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Koetsu Restoration

I just finished a weekend listening to a Koetsu Black I had restored by Soundsmith and thought I should share this with other members. I had it restored with Soundsmith's Ruby Cantilever and Optimized Contour. Their top of the line restoration. I have to confessed I never expected the out of the box performance I heard on this cartridge. I installed it on a second system and my wife said it sounded better than my main system which is $10K more expensive. The level of expression and musicality on this restored cartridge was beyond my expectations. Enough said! Before you discard your old cartridge you may want to consider a restoration. I did and I am really happy with the results. This is the first time I have had a cartridge restored and I am already considering the restoration of two other classic cartridges I have.
dserran

Showing 2 responses by markc2

markc2
15 posts
 
20 years? Do these cartridges really last that long? I was thinking about buying a Black and even if it last's half that long that would be awesome..

My pre-amp is a Mcintosh C220 and it has about 64 db of gain, would this be enough for the Black? and if so what would kind of step up would be a good idea?

thanks

Mark
markc2
15 posts
 
My oops, this is me on very little sleep. I didn't know if 64db of gain was enough. So I could get the cartridge and it would work, as you say but might be tad bright.

Would the Grado Ph-1 mess up the sound of the Koetsu, or just let it be? Or are there any others out there along with the EAR?

Thanks for the help.

I've heard the EAR on a Wilson Benesch turntable, and it was very quiet, I could put my ear's to the speakers and I don't think I heard anything but just a slightest of whisper from the speaker, and that was my ear about 3 inches away. That with the volume turned up to normal listening levels.
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