Koetsu Rosewood Vs Rosewood Signature Vs HANA UMAMI RED advice please

I appreciate your feedback. I called my seller and I can cancel

@tomic601 because I never thought about it and I have auditioned, albeit in different systems, so I can’t compare the ones I mentioned. I listen to a lot of classic, rock and Spanish guitar.
I need a fast-dynamic, yet warm and open, with nice definition cartridge.
I have listened to a couple of "metal" bodies and they sound to cold for my taste. 

@mulveling, I got tired of waiting for them! Those are awesome speakers.
@audiosaurusrex is the Umami 2x better than the SL :) which table and arm do you use?

@dover the cr50 is out of my budget, I am, at this point, looking for a step up or 2 from the Hana SL/ML. $4k is the max I want to spend. This is for a system I use a week a month when I come to the USA to work.
Thank you

Thank you to all of you! I just bought the Koetsu Signature, hopefully I will not lose more sleep over it.
Although I was getting very good prices for other cartridges, I  think that at $3600 I can't go wrong. Now I need to sell my VPI to make room for the Acoustic Signature in my rack.

@ghdprentice I hear you, I am thinking on sending it to Wally Engineering, they have a cartridge analysis service for $400 and all i will have to do is to set the right VTA, VTF and Azimuth  

 @ audiosaurusrex my family is from Stuttgart, and an uncle of mine brought AS to my attention. 
I talked to a friend that has the Koetsu and he told me that it is a pain to align them but they are fabulous. I reached out to the seller for the ZYX Ultimate Omega and see if he is a dealer/distributor. 

@audiosaurusrex , Thanks. Are you a HANA dealer :) I am half German, so I love precision and I was able to visit the factory and see what they are doing so I decided to give it a try.

@rauliruegas thank you for the links I really appreciate it. Call me pharaonic, but buying a cartridge for someone I do not know scares me too much. I did it before and the stylus look just fine, but the stone was glued over 2degs off so there was nothing I could do. I reached out to the distributor and he would not take it under warranty, although it was new. If there is anything wrong with the cartridge I want to be able to get someone to help me. $4K is a lot of money

BTW how difficult are the Koetsu to align? it looks like the body hides the cantilever and it will be a pain to work with.

@chakster, thank you! I will reach out to them.
Do you have an email address?
TIA

@mulveling, I use a WallyTractor to do the alignment, I will have to give the SmartTractor a try, but first I want to buy AnalogMagik and see where it takes me.

I ended up buying the Koetsu Signature and Etsuro Erushi Bordeaux, I have the Gold and I love it so I am hoping the Bordeaux and the Rosewood will have me covered for my house in the US.

I was going to buy the ZYX Ultimate Omega but I contacted  SORAsound.com and I got an email at a little past midnight, telling me that if I buy right now now they would give me a new cartridge instead of a used one, waive fees and whatever else. 
Is this how they operate, or they woke up in the wrong side of the bed and a little upset?  What difference does it make if I buy now or in a few hours?

@rauliruegas,  first let me apologize to all for my English, English is not my language by far, especially when it comes to HiFi.

I am sorry you are assuming that I did not read your post, becasue I have read and considered every one of the posts.

At no time I questioned the sellers integrity.

I just don't judge people in general, much less those who I don't know, many times to a fault because I always assume good intent.

As I mentioned before, I bought a cartridge that the stone was not properly aligned and could not be adjusted for and the manufacturer and distributor would not help me with the warranty because I did not buy from an authorized dealer.

At the end, I thought that I had saved about ~$1800 but ended losing ~$7800 because the cartridge was deflective, at no fault from the seller because it was a manufacturing defect that could only be seen using a real microscope, and had to be disposed.

The distributor gave me a significant discount in a new one, but a cartridge that I could have bought for ~$10k from an authorized dealer ended up costing me  almost twice as much. 

At a later time I will buy one of the cartridges you suggested but from a dealer. 

PS: I do not believe you don't care, you responded and I appreciate your comments as I do everyone else's.

I ask because I want to hear about other's perspectives and learn as much from other's experiences as I can before I make my decisions.

You are correct, it is my money and my decision on what I buy; but my decisions are influenced by what I learn from asking questions, and considering other's perspectives.
I might decide something entirely different from what any of the people that commented wish I would had, but that does not mean that I do not appreciate their perspective and that their perspectives have not influenced my decision. They did.

If I do not like the cartridge I buy, then I will come back explain what I do not like about the specific cartridge buy another one based on what I learned and from the feedback I get from here.
I will never say that one piece of equipment is not good or better, I comment on my experience which will be entirely different from others.

I have read some of your posts on other threads and it looks like you know a lot and like cartridges. I hope you continue to share your experiences. 

@terry9. I had the  Sussurro mk II, and it was not a good match with my tables in my home in Spain. The highs sounded a little too crisp like in your face, in the big orchestra music it got a little overwhelmed and I could not get the right load. I needed something a little over 550 but not quite 750, one setting was too bright the other was a little too muddy(?) 
I played it in a Graham Phantom Elite Tonearm in a Bergmann Galder turntable, I also played it on the Odin tonearm. 
Now I have a couple more flexible phono stages that probably would have help the cartridge, but I trade it in for another brand.

@mulveling, I have the WallyTractor and Analogmagik, I hope that I will be able to set it up right.
like you, I am good with 90% to start with, but then I always like to fine tune after the cartridge gets run for a few long weekends of music or a couple of weeks of daily listening.
if I can’t do a good job on the Koetsu, I will send it to a pro to set it up in one of the heads and put the Etusru which I know I can dial it in.

Are there any trusted installers in the US?

I did not ask for a discount, I only asked for a quote because his site did not have a way to buy or I would have bought it without any discounts. I don't usually ask for discounts. In the rare occasion I ask for the the sellers bottom price, if I like it I buy it if not I go on somewhere else. 
I exchanged emails with them and everything is OK, I am glad you had a different experience.
All is good.

@rauliruegas I have the Etsuro gold in my home and love it., the dealer I bought the tt for the USA gave me both cartridges for the cost of the rosewood signature. Why would I not buy them? I am not as uninformed or uneducated, as I might come across.
I am aware of the original manufacture for the cartridges.

@terry9 in the Seattle area.
@ghdprentice, thanks! I am looking forward to get the new tt and cartridge going

@mckinneymike, :) I have soft elephant skin :) 
and I rather use good karma even in the worst situation 

@terry9 where do you live? 

@terry9 yes I would love to. Let me see when I get to the US, so we can coordinate. It might be January or February and need to see the visa application is needed

@grk i do not use those silicone things, just a soft brush like pad and a couple of soft blows of canned air.
how do you like the turntable? I visited the factory and it is amazing. 

@rauliruegas, I think you did not understand what I said. I have 2 houses, one in the USA and one in Spain.
In Spain I have a few tables with a few tonearms. One of those tonearms, has had a Etsuro Gold for about a year, maybe less.

The setup I am putting together is for the house in the USA, for when for about a week or 2 every month or 2.

For the USA I bought a simple setup 3 tonearms, 2 Kuzmas 4point, and SAT CF1 12", and 2 cartridges:

• Koetsu Signature in the Kuzma
  
• Etsuro Erushi Bordeaux in the SAT

I am bringing one of my MONO cartridges for the 2nd Kuzma.

A discount on 2 ~$5k+ when you spend the amount of $ I spent at this dealer with all kinds of HiFi gear, I think the dealer can afford selling them to me at a great price.

To be frank rauliruegas, it is extremely tiring to keep being nice to you, to continue explaining and justifying my decisions, all the while you are trying to make me look like an idiot because I don’t buy what you want me to buy.

I only explain what I do with my $ and how I spend it t my family and friends, as I love to include them on everything I do and they want to participate.
You, rauliruegas, are neither a friend or family.

Thus, rauliruegas, I am done explaining, justifying, or reading your posts. I wish there was an ignore function because no matter how much knowledge you have it is not worth the aggravation.

Cheers rauliruegas :)

to all, thank you for sharing your knowledge and spending the time to respond to my question. I really appreciate it, I learned a few things.

I will start a new thread once I get all the parts and start unboxing. My small house in the USA will be full of audio boxes.  

Cheers/enhorabuena

@rauliruegas for now I will put the Etsuro on the SAT as it is the tonearm I know as I have the Gold on a SAT and I know how it sounds.
After everything is tuned up and broken in, I will start experimenting. 
Thank you for your thoughts.

@ rauliruegas, I am answering because I have manners  and I don't have bad feelings.
It is not my fault the way you communicate, or that you did not understand what was said. For myself, if I do not understand or know, I do not comment, much less go on to go and accuse someone of  lying  as you did with:

 " I don't know what owners of the Etsuro Gold as @mikelavigne could comment about that " laughing " price.
Of course that the OP or any one else can't let pass that " incredible " bargain of the century."

As it turned out I was not  lying, you just attacked and insulted me for no good reason and now you can't even bring yourself to accept you were just plain and simply wrong in such a simple and insignificant matter. 

As I mentioned before, I rather not learn from anyone that attacks and insults me, or anyone, because I don't follow their wishes or does not understand that others have the right to do what they want until their actions start affecting others. 

I joined this forum mostly to learn, maybe humbly share my experiences and have fun, which it has been for the most part until your posts. 

It would be incredibly nice if you refrain to comment on my posts unless you do in a friendly and amicable way. I have absolutely no interest in being attacked or insulted by anyone. 
If you don't like what I say or do; please move on, save yourself time and all that energy you must have to spend to comment so callously. 

Cheers. 

We listened to 2 of the SAT and did not know which, and 2 others, in the same identical setup, same records same room for about 3 afternoons. We both took notes individually and at the end of each afternoon we had Tonearm #1,#2,#3,#4 without knowing the models. We both ranked them and discarded 1 every afternoon at the end we ended liking the same, for slightly different reasons but the same and by far.

I read the paper and some other opinions. We liked what we liked, we paid, the representative for SAT came home, setup the tonearm, used our tools calibrated the arm and set up the Gold.

My partner is the one that fiddles with the calibrations, I just listen, enjoy and play with the tubes, speakers, cables and other things. After a few weeks she did some adjustments to the cartridge and tonearm and now I feel like I am in the clouds when I listen to my favorite records, specially all piano concertos, the silence/space in between the notes is nothing short of heavenly.

Now I am afraid to leave her alone because I know she will keep "tuning" and might not be what I like when I get back.

SS Vs Tube...:)  I have am very fortunate to be able to have pretty good SS, Hybrid and tube amplifiers, preamps and phono stages and for some reason I always gravitate towards to the tube and hybrid.

But that is me, my other half gravitates towards SS and Hybrid. The solution 5 different setups in 3 different rooms. 

@tomic601 Hello Jim, thank you for the offer. Vino and music and new friends sounds great! It is incredible, I have an offer to visit Victoria and now Seattle. 
I am looking forward to the spring and summer.
I would love to reciprocate but I got a small studio and after I get my bed and audio gear there will not be much space. 

@rauliruegas I appreciate your kind offer, but I have more chefs in the kitchen I can handle. 

@unreceivedogma, thanks!! What speakers, amp and phono do you use? you can PM me if you like to stay under the cover :) but I would really like to know.
Thanks