Koetsu cartridges - myth or reality?


Hi guys - I am looking to upgrade my 1 year old Dynavector xx1 MC cartridge - I have heard (and read) for many years that Koetsu cartridges are a great option for those looking for musicality, right timbre and lush-sounding analog.

Digging further I find that some cathegorize them as slow sounding, not great tracking and poor price/performance ratio as well... I am looking for advise from those who have experience with Koetsu - particulary those who moved from a fast sounding cartrdige like Dyna, Clearaudio or Lyra - missing anything once you moved?

Thanks

Fernando
128x128flg2001

Showing 1 response by vincentkkho

I own the Koetsu Coral for two years. Noted its high frequencies extension compared to Urushi, another cartridge from Koetsu which I like and have been using it with Graham 2.2 tonearm. For my case, I found it to be critical for tonearm's effective mass matching with Coral and the fine tuning and adjustment of the settings prove extremely important to derive the best performance out of Coral, espeically to capture its high frequency intensity right. I use it with Triplanar and the ASR basis phonostage setting at 65ohms. It is definitely a fine cartridge with all the fine attributes that Urushi has, and maybe due to its stone body, the micro details is more focus at the upper frequency region as compared to Urushi. As for a wood body, Urushi when paired with 47lab Phonocube gives a very realistic and fine presentation in my system. Overall, lesser micro details as compared to Coral, but prove itself to be organic in the midrange with just sufficient frequency extension in both ends when heard in my system. Really a different taste with these two cartridges though they are from the same company. Top perfomers.