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Have There Ever Been Fake Koetsu?

There are as few trusted grey market sellers like 2Juki. I have always wondered why he can sell a Koetsu at about 1/3 of what the US importer lists it at. Yes I understand the markup is pretty high for the US side, and that certainly accounts for all of it. 

This question is not about 2Juki, but rather a second hand Koetsu. There happens to be an attractively priced Jade Platinum on this site, and its from a long time member. It has caught my eye. 

 

But I do wonder if there are Koetsu out there floating around in the 2nd hand market that are not real...fakes. 

Any thoughts or experiences?

neonknight

Showing 2 responses by whart

whart's avatar
whart
2,972 posts
 

@mulveling- well done. 

whart's avatar
whart
2,972 posts
 

FWIW, the stone bodied Koetsus work well with the Kuzma Airline- it doesn’t have high vertical mass, but the horizontal mass is considerable (this, notwithstanding Franc’s claim that the air bearing is frictionless and makes that irrelevant for most purposes). I have a Jade and Tiger Eye, both new from factory. The Jade is very good; there is some criticism that it makes everything some the same- i.e., a coloration. The Tiger Eye, which took time to break in, has more high freq information, and I’ve been running that for a while.

These are special cartridges- normally a high mass arm of the old type is required. But the combo of air bearing linear tracker + Koetsu works magic in my system; it isn’t just midrange purity-- I’ve had Van den Hul, Lyras top offerings and Airtights- none had the bass dimension and tone of the Koetsu along with that magical midrange.

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