone body ones) and he did an excellent job. The differences? Old Black is still softer and more mellow, while Goldline has more punch. I think the Sugano Black is now with a MR stylus while Goldline has a LC one. Though now I regret I didn't do silver coils, this was worth a try.
 
That's a good cart I had one whilst my Transfiguration Orpheus was in hospital.

I haven't liked many cartridges in my 40 odd years of using vinyl TBH. So I regard that as high praise for what was once a £350 cart.

2Juki used to sell Urushi's on ebay years ago for unbelievably low prices. They probably were worth the money:)

It's a lovely cart, and I'm genuinely fond of it. I will hang on to it even if/when I go Koetsu/Lyra/Kiseki/whatever.
 
Less of the slurp, as it were.

Paul

Paul,

Absolutely, as long as you get what you think you paid for. If the Asian GM for Lego can't tell a fake from a real Lego figure, then you know that the fakers are doing a great job.

http://www.brickfanatics.co.uk/the-bbc-test-lego-manager-on-clone-brands/

The Chinese make fake everything from Louis Vuitton handbags to headphones, Range Rovers, Rolexes etc. The Chinese manufacture their own pukka MC cartridges, so it wouldn't be too difficult to rebuild a genuine used cartridge to sell as "new" or transplant home grown innards into a used shell.

http://mockingbirddistribution.com/jasmine-audio/jasmine-audio-tiger-and-turtle-mc/

I have no wish to pay more that I have to for my purchases. But I do want a guarantee that I am getting what I paid for, unless it's so cheap that it doesn't matter. If I lose £10 in a fake cable, lesson learnt. £3500 on a fake cartridge with no comeback would be hard to swallow.

Charlie

Anyway this is way off Tim's original post about whether to buy a Koetsu - my apologies.
 
Paul,

I have no wish to pay more that I have to for my purchases. But I do want a guarantee that I am getting what I paid for, unless it's so cheap that it doesn't matter. If I lose £10 in a fake cable, lesson learnt. £3500 on a fake cartridge with no comeback would be hard to swallow.

Charlie

The only people who "suffer from" fakes, IMO, are those who must get a bargain ... so they search the www for a product ... find an "unbelievable" offer ... and go for it.

If you walk into a b&m store and pay the full price ... you will get the genuine article. :p

Andy
 
A shame you're not considering Miyajima or Transfiguration, but since you like the Benz, why not go for an LPS?

To my mind, you don't have to go to the LPS (which is a heavy cart.); the Ebony, with a lower internal impedance (and output?) is an absolute beauty. It's very Transfiguration-like but slightly warmer/fuller. ESCo used to do good deals on Benz, as well as trade ins. A caveat for Benz, though, is no stylus guard; mind you, the Transfig. one is virtually unusable anyway.

The Miyajima (Shilabe, that I heard in my system in November) was very Koetsu- like and quite different to the Benz and Transfig.
 


advertisement


Back
Top