Koetsu cartridges. They must be something special.

Koetsu cartridges deliver a warm, rich and “saturated” sound without sounding murky or slow sounding which is not an easy trick to pull off.  The company closed recently but older cartridges can be re-tipped.  My local dealer uses someone in California and is very pleased with the results.  He is sending a prized Allaerte cartridge to be fixed.

I have not heard one, but some say thar Etsuro Urushi cartridges are similar.  The bad news is that they are quite expensive.

Jonathan Carr, the designer of Lyra cartridges, has praised Mr. Sugano of Koetsu for discovering the use of platinum alloy magnets.  This is particularly interesting because they both like platinum magnets even though they make quite different sounding cartridges.

I like the sound of the stone-body Koetsus.  Most of my friends who own or are familiar with the lineup prefer the Rosewood Signature Platinum.  It is a matter of personal preference.  Regardless of the science, the cartridges sound a little different.  But, I suspect, a choices made between the types of stone-body cartridges is primarily based on appearance.  I have seen most of the types, and my favorite look is that of the Blue Lace.

By the way, my local dealer has sent several of his own and customer Koetsu cartridges for repair/re-tipping to Andy Kim in California.  He is very pleased with what he got back.  It appears that Koetsu will live on well into the future thanks to services like this one.  I think it took Andy Kim a couple of week to do the repairs on an Allaerte my dealer sent to him, and the "delay" in receiving back the cartridge was because new parts had to be ordered from Allaerte.