Installed A Kiseki Black Heart Today. Lovely Cartridge

Excel makes sense, I too wish that we could know more as well. I don't trust anything on the Kiseki page as Mr. Van Dungen promoted the myth that the cartridges were the work of the fictional character Goro Focadu and that the diamonds were polished with human hair.

@viridian The Purpleheart series of cartridges are probably the most famous of Kiseki., and are beautiful cartridges. I have always found it fascinating that us analog people find beauty in such a small component as a phono cartridge. Tables and tonearms have their distinctive appearance that we can appreciate, but the cartridge is so small in footprint and yet such effort goes into the aesthetics. For instance the Purple Heart is classic in looks, while my Black Heart is far more plain looking. The grain and finish are significantly coarser in comparison, but apparently it is made from the heartwood of an ebony tree.

Kiseki also built a couple of Agate series cartridges, and while I would be interested in hearing them, the stone bodies are not visually appealing to me. I would like to hear the earlier Blue Goldspot cartridges, but those are starting to climb in price compared to what they used to sell for. Of course I would snap up a Lapis Lazuli if one came available at a sane price. But I have never seen one for sale.

On the Kiseki page they say Dynavector was not the builder of their cartridges. They also offered a high output line under the name Miltek. It makes me wonder if Excel was the builder. Of course Sugano came from Supex, so it might have been them also. But it is all conjecture, and it surprises me that no one in our hobby has any kind of direct knowledge about the builder. I would think a retipper who has been into them would be able to identify the tells of construction to make an educated guess. 

@neonknight Noted. Thank you for your valued experience. 

@noromance Soundsmith charges $500 for a diamond only replacement while Expert Stylus and AllClear charge $350. Expert did not add a surcharge for putting a diamond on a diamond cantilever that the Ortofon Verismo has. 
 

Secondly, I have seen some shoddy epoxy jobs where a Soundsmith technician attached a ruby cantilever. I once bought a Shinnon Red from a seller that had a poor retip done, it was from Soundsmith. 
 

My preference is for the two retipper I mentioned, and have had close to a dozen cartridges done over the years, and every one met my expectations. 

Good for you. I never heard one back in the day, but remember them, and heard the same story re the Dutch fellow's dissatisfaction as a Koetsu distributor/dealer. (This is also the story told about the origins of Lamborghini and Enzo which I always took as apocryphal). The chap that retipped your cartridge has been on another forum (I believe it is the same fellow, named Chris, but he is not using his company name in postings) and says he has sourced the same diamond that Koetsu uses; I have not faced a third party re-work of any Koetsus yet. 

Enjoy~

I have a vintage, low use, Purpleheart Sapphire in my collection that is a marvelous cartridge. The Blackheart should be better, or maybe just a different flavor.

Interesting that the Blackheart is low impedance at 6 ohms, and the Purpleheart is 42 ohms. Would certainly guide transformer selection with these models. I use 10:1 with the PS.

Kiseki was started by Herman Van Dungen, who now owns Primaluna. He was the distributor of Koetsu, but could not get enough cartridges to fulfill his orders, so decided to build his own, similar line of cartridges. Rumor has it that Dynavector was the original OEM, but that is hearsay.

@neonknight Any reason you do not prefer Soundsmith in the US?

@lewm One day I will give that a go since this is the only arm I own that I can reasonably put the MC2000 on. Aligning cartridges is not a task I look forward to. But I am thinking of buying some of those glasses with lights and magnification to see if it helps with the job. Or perhaps a magnifier on a stand with lighting. I wear glasses and need strong correction, so that is problematic.

Interesting to hear about your Urushi going over to Expert Stylus for service. I did not know you were doing so. Expert has a very professional operation, and in my dealings they always met their timeframe for evaluation, and they were quite thorough. The written evaluation of condition is certainly in depth and I appreciate that level of evaluation. I wonder how many technicians they have and what Mr Hodgsons involvement in in operations. The work they do is first rate though, and their prices are reasonable. It is difficult to get a replacement stylus with a small format line contact stylus for under $300 these days, and in many cases they are significantly more. Expert Stylus and Allclear have always given me impeccable service and results.

@neonknight Thanks so much for the info. I wish those of us in the US had more choice. Sending expensive and small packages internationally is no fun. Admittedly, I’ve not had any big issues sending my Deccas to JW in the UK except for long delays and additional expense with their overly zealous excise duty regime. Six weeks of OCD worrying. I did lose a package sent to @sph in Singapore which pissed me off no end, especially considering it was a manufacturing fault on their end.

I'll wait for you to listen to the Kiseki a bit longer and then hope you have another listen to the MC2000, for a formal ABA type comparison.  Incidentally, I had my Koetsu Urushi re-tipped (just a new stylus on the original cantilever) by Expert Stylus. I think it took 3 weeks round trip from the East coast to the UK and back.  I have now got several hours on the Urushi, and I keep thinking it never sounded as good as it does now, even when it was brand new 14 years ago. Cost was around $350.  They were very professional; I could not have asked for better service.

@noromance Yes Australia is where Allclear is. I have used several retippers such as Soundsmith, Andy Kim, and VAS also. My preference for retippers is either Expert Stylus or Allclear. and the decision is based on what type of stylus I want. Allclear will install the microridge and Expert's Paratrace is close in shape to a Van den Hull or a Gyger II. I know the fellow who runs Allclear and he is a very honorable and detail oriented fellow. One thing he says is that his epoxy is allowed to cure conventionally, that some retippers these days are using the UV type and the setting process is quicker but not as strong. Can I prove that statement? No but the work Allclear has done for me is first rate. Now Expert was the defacto retipper for dealers in Europe when the founder of Koetsu passed and his son had not stepped in. They have a long and distinguished history of quality work. 

Shipping wise Australia takes a bit longer to get to than England. It also costs a few dollars more. But I have not had issues sending cartridges to either country and getting them back in a timely manner. With Allclear my turnaround times are usually a 5 to 6 weeks, with most of that being shipping related. With Expert it is 4 to 5 weeks. In the past Expert has had significantly longer delays, but that no longer seems to be an issue. For example, Soundsmith went through a similar situation. 

@lewm These two cartridges reflect the differences we imagine between Japanese boutique cartridge shops and the juggernaut that is Ortofon technology. Yes Kiseki is not Japanese in the sense that it is based in Holland, but the designers/manufacturer that Herman van den Dungen used were from there. The story Kiseki gives is that Herman was unhappy with the cost, delivery schedule, and variability of the early cartridges, so he endeavored to create an alternative. The specs of the original Kiseki were modeled after the Koetsu, but in all the years I ahve been in audio I have never heard anyone who can provide information on regards to who built these original cartridges. 

Sound wise the Kiseki is rich and textured, In comparison the MC2000 is more transparent and liquid. The differences cause me to wonder how they can sound fundamentally different, but both are quite enjoyable. I like both cartridges for different reasons, and if I was forced to choose between them I have no idea what my answer would be. 

Looks like Allclear Audio is not in the US.  Any issues with sending and receiving from Australia?

How does it compare to MC2000, once you’ve listened for a few hours and maybe go back to the Ortofon? Maybe you don’t know yet.

There is an old saying. A bit overused and cliche but often true. “They don’t make them like they used to”. Seems like you put together a very nice analogy rig. I bet it sounds exquisite.