Koetsu Blue Lace Onyx vs. Coralstone

After waiting for 4 months I'm now a very happy owner of a Blue Lace Diamond Cantilever cartridge. Although just 40ish hours old & not near fully broken in, the Blue Lace is way better (& unfortunately more expensive) than any cartridge I owned previously, it simply blown the Ortofon A95 that it replaced away cleanly. The soundstage is huge and rock solid, speed and dynamic range both staggering. I was surprised how different it sounds compared to the wood-bodied Koetsu I had before, the Blue Lace is simply a very modern high end pick up, no excuse needed to be made for this little gem. But it was a bitch to mount given its short (& almost transparent) cantilever at the middle of the underbelly.  The local dealer informed me that basically all stone-bodied Koetsu have same construction, except for different body material obviously, but they do sound slightly different for some reason, Blue Lace being most lean and neutral, followed by Coralstone. For those who prefer a slight warmer presentation should go for Tiger Eye.

My dealer who has heard all Koetsu told me the only differences btw diamond & standard boron cantilever are marginally faster, better dynamic range & better bass definition. Guess you can always opt for diamond cantilever when your Coralstone need a re-tip in the future. I originally aimed for a standard Blue Lace but lost my mind when he demonstrated a diamond cantilever during audition, bastard!!  Mind you, koetsu are much less expensive outside USA so I paid nowhere near the published US retail price.

I'm now using a Coincident Audio Statement Phono, loading at 30 ohm. The stock tubes were replaced with Telefunken ribbed-plate 12ax7 which are much quieter & paint a larger sonic picture. I had a ARC Ref Phono 3 previously but felt the sound was too aggressive, the decay was curtailed too, guess the 6h30p supertubes in the ARC are probably too fast for phono amplification purpose.  I never had much luck with SUT, transparency always suffered somewhat in my system. A friend who also has a Blue Lace diamond cantilever uses Kondo silver SUT with a matching phono with excellent results, but they are too pricy for me.

My vinyl playback system has recently received a major uplift, from a loaned Thomas Mayer D3a phono amp. While the system has always been satisfactory but it never achieved the true high end standard I strive for, not even matching my digital playback at times. This was quite frustrating in view of the rather costly front end I invested. I had suspected the limitation lies at the phono amp but never found one that blows me away, until a week ago someone loaned me a Thomas Mayer phono. The improvements are simply jaw dropping, I can only now appreciate the strength of the Koetsu + Kuzbass 4 Points + TW Black Night combination.  Anyone with a high end front end should give this phono a try.