Anyone Ever Figure Out Who Really Designs And Build the Kiseki Cartridges?


I am thinking of adding one more cartridge to my collection, well because I can. Back in the days that I got into analog, the arena of rarefied cartridgees was quite small. I remember offerings such as the Ortofon MC 200, Koetsu Rosewood, and the Kiseki cartridges. I never got a chance to experience the original Kiseki cartridges, heck I never got a chance to see one.

As you know, in 2011 these cartridges were reborn. I have never been able to read who actually designs and builds these cartridges. Oh I read the back stories on their page, and I am a bit put off by some of the "mystique" or hype surrounding certain build aspects. Diamonds polished by human hair? I dunno. But with that being said, I still want to own one, just to fill a long standing question of how does a Kiseki perform?

So I am tentatively planning on ordering a Purpleheart in the coming days. But like everyone else, I really wonder who designed and builds them. One thing I notice is the internal impedance is much higher than what is considered the top tier modern MC’s. The Koetsu are 5 ohms, ZYX 4 ohms, Ortofon A95 or Winfeld TI are 5 ohms, Lyra 8 ohms, Benz Micro wood 12 ohms. The Purpleheart is listed at 42 ohms, and the only higher internal impedance cartridges I find are from Hana, Clearaudio, a couple of the Denon, and that is it in a basic search.

Has anyone ever heard any credible information on who builds and designed this cartridge?

And out of curiosity, anyone ever heard of who builds the Sumiko Pearwood or the Palo Santos?


neonknight

Showing 4 responses by nandric

Levinson discovered Takeda san (Miyabi) ordered the cart and
sold under his own name. Krell deed the same by the same Takeda.
Marovski ordered by Coral (MC 82) and sold in USA under the
name ''MIT''. The difference with Herman van den Dungen was
the reason. Herman's was revenge against Sugano's way of
doing business..

Well the first review about the first Kiseki (the Blue)  used the

metaphorical expression ''Koetsu killer'' to describe the cart.

The reviewer had no idea that this was the actual  intention of

Van den Dungen who was back then Koestu importer and very

angry at Sugano san because this Japanese ''san'' wanted payment

in advance but then forget to deliver the carts... Among different

possible inspirations one should also count revenge. Van Dungen

thought in terms of ''parts'' and ''wholes'' and decided to design the

body in Holland and order the parts (aka the generator) in Japan

where also some unknown ''san'' would put them together.

The Dutch have an impressive painter tradition so the body got

expected color and shape. But after the so called ''CD revolution''

some or many (?) bodies where left in Holland because there was no

demand for Kiseki cats. Those ''left overs'' are recently rediscovered

so , depending form the amount, two or three so called ''limited

editions'' are produced. To use Lew's description in term of ''old''

and ''new'' the real question at present is who has put the parts

together by the ''new Kiseki's''? Assuming that the old one has

passed away the further question is if the ''new one'' is as capable

as the old one? Anyway I share Lew';s  skeptical assumption that

the new KP sounds as good as the old one.


I also learned much about (MC) carts from my retipper and friend

Axel Schurholz. He had the need to complain about his (many)

customers and supplier while I wanted ''friend prices'' for my,

as it is called, ''refurbishing''. A kind of mutual interest . He hated

emails but enjoyed our (phone) conversations. Because his

company was ''one man affair'' I suggested to him to use his wife

as  secretary who would answer the emails. BTW I told him about

dissatisfaction in our forum about his ''communication''. His answer

was that his wife has no idea about carts so he would need to

explain to her what to say to the customers which would cost him

more time then by answering those emails himself.

But I also learned from logicians that names are not predicative.

That is why Quine wrote about ''primacy of predicates'' . So in

our context it is curious that we (me included) want to know ''who

the guy is'' who put together those Kiseki's. There are however some

differences in the way we describe the things. Say ''designer'' like

J. Carr, Van den Hul, etc.  produce different ''emotive meaning''

then ''the guy who put (parts) together''. Van den Hul get ''his parts''

from Benz while Benz produces all (MC) parts except styli and

cantilevers. Even the Chinese discovered Benz as supplier and

ask curious prices foe their ''new china'' bodies. However van den

Dungen bodies are work of art while we want our ''precious'' not

only to sound good but also to look nice. That this guy is very

smart one can ''see'' from his attention to the details. Even the

value of ''myths'' by selling carts. So he never answered the

question about the name of Kiseki's actual designer.  The

so called ''mystery'' is an important part of any myth.




Well I know from other sources about problems by polishing

diamonds. The first Van den Hul stylus design for Gyger (aka

Gyger I) was so complex that the fall out was huge. Then the

second design (aka Gyger II) was simpler but also difficult to

produce (aka ''polish''). This explains Gyger ''S'' which Benz

and Allearts used. The curious thing is that Van den Hul sold more

''van den Hul'' styli than Gyger. However he never mentioned

vdH I. II or ''S'' in order not cause confusion (grin). But sometime

the ''soft forces'' work better than ''hard kind''. So, who knows,

soft, nice , blond hair may work better than diamond particles.